The Middle Passage and Slave ShipsOverviewUpon boarding slave ships in West African ports, the captured Africans were taken to the New World by way of the Atlantic Ocean. As the map to the right shows, there were many trade routes in the Atlantic, connecting Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean. The Middle Passage were those routes that went from Africa to the New World including both the Caribbean and the Americas. The length of the voyages varied greatly depending on the origin and the destination of the voyage. To see a chart of lengths of various trade routes.

Various trade routes of the Middle Passage

The Slave Ships

(Mannix and Cowley, 146)An illustration of a French slave ship

Seen to the left is an illustration of a slave ship. Ships varied greatly in size and in the number of passengers they held. In general, slaves were stowed below deck in very restricted conditions. On average, slaves had about 6 square feet of deck space (Garland & Klein). Conditions improved as the slave trade progressed to allot more space for individuals so they would be better able to survive the voyage to the New World.

Conditions On Slave Ships

Aboard slave ships, the captured Africans had no control over their own lives. For most of the day, slaves were kept and placed below deck where Olaudah Eguinano describes, “many a time we were near suffocation, from the want of fresh air, which we were often without whole days together (59).” Below deck, slaves had little room, and they could not breathe fresh air. During those occasions when the crew allowed the captured slave on deck, “fifty or sixty...[slaves were]...fastened to one chain in order to prevent them from rising or endeavoring to escape (Dow, 143).” Pictures of the various shackles and cuffs used to control the slaves is seen to the right. The slavers also controlled what the slaves ate, drank, and when they did so. Their diet consisted largely of horse-beans and rice (Dow, 143-144). Water was restricted to 24 ounces a day (Winsnes, ed., 181). Besides being told when to come on deck and when to eat, which was usually two times a day, the slavers forced the slaves to exercise or dance at times to maintain some physical stature (Dow, 145).

(Dow, 54)Various Shackles

A.) Handcuffs for slave B.) Leg shacklesC-E.) Thumb screws

F-H.) "Speculum Oris," to open closed jaws

The Slaves Reaction to Conditions on Ships

The lack of freedom on the slave ships caused distress to the enslaved Africans, causing many to react. One common reaction was to try and kill themselves. This was accomplished in two ways. The first was refusing to eat in the hope that they would starve themselves to death. When the crew aboard ships noticed that a slave did not eat, they would try to make the slaves eat in one of two methods. The first was to forcefully open their mouths and insert the food (Bly, 181). The second method was to torture the slaves until they could no longer stand the pain (Dow, 145). The second method of killing themselves was simply jumped off the ship to drown into the Atlantic Ocean. They believed they would be brought back to their native land and receive freedom again (Bly, 181). Another tactic was to unite together and rebel against the crew and captains. This method was more successful, because in some revolts, the slaves were able to kill their slavers. One final reaction of the the slaves was to use their religion to pray for survival and even place curses on the crew so that the slaves could be freed; the slaves thought this tactic to be a form of religious warfare (Bly 182). However, none of the above methods changed the conditions on ships. Instead, the resistance caused slavers to impose more restrictions to prevent uprisings and individual resistance.

Attempts to ResistDespite the chains, shackles, and other repressive equipment of imprisonment carried by the captain and crew on all slave ships, Africans found ways of resisting. The weeks or months spent on the

African coast, waiting as the ship filled with slaves, was a dangerous period for the crew. When the Africans were in sight of their land, and with boats passing to and fro between the ship and land carrying captives, open resistance was common. Approximately one slave ship in ten experienced some form of African resistance, and the rate was much higher for vessels embarking captives in Senegambia, which had the highest incidence of shipboard rebellion of any African region.Shipboard resistance ranged from an individual act of defiance—an isolated act of violence, or a (normally fatal) attempt to leap overboard—to major revolts which descended into a life-and-death struggle between Africans and sailors. For example, the enslaved people aboard the Clare mutinied and successfully drove the crew from the vessel, landing and liberating themselves near Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast in 1729.Sometimes an onboard insurrection resulted in the death of the enslaved and their captors, as was the case with one slave ship with a crew based in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1785. Rebellions could sink ships, as the result of a major explosion or fire. More likely however, African rebels were beaten back by the superior firepower and violence of the crew. Slave ships were designed to give the crew vantage points to bring their weaponry to play against the Africans. Other ships, and men of shore, rallied to the fight against rebellious Africans, and gory defeat was commonplace. Once defeated, African rebels were subjected to a ritual of grisly punishments and execution, all designed to illustrate to survivors (and to Africans watching on neighboring ships) the inevitable fate of defeated rebels.

