Compare And Contrast The Ocean Voyage And The Transatlantic Voyage

The Transatlantic Voyage It’s dark, humid, there is a gut wrenching smell, the rocking of the ship makes you sick to your stomach, and disease is all around you. This is the average night for both the slaves going across the middle passage and the indentured servants traveling to The New World. Both of these groups experienced many similarities in their ocean voyage. They were horribly mistreated and packed tightly into the holds of the ship. The Middle Passage is the part of a slave trading ship’s journey where they picked up slaves off of the African coast and brought them to the American Colonies. These slaves were taken all over the world, however, a significant portion of them went to the Colonies because of the increasing need for labor. These slaves were taken from their homes by neighboring tribes or slavers and sold into slavery. The journey to the Colonies was traumatic, inhumane, and dangerous. As The
They were crammed into the holds of ships with next to no space. In some cases ships were reported to have over 600 slaves aboard. In 1788 parliament finally passed a law limiting the number of slaves per one ship to 454, however the overcrowding continued for indentured servants. The captain of these ships were aware of these conditions. Some captains were reported to scrub the hold with water or vinegar every week or so. According to Salinger, “When the English Board of Trade planned to send a group of settlers to Halifax in 1749, they commissioned the inventor of the “Sutton Air Pipes” to estimate the cost of installation of the system to the transport vessels.” However most captains were largely unconcerned with the abuse. Disease was also a major issue onboard these vessels because of the latent air and the crowded accommodations it spread like wildfire. Many times slaves which contracted a disease such as smallpox were simply throw overboard in an attempt to save as much cargo as