The Middle Passage

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

● 10-15 million Africans between 1500 and 1900

● 2 million or 10 - 15% died● For every 100 slaves who reached the New

World, 40 died

Slave Exports to the New World

● 36,000 per year in the early 1700s● 80,000 per year in the 1780s● By 1750, slavers usually contained at least

400 slaves, with some carrying more than 700.

Shipboard

● Chained together● Spaces less than 5 feet high● “like books upon a shelf...so close that the

shelf would not easily contain one more.”● Slaves had only half the space of indentured

servants or convicts.● Urine, vomit, mucus, and horrific odors

The Middle Passage

● Seven weeks● Men and women were separated● Men were chained together and forced to

lie shoulder to shoulder● Women were left unchained● Fed only once or twice a day● On deck for limited time

Death Rate

● 25% in the 1600s and early 1700s● 10% in the 1800s● Malnutrition● Inadequate water rations● Dysentery, measles, scurvy, and smallpox● Arrived covered in sores or suffering fevers

Resistance

● Mutiny● Attempted suicide● Jumped overboard● Refused to eat

○ Smashed out teeth and fed them by force● One in ten voyages resulted in revolt

End of the Voyage

● “Seasoning”○ The final stage in the process of enslavement

● Some slaves escaped by running away and forming “maroon” colonies in remote parts of South Carolina and Florida