Crews Prepared for ResistanceFaced with the permanent threat of African resistance, the crew had to be permanently alert. A piece of wood, a tool, or any physical object carelessly left within a slave’s reach, could become a weapon. Even

African children were distrusted by the crew, as they could pass dangerous objects to the men chained below the deck to facilitate escape and revolt.From the early days of the trade, though Europeans considered the Africans a profitable cargo, they were also a threat and a danger. The crew on all slave ships were outnumbered—often by a significant margin. Their control could not be maintained, and the voyage completed, without a reliable and violent means of keeping the ranks of Africans under control. Thus, to ensure the successful landing of their African captives, the crew used a repressive system of imprisonment, of chains, and of guns aimed at the slave decks. Such a system, the sailors realized, was required to combat the threat to their lives from possible African rebellion.Scholars do not know how many Africans died in slave ship rebellions: they were numbered among the more than one million Africans who did not survive the Atlantic crossing. Most shipboard fatalities were caused by diseases and illness. The eleven million survivors entered the Americas physically and emotionally traumatized by the slave ship experience, by disease and suffering, by the deaths around them, and by the inescapable threat of the captain and crew. Through faith and resilience, Africans began making new worlds for themselves and their new communities, within the bounds of American societies bent on their coercion.

Capture and CaptivesFor three and a half centuries, European slavers carried African captives across the Atlantic in slave ships originating from ports

belonging to all major European maritime powers—Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Britain, France, and Brandenburg-Prussia. Traders from the emerging powers in the Americas also joined in the trade when possible and profitable.European and American slavers exchanged goods for people with African traders along enormous stretches of West and Central Africa, even to Madagascar and southeastern Africa. But most Africans boarded slave ships in six distinct regions of the African coast: Upper Guinea, the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, West-Central Africa, and southeastern Africa. During the course of the transatlantic slave trade, nearly half of all African captives were taken from West-Central Africa (Congo and Angola today).The Bight of Benin (Togo, Benin, and Nigeria today) and the Bight of Biafra (covering approximately today’s Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) accounted for a further 28 percent of embarkations on slave ships. These points of departure from Africa do not necessarily indicate the home regions of African victims, since vast networks of slave routes frequently funneled people to the coast from villages deep in the interior.As a result, those loaded onto European and American slave ships had already endured a number of passages of prolonged hardship long before their sale on the coast. After initial capture, African slavers might pass them through different African societies, through alien lands and cultures, for weeks, months, or years before confronting the most confusing of sights: European men, the Atlantic Ocean, and the slave ships. Though some were marched just a few miles to the coast, others had been forcibly marched hundreds of miles. It was a journey that took its toll on the African men, women, and children bound together by ropes, chains, or wooden yokes.Different forms of servitude had long been a feature of many African societies, and Africa had long-established slaving systems and slave routes, such as those across the Sahara Desert and along the Nile. These systems differed markedly from the transatlantic slave trade and racialized slavery that Europeans later developed to maximize plantation production in their colonies.

