Abolish

The Middle
Slavery Sean Lee 8G
Passage: Slaves on the slave ship were chained together, not
The Middle Passage is the being able to move. They travelled in this condition for
journey from West Africa months, many of them not being able to make their
to North America during arrivals to North America or Britain. Illnesses were very
the Atlantic slave trade.
easy to spread, as there were lots of people in a limited
space. It is essential to abolish the slave trade because
trading goods with slaves meant that people in the Americas and Britain treated them
equally to objects. Also, the condition of the slave trade was very insanitary. Food was
given out to eat with their hands, which made infections grow quicker. This caused more
slaves to death because the ship crew threw severely sick slaves over the ship. The slaves
were forced to shave their head and were branded when they entered the slave ship, as a
sign to show that they were a property of the British people. Although almost none of the
slaves succeeded in escaping, when they did, the marks separated them from other people,
making it easier for them to be spotted. Evidence from ex-slaves and slave ship crews have
proven that the slave trade was dreadful. From an account written in 1788 by a slave ship’s
surgeon, it claims that “they are frequently packed in so close, as to allow of no other
position than lying on their sides.” This quote shows that the slaves were in a very
uncomfortable position. Being placed with hundreds of people caused diseases like fevers
and small poxes to spread very rapidly. A quote from a diary entry written by an ex-slave
Olaudah Equiano in 1789 stated that “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of dying,
created a scene of horror… I was so sick I was almost kept on the deck… I began to see death
as an escape” this phrase supports my idea that slave ships were in a horrible condition
because many of the slaves died on their journey. Also, when sick slaves were kept on the
deck, it was easy for their sicknesses to travel to the other slaves that were kept underneath
the deck.

JOIN THE ABOLITIONIST

MOVEMENT AND SUPPORT
ABOLISHING THE ATLANTIC
An image of how the slaves were SLAVE TRADE
positioned in the ship