Dark Passages Summary

Dark Passages is a short educational documentary hosted and narrated by Tanya Hart and Louis Gossett, Jr. This short documentary talks about the travels of slaves to West Africa and Virginia. The film gives re-counts of the physical abuse, slave auctions, and sales of slaves by slaveholders. The film gives actual accounts of Africans who experienced the horrors of slavery and lived to tell about it. Slavery was one of the biggest genocides in history. The slave masters were horrible and mistreated their slave hands, many slaves lost their lives due to the beatings given by slaveholders.

The slavery institution lasted for over 500 years, with so many loss of African lives. The

Atlantic Slave Trade had 3 phases: slaving by piracy, by war-like

alliance, and by peaceful partnership. Slaves were captured in tribal warfare and purchased in West African ports by Europeans looking forward to increasing its profits and labor force.
The New World looked to Africa to supply the labor force needed to develop its massive
countryside. Many slaves died during the harsh and dangerous journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Contributing to the causes of death was disease, starvation, and being confined in tight unsanitary conditions. The slaves were needed for the production of sugar, without them the great sugar economy of the West Indies would not have existed. The working of the sugar plantations demanded intensive labor from the slaves. Slavery brought major profits to slave owners during the height of the trade. Cotton became a major cash crop like sugar; the slaves had great agricultural skills, which helped with the harvesting of crops.
The slaves worked hard to please their owners, but still suffered whippings, hunger, hangings, and separation from their families.

Young slave girls had sex with slave masters in hope of bearing their children and to gain their freedom. Female slaves took drastic measures to keep their children from being sold. One example mentioned in the film is when a mother cut off the foot of her son to keep him from being sold like her other children. Maison Des Esclaves is where the Africans encountered the Door of No Return. Slaves were given registration numbers; instead of their African names when they were, being expedited from Goree’. The Goree’ population consisted of a variety of African ethnic groups, whites, and mulattos. There were an estimated 15 to 20 million slaves that passed through the slave houses on Goree’. Gambia is one of Africa’s smallest nations, which provided a direct source of slaves to the southern regions of the United States. Many African lives were loss during the period of slavery. Slavery is a great lesson to teach to young African descendants so they have a better perspective of the harsh conditions slaves had to endure. The next generations of African descendants should show pride and respect for those slaves who gave their lives in search of freedom. Freedom is a God given right, no man should be held as a slave to another. Exodus 22:16 “Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to

death.