The Middle Passage: Triangular Trade

The Middle Passage
Between the years 1500 and 1866, African slaves were traded for raw materials, and were returned to Europe to complete what is known as the “Triangular Trade.” The first section of this triangular route was the “Outward Passage”, this was the voyage from Europe to Africa. Then came the “Middle Passage.” This is the stage of triangular trade in which millions of African natives were transported to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Lastly, the “Return Passage” was the closing voyage from the Americas to Europe. Europeans gathered African slaves by trading for them and used the Middle Passage as a trade route to the Americas. Slaves were treated terribly on board the ships and had to endure harsh living conditions.

Around 1.8 million died during the transatlantic crossing, and others died during the process of capture and transport. The mortality rate of Africans aboard the ship was between 10 and 20 percent depending on the condition of the voyage and the captain of the ship and how he decided he was going to handle the slaves. Slave ship captains had two different ways of thought. One was viewed as what is known as the “loose pack.” Through this system, the captain shipped fewer slaves than the ship could contain in order to reduce the amount of deaths and diseases on board. The second and most brutal system is called “tight packing.” Captains who performed this system believed that the more slaves, despite higher death rates, the more profit they could make. They held as many slaves as the ship could contain, and often more. In this situation, slaves were chained ankle to wrist with hardly any room to move. Not only were the slaves thrown below the

African people were removed from their culture, land, and society of his or her homeland to be sold as property. Not only were the slaves tortured on their long journey to the Americas, but when they arrived they were sold, branded, and forced to work countless brutal hours. Slaves were traded for raw materials and traveled what is known as the Triangular Trade Route to transport the slaves from Africa to the Americas. With the supply of slaves now in the Americas, a new African presence was brought to the blend of European and Native American peoples. It also introduced components of African culture, such as religious ideas, musical and artistic traditions, and African cuisine, into the making of American cultures. In conclusion whenever the Africans were first introduced into the Americas they were treated very badly. While this was cruel and unjust at the time, it was essential to the fabrication of our society and aspects of our life and culture