Economics and Slave TradeThe number of European and American merchants, shipbuilders, and investors directly involved in the transatlantic slave trade over a period of more than 350 years was immense. The system they designed in collusion with African coastal traders and those involved in auxiliary trades in Europe, Africa, and the Americas created far-reaching and ever-shifting tentacles of exchange that swept African individuals from their villages into an international commerce that placed them in new worlds as commodities. Through creativity, resilience, and faith, survivors of the Middle Passage and their descendants forged meaningful lives circumscribed by the oppressive societies in which they found themselves.It is difficult to imagine that a system that once treated human beings as commodities—with price tags—was not only legal, but was considered to be ethical and a major source of wealth, influence, and respectability for many. By the early seventeenth century, however, the transatlantic slave trade was a sophisticated commercial system that hinged on the availability of captives transported to the coast by African traders deep in the interior of the continent. Some African captives were sold multiple times and detained for months in markets or barracoons along interior slave routes before encountering European slave ships on the coast. Only after an already perilous passage from the interior were survivors exchanged for a combination of textiles, weapons, alcohol, or other European trade goods and loaded aboard large canoes that took them to slave ships anchored off the coast.A slave voyage was always a risky financial venture for the owners and investors. Though they planned for all eventualities, everything could be thrown into turmoil by bad weather, poor navigation, slave uprisings, and other physical dangers. Also, the nature of trade along the African coast was ever changing, as the desirability and value of particular textile designs and colors, for example, varied month by month and from region to region. Moreover, exposure to tropical diseases invariably reduced the European crewmen’s numbers on the coast and at sea. For these investors the most serious of all was the loss of captains, surgeons, experienced sailors, and the human “cargo.” The ship captains drafted both experienced and inexperienced

sailors, which created risks for the ship owners and investors. Slave ships were, then, dangerous, violent, and disease-ridden.Despite the risks, slave voyages proved to be greatly profitable for their investors. The ship captain faced a paradox, because it was in the crew’s interest to ensure that as many African captives survived as possible in order to be sold to the highest bidder in the Americas. The slavers’ and their investors’ aim was to sell the men, women, and children for the best prices, not to kill or disable them, but the crew often resorted to violence to control and demoralize the captives.Sighting land in the Americas was a relief for the captain and crew but must have brought new uncertainty and fear to those who had survived the Middle Passage. After the captain landed the ship in a port, African survivors were inventoried, fed, scrubbed, and oiled to create a healthier appearance. The crew used a variety of methods to disguise the physical bruises and wounds on the African captives’ bodies, in order to hide their ailments and yield the highest prices possible.Slave traders sold enslaved people in a variety of ways. Some traders delivered Africans directly to merchants who had placed orders with the shippers. Other Africans were sold on auction blocks to the highest bidders in major ports like Port-au-Prince, Bridgetown, or Salvador de Bahia. For many Africans, the terrifying ordeal was the “scramble,” where purchasers raced among the assembled captives, grabbing and claiming the ones they wanted.

LouisianaLouisiana is a state in the southern United States that stands at the intersection of the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the significance of water in the state’s geography, Louisiana became an important transit point for goods and people passing from the Atlantic system to the North American interior and vice versa. The city of New Orleans has long been one of the Gulf Coast’s largest and most active ports. Louisiana’s social and cultural history is unusual, perhaps unique, in the United States, as Louisiana at various times fell under the control and influence of Spain, France, Britain, and Native Americans.Spanish explorers who reached Louisiana in the early 1500s noted the presence of diverse native peoples who lived in the region. Spain gave little attention to the area, however, and the first European claims came from France. In the late 1600s, French explorers set out from Canada to find the end of the Mississippi River. In 1682 a group led by La Salle floated down to the mouth of the river and claimed the Mississippi watershed for France. France became more interested in asserting this claim in light of growing English settlements in the Carolinas and Spanish settlements at Pensacola.In 1718, the site of New Orleans (or Nouvelle Orleans) was chosen and work began to clear the site and construct a wharf. The town became French Louisiana’s commercial and political capital in 1721. The colony promoted emigration and its population steadily increased. Settlers who turned to agriculture found a need for labor in the colony. Following the example of the Caribbean, colonists began importing enslaved African labor as early as 1719. As the enslaved population grew, legislators adopted the prevailing French laws on slavery—the Code Noir—in 1724. The code provided enslaved people some protections against abuse and allowed them days of rest and church instruction, but still limited their legal and social rights.The Seven Years’ War (1754–1763) began in North America but spread to Europe and became a major international conflict. French Louisiana was not involved in any fighting, but the war forced a major change for the colony. The 1763 treaty that ended the war demanded that France hand over possession of Louisiana to Spain. Louisiana and the southern Mississippi valley remained under Spanish control until 1800, when Napoleon was able to negotiate its return. While this pleased those in

