The Middle Passage: The Triangular Trade

The Middle Passage

The triangular trade served as the dominant form of transportation of goods from the late 16th century to early 19th century. In the triangular trade, Europeans would sail to Africa to sell manufactured goods for slaves. The slaves were then transported to the Americas where they were traded for raw materials. This stretch is what we refer to as “the middle passage.” Finally, the raw materials were shipped back to Europe in order to make more manufactured goods. The middle passage constitutes one section of the triangular trade. While that may seem minor, it was seemingly dominant and would be talked about for ages to come. Slaves were mainly taken from the western coast of Africa. The Africans were rarely kidnapped
Men such as William Brosman and James Barbot, Jr., claim that their vessels are much better kept than countries like France and Portugal. However, slavers resorted to one of two categories of transportation, “loose-packers” and “tight packers.” This debate was a heated issue in the profession of slave transportation. Once on the ship, distress heightened and a large multitude of issues arose. First, before the ship even began the bulk of the journey across the Atlantic, mutinies were not uncommon. A mutiny is an open rebellion against authority. Mutinies mainly occurred while the ship was within view of the African coast. While a few succeeded, the majority of slaves were quickly controlled and scared into submission by the view of many of their fellow Africans being promptly thrown overboard upon
One of the most daunting difficulties aboard was the question of how to keep the slaves alive so that they could be sold upon arrival in America. Living conditions were detestable and could easily be classified as torture for the Africans in the pits of the ships. Slaves were chained and shackled together for the duration of the voyage. Slaves spent most of their time below deck on an area covered with filth, mold, and body fluids. They slept, chained together, exceedingly close to the person next to them with no room for any movement. The heat and humidity was deadly. During storms, the air vents were covered in an attempt to keep the slave areas from flooding. However, air flow was reduced to zero and slaves cried out in anguish as the air seemed to abandon them in their misery. Also, disease outbreaks dramatically reduced the African population on the ships due to the fact that all slaves were in such close proximity for an extended period of time. The Africans did not have immunity to European diseases and Europeans did not have immunity to African diseases. Therefore, any and every outbreak was reason for terror. Smallpox was especially terrifying because of the rapid spreading and the lack of a cure. In some instances, outbreaks could not be avoided. In others, it was due to the poor sanitation. Disease was just one of many causes of death throughout the Middle