Transatlantic Slave Trade

This blog post will be about the transatlantic slave trade, also known as the “Middle Passage,” and what life was like aboard a slave ship.

             There are not many things in American history that were as controversial and brutal as slavery. Slavery is a horrible aspect of American history but it’s a part of our nation’s past and brought us to where we are today.

    It is with no hesitation that I say, the life of a slave was both hard and challenging, yet even at times depleting. While everyday life was nothing but tiring for a slave, some may say that the hardest aspect of slavery was the voyage from Africa to America – a voyage without choice or freedom. “Over the centuries, between one and two million persons died in the crossing.” (2) It has been stated that between10 to 15 million Africans were captured and sold into slavery. Slavery was already a part of life in Africa but not like the slavery that would come to define our American history.

    The transatlantic slave trade started “… along the west coast of Africa, from the Cameroons in the south to Senegal in the north, Europeans built some sixty forts that served as trading posts.” (2) Africans were captured inland then brought to the forts where they were held until it was time for the ships to leave port. One individual who brought insight into how the slave trade worked was a former slave by the name of Olaudah Equiano also known by slave name Gustavus Vassa. Olaudah wrote an autobiography while he was a freeman in Europe that became a best seller. Olaudah described the first time he saw a slave trip:
   
    “The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board.” (1)

One can only imagine the terror all slaves felt when they were led down the ports to towards the ships that would be their homes for the next two to three months. Their lives had been uprooted and thus they were forced into a live with no freedom.

    Once slaves were aboard the ships they were escorted below deck into what they would be calling home for the endless days at sea. The living quarters, if you could call them that, was a space where the slaves were laid flat on their back and chained down under lock and key. The space was so small that most slaves could not even turn over or move around from one discomforting spot to the next. Olaudah describes what it was like below deck:

    “The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many diedÑ-thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now became insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated.” (1)

History has kept records with sketches describing and drawing the slave quarters on the passage ships. Slaves were “… crowded together, usually forced to lie on their backs with their heads between the legs of others. This meant they often had to lie in each other's feces, urine, and, in the case of dysentery, even blood. In such cramped quarters, diseases such as smallpox and yellow fever spread like wildfire.” (2) If the discomfort, embarrassment, and humiliation of being forces to sit in the feces of others was not enough, sick or infected slaves were thrown overboard. No slaves were treated for illnesses. In the months of agony, history shows that many slaves chose this fate over remaining chained to the lower deck, day after day against their will.

 Once the horrific trip was over, the slaves were sold to the highest bidder and from there begin their life of slavery.  The ships were packed with goods for the crew to bring to their home country and share with their families; therefore, starting the cycle over again. Many people think that being a slave in colonial America was awful and even unthinkable, but it was second to the actual trip to colonial America – an experience we must never forget about.   


(1) Olaudah Equiano, “The Life of
Gustavus Vassa” http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/Equiano.html

(2) PBS Online, “The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1narr4.html