The Middle Passage

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By: Mia Smith

 

As we were reading Equiano's narrative, so much of what I was taught in earlier history classes was coming back--specifically, the Middle Passage. My sophomore-year AP World History class spent time on the Middle Passage, and the atrocities of the voyages. However, although we learned about the Middle Passage in regards to conditions and goods, we weren't given any first-hand accounts or detailed information. So, that leads me to this excursion: learning more details and post-voyage information about the Middle Passage.

When the American Revolution began, Rhode Island was the biggest slave-trading colony in British-America. After the Revolution, it continued to play that role, and slave trade in the newly founded United States was growing rapidly. Rhode Islanders had a bit of an advantage over many of its fellow colonies because of ocean access and favorable land. As the Middle Passage continued to bring in tens of thousands of enslaved Africans, those not already in the slave trade went to find opportunity in the Spanish Empire. 

The American Revolution had significant impact on the trans-atlantic slave trade because the fighting interrupted traffic, Yes, interrupted traffic. Without free waters to carry in slaves from the Middle Passage, American slave traders had to "get creative" and find other ways to go about it.

Until the end of the 17th century, slave imports to Virginia were slim and came mostly from the British West Indies. After the Revolution, slave trade and populations grew rapidly after British-controlled slave trade transitioned into an American-controlled business.

After the Revolution, the trading of material goods with Britain was strained and tense, leading many traders to turn to other countries for exchanging with. Spain, Portugal, and India were all high up on this list, which greatly impacted what goods were traded. The U.S. brought slaves, Indian spices, and textiles to the States while providing trade partners with raw materials, sugar, and rum.

1700-1860 accounted for 80% of the 9.5 million enslaved Africans being transported to the Americas. That breaks down to 7.6 million slaves in 160 years, and 1.9 million between 1675 and 1700. Most of these enslaved peoples came from the Eastern part of Africa, and were taken to what became known as "Slave Coast", the eastern coast of what is now Senegal and Guinea.

Finding first-hand accounts of the Middle Passage itself is difficult for historians nowadays, because so many slaves were a) illiterate, b) killed on the voyage, or c) couldn't have their stories recorded before passing away while enslaved. The information we have now about the Middle Passage comes largely from the reports of sailors, English traders, and ship logs. 

 

 

 

 

 

“North American Slave Traders in the Age of Revolution, 1776–1807.” The United States and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Americas, 1776-1867, by LEONARDO MARQUES, Yale University Press, NEW HAVEN; LONDON, 2016, pp. 12–55. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69wr1.5. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.

Klein, Herbert S. The Middle Passage: Comparative Studies In the Atlantic Slave Trade. E-book, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978, https://hdl-handle-net.libproxy.scu.edu/2027/heb.05106. Accessed 24 Jan 2021.

Surviving the Middle Passage : The West Africa-Surinam Sprachbund, edited by Pieter C. Muysken, and Norval Smith, De Gruyter, Inc., 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.libproxy.scu.edu/lib/santaclara/detail.action?docID=1597574.

“Slaves and Shipping in 18th-Century Virginia.” The Middle Passage: Comparative Studies in the Atlantic Slave Trade, by Herbert S. Klein, Princeton University Press, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, 1978, pp. 121–140. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1mf6xwn.11. Accessed 25 Jan. 2021.