The Middle Passage facts
While investigating facts about The Middle Passage Definition and The Middle Passage Book, I found out little known, but curios details like:
The goods being shipped to Africa in exchange for slaves included iron, brandy, gunpowder and weapons.
how long was the middle passage?
The slaves taken from Africa were shipped to the New World. From there they were sold and taken to the American colonies, Central/South America and the Caribbean.
What the middle passage was like?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering explain what the middle passage was. Here are 17 of the best facts about The Middle Passage Immortal Technique and The Middle Passage Referred To I managed to collect.
what's the middle passage?
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Common diseased that killed the African slaves included scurvy, and amoebic dysentery.
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Between 1440 and 1640 the Portuguese had the monopoly on African slave export.
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Countries that took part in the Middle Passage included Portugal, England, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Brandenburg, Sweden, Denmark, Brazil, the Caribbean, North America, and the Americas.
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The African slaves were from eight general areas in Africa including West Central Africa, Southeastern Africa, Bight of Biafra, Bight of Benin, Gold Coast, Windward Coast, Upper Guinea, and Senegambia.
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Common diseases that plagued the African slaves included the measles, syphilis, and smallpox.
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It was common for African slaves to protest by refusing to eat or by committing suicide.
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A typical slave trader's ship could carry approximately 30 crew members and several hundred slaves.
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The slaves were traded for goods such as sugar, cotton, molasses, rum, and tobacco, which was then taken to Europe.
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The banjo is based off of an African instrument called the akonting, one of the few cultural artifacts to survive the middle passage.
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It is estimated that approximately 12 million African slaves were forced to come to the New World, and were sold into slavery there against their will.
Why was the middle passage so horrible?
You can easily fact check why did the middle passage happen by examining the linked well-known sources.
Clearly passages in the manuscript are copied from works by other travelers, and scholars doubt Battuta's assertion that he visited Russia and China, but the manuscript provides an important account of the cultural history of the 14th Century Middle East.
During the 1700s the British slave traders were responsible for transporting approximately 2.5 million of the 6 million African slaves out of Africa.
Conditions on the ships transporting the African slaves were horrible. It was hard to breathe because they were packed in so tight. They were often chained to each other to avoid problems of rebellion.
In the 1700s the cost to purchase an African slave in the New World was approximately $800 to $1200. Today this would be equivalent to $32,000 to $48,000 each.
When ships were faced with a water shortage it was common for the crew to chain the slaves together and throw them overboard. The crew of the ship the Zong chained 132 together and threw them overboard - and the French ship La Rodeur drowned 39 slaves in 1812. Drowning was covered by the ship owner's insurance but death because of sickness (which would occur without water) was not covered. Drowning the slaves meant there would be no loss of money.
