Middle Passage Essay

    The Middle Passage was a journey that took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Thousands of African Americans were captured, and put on a ship, and traveled overseas on the Triangular Trade Route to be auctioned off and sold as slaves to make money. They were treated very harshly; they were force-fed, whipped, drowned, raped, and abused in various other ways. Some were treated so terribly that killing themselves was their only way out. The slaves were treated this harshly because they were physically and mentally abused, and were treated as if they were goods or cargo.  
    
    All of the slaves aboard the ship were crammed together in hundred degree temperatures, with over six hundred other Africans. They laid in urine, feces, bugs, and vomit. Some of the most willful slaves had their limbs cut off, were drowned, beaten, and abused only to frighten the others. Ships like the slave ship called “Brookes” were built to only hold 451 people, but they often held many more, because more slaves meant making more money. (Source A) Dr. Thomas Trotter, a physician working on the slave-ship, “Brookes”, was interviewed by a House of Commons in 1790. This is how he replied when he was asked if the slaves had room to turn themselves, “No. The slaves that are out of irons are locked ‘spoonways’ and locked to one another...they were often miserably bruised against the deck or against each other.” (Source C) Olaudah Equiano, a captured slave said that most of them were whipped, or “flogged” on the ship. (Source E) Some slaves were only whipped to put fear in  the others. Men were forced to “dance”, or exercise with chains on their legs, and many times, their legs would start to bruise and bleed. This abuse made them feel powerless, and stripped them of their identity.

    Slaves aboard the ship had to watch the other slaves being flogged, drowned, and beaten, and that frightened and intimidated the slaves. This was so painful, that some would rather kill themselves than continue to suffer during the Middle Passage. Ottobah Cuguano, a slave wrote in his Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa in 1787, “...And we found ourselves at last taken away, death was more preferable than life...” Ottobah Cuguano also said that it was common for the dirty sailors to take the African women and lie up upon their bodies; but the men were chained up and pent up in holes. Being chained up made the men powerless, so they couldn’t stop the women from being raped. (Source F)

    Zamba Zambola, the son of a king of a small in the Congo, was eventually kidnapped in America and sold as a slave. (Source D) He said, “The poor slaves below, altogether unprepared for such an occurrence, were mostly thrown to the side, where they leaped on the top of each other.” (Source D) Since their skin was cut up and bruised, they filled their skin in with tar to fill the cuts, and also rubbed lard on their skin so they looked good and healthy for auctions and sales. The headmen didn’t care about the health or safety of the slaves. Everything that they did was only done to make money for themselves.

    It’s very disgusting and disturbing to think that something like this happened in our own country hundreds of years ago. It’s unimaginable to live life like the slaves had to for many months on their journey. They were treated like animals, they were stripped of their identity and no longer felt like they were humans. This was so unbearable, that death was their only option. On the Middle Passage, Africans were treated unbelievable awful because they were physically and mentally abused, and treated as if they were goods or cargo.