the colony who disliked Spanish rule, France did not hold Louisiana for long. When approached by an American envoy seeking to purchase New Orleans, Napoleon offered to sell the whole Louisiana territory, likely in an attempt to raise money to fund his ongoing wars. The American team paid approximately US$15M for 2.1M square kilometers of land stretching north and northwest from the mouth of the Mississippi River.As part of the United States, migration and settlement in Louisiana increased, especially after cotton became the country’s most valuable crop. New Orleans became a major hub and marketplace in the domestic slave trade. Even thoughtransatlantic shipments were prohibited, traders actively moved enslaved Africans and African Americans from places in the upper south to New Orleans for resale.

Economics and Slave Trade

The number of European and American merchants, shipbuilders, and investors directly involved in the transatlantic slave trade over a period of more than 350 years was immense. The system they designed in collusion with African coastal traders and those involved in auxiliary trades in Europe, Africa, and the Americas created far-reaching and ever-shifting tentacles of exchange that swept African individuals from their villages into an international commerce that placed them in new worlds as commodities. Through creativity, resilience, and faith, survivors of the Middle Passage and their descendants forged meaningful lives circumscribed by the oppressive societies in which they found themselves.It is difficult to imagine that a system that once treated human beings as commodities—with price tags—was not only legal, but was considered to be ethical and a major source of wealth, influence, and respectability for many. By the early seventeenth century, however, the transatlantic slave trade was a sophisticated commercial system that hinged on the availability of captives transported to the coast by African traders deep in the interior of the continent. Some African captives were sold multiple times and detained for months in markets or barracoons along interior slave

routes before encountering European slave ships on the coast. Only after an already perilous passage from the interior were survivors exchanged for a combination of textiles, weapons, alcohol, or other European trade goods and loaded aboard large canoes that took them to slave ships anchored off the coast.A slave voyage was always a risky financial venture for the owners and investors. Though they planned for all eventualities, everything could be thrown into turmoil by bad weather, poor navigation, slave uprisings, and other physical dangers. Also, the nature of trade along the African coast was ever changing, as the desirability and value of particular textile designs and colors, for example, varied month by month and from region to region. Moreover, exposure to tropical diseases invariably reduced the European crewmen’s numbers on the coast and at sea. For these investors the most serious of all was the loss of captains, surgeons, experienced sailors, and the human “cargo.” The ship captains drafted both experienced and inexperienced sailors, which created risks for the ship owners and investors. Slave ships were, then, dangerous, violent, and disease-ridden.Despite the risks, slave voyages proved to be greatly profitable for their investors. The ship captain faced a paradox, because it was in the crew’s interest to ensure that as many African

captives survived as possible in order to be sold to the highest bidder in the Americas. The slavers’ and their investors’ aim was to sell the men, women, and children for the best prices, not to kill or disable them, but the crew often resorted to violence to control and demoralize the captives.Sighting land in the Americas was a relief for the captain and crew but must have brought new uncertainty and fear to those who had survived the Middle Passage. After the captain landed the ship in a port, African survivors were inventoried, fed, scrubbed, and oiled to create a healthier appearance. The crew used a variety of methods to disguise the physical bruises and wounds on the African captives’ bodies, in order to hide their ailments and yield the highest prices possible.Slave traders sold enslaved people in a variety of ways. Some traders delivered Africans directly to merchants who had placed orders with the shippers. Other Africans were sold on auction blocks to the highest bidders in major ports like Port-au-Prince, Bridgetown, or Salvador de Bahia. For many Africans, the terrifying ordeal was the “scramble,” where purchasers raced among the assembled captives, grabbing and claiming the ones they wanted.