Middle Passage Essay

In the beginning of the 1600's and towards the ending of the 1800's millions of innocent people were grabbed and torn away from their homelands leaving their independence behind. Primarily African men, women, and children were traded, as if they were dirt; being shipped and sold. Once sold, they were mostly forced to do very laborious jobs such as plantation workers and factory workers. The middle passage, also known as the triangular trade route included Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The middle passage contained many goods being traded and sold throughout it such as weapons, food, raw materials, and slaves. The middle passage was a very dreadful time period for Africans. The first part of the voyage began in Europe which was sending goods

The packing was done as efficiently as they could, leaving the slaves no room to move. The rooms were no more than five feet high with old, scratched up wood on the floor and walls. Laying on rough wood and even chained to the walls, the motion of the ship caused them to scrape their elbows and wrists which caused disease even more likely. They were rarely fed and cleaned. “Ten to twenty percent of the slaves died during the Middle Voyage”. The deceased bodies were just thrown overboard. This voyage usually only took about six weeks but unfortunately due to bad weather it sometimes took even longer. The voyage was extremely

Many slaves tried resisting this trade agreement that they had been forced into by taking their own lives in a variety of different methods. Two of the most commonly used methods that slaves would try to resist the sailors was refusing to eat and suicide, both of which having to end in death as an escape, making living conditions harsh for these slaves. Slaves would rather resist and not eat than be brought to work in America as slaves but as more and more began resisting, the sailors began forcing slaves to eat to prevent them from starving themselves, because they were being brought over as healthy people, not dead people, although many slaves were still able to starve themselves to death. To prevent the slaves from committing suicide on board of the ship, the sailors would net the sides of the deck, but a few slaves were still successful in being able to jump overboard, returning back home to their families. In the end, all failed in their hopes to be freed from as