Race, Slavery, & Emancipation: Essay UP876009

Why was the Middle Passage such a site of death?

The Atlantic slave trade characterized the Early Modern Period as one of the most

unhuman events of history. This happening was closely linked with the political world

and it involved a huge change in the demographics of that time. A large number of

historical researchers have documented this topic: the enslavement of the African

people, the ways that they were divided for labour or the different types of plantations

carried out. However, one main factor to be aware of is the way that they were treated

during their voyages to the New World, where they suffered hideous punishment and

even died because of the conditions. These facts can only lead to one question: why was

the Middle Passage such a site of death?

Before we focus on the topic, it is necessary to analyze the context of the

situation: the Slave Trade. The slave trade refers to the transatlantic trading

arrangements which were established from the 16th to the 19th century. Several

countries were involved in the development of this practice (mostly European

countries), with the only desire to improve their economy, because slavery was a way to

obtain wealth. Spain was the first imperial country to introduce African slaves into the

Americas. In 1501, the Spanish monarchs approved the establishment of slavery in

Hispaniola and it would spread to other areas gradually. However, they were not the

only slave traders during this period. Portugal, France, the British Empire, Holland,

among others, participated in the slavery business. During the first years, the Portuguese

dominated the trade, sending a huge number of slaves to settlements like Brazil. But by

the turn of the 18th century, the English established their supremacy as they sent slaves

to the British West Indies and to the North American colonies. The French, Dutch and

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Race, Slavery, & Emancipation: Essay UP876009

other countries contributed to their causes as well as the other European powers but in a

reduced number.

It is important to mention that slavery already existed in Africa before the slave

trade. As stated by Thorton (1998), “the reason that slavery was widespread in Africa

was not […] because Africa was an economically underdeveloped region in which

forced labour had not yet been replaced by free labour. Instead, slavery was rooted in

deep-seated legal and institutional structures of African societies, and it functioned quite

differently from the way it functioned in European societies. Slavery was widespread in

Atlantic Africa because slaves were the only form of private, revenue-producing

property recognized in African law” (p. 74).

The Europeans had no significant impact on Africa in the early centuries

(approximately 1400s). They did not have any intention to invade Africa, but instead

they used trade in order to operate within the territory. The colonizing societies obtained

captives as slaves from West Africa, which was the chief area of the slave trade during

the eighteen century as it consisted of a large number of rival societies of different

degrees of power and influence. The slaves given to the Europeans were offered by the

African themselves. Many were captives taken in war, others were kidnapped and some

of them were obtained as tribute costs. Most of them were traded for guns and other

goods that were only produced outside of Africa, and this caused a rise to a huge

demand to acquire more African captives for the sole purpose of selling them into

slavery to white Europeans. These slaves were going to be used for local work in the

European regions, but they would gradually began to work in the plantations of the

West Indies.

According to Palmer (1981), “the Atlantic passage seems to have become for later

generations the most vivid of all the atrocities of the slave trade” (p. 42). Death was
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Race, Slavery, & Emancipation: Essay UP876009

present in every moment of the voyage. From punishments to diseases, the slaves had to

cope with a reality that they did not deserve. The number of slaves who died between

the time they were captured and their subsequent distribution cannot be determined, yet

it is clear that numerous of them succumbed before being sold because of either diseases

or wounds due to the violence suffered.

It was habitual to stock them in an underground cell before setting foot on a ship

although many slaves died before doing so. With little space, there was not any chance

to escape, apart from the irons that were attached to the feet and neck. It is not necessary

to mention that because of the climate and the treatment, the slaves fell sick and

developed fevers (mostly caused by smallpox epidemics) that would be the reason of

death during the voyage. However, sick slaves received medical care with the African

remedies learnt by the natives. They were very successful, even though they did not

stop the high rate of mortality.

Losses on the African continent depicted only the first episode of death: many

more persons would die during the Atlantic passage. The condition of the slaves during

the voyage depended on the care received from the captain and the crew. The crew had

to make sure that the slaves were properly chained in the storage of the ship, chaining

males (who were generally a threat to security) and females in pairs. Most of the time,

the quantity of slaves would cause overcrowding, which was present in every shipment

of the Atlantic passage. That is because a great part of the shipments did not comply

with the number of slaves intended for a cargo (traders enlarged the quantity of slaves).

The place where the slaves were enclosed (hold) had the perfect conditions to develop a

disease environment. Due to the foul and putrid air, the heat, the lack of sanitation and

the suffocating situation, a great part of the cargo would develop mortal sickness such

as smallpox, measles, scurvy and other varieties of fevers like dysentery. The Queen

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Race, Slavery, & Emancipation: Essay UP876009

Anne, for instance, arrived in Jamaica in 1708 after losing more than seventy slaves

because of smallpox, dysentery and other illnesses. Still, many of the slaves carried

contagion (particularly smallpox) aboard from the truncks in Africa. The captives

endured these conditions for about two months, sometimes longer. Even the slaves who

escaped illness during the voyage used to land in a dreadful condition. They were not

only physically harmed, but also suffered psychological traumas due to the strenuous

situation on board.

Aside from the state of health withstood by the slaves, they also had to cope with

the punishments given by the crew. Violence and brutality were closely attached to

punishments; the crew used various methods of torture to shape the discipline of the

victims. The reasons for punishment were wide, from resisting to slavery to attempting

to escape. As the captives’ lives had no such value in that moment, the crew could apply

any necessary correction. There were different types of punishments, though they

always intended to harm the person physically. The slaves were assaulted with devices

like the whip, which caused serious damage to the human body, they would also be

forced to wear iron contraptions on the neck, feet, etc., so that they would not threaten

the voyage. Sometimes they were hung from the mast of the vessel giving freedom to

the crew to apply any punishment required.

In addition to punishments, the slaves opted to avoid the assaults by recurring to

suicide. They threw themselves and their children overboard believing that they would

quicken their return to Africa, without thinking about the consequences for themselves

and their children. These incidents happened so often that slaving shipments were

provided with nets so that they would prevent them from trying to jump overboard.

As a result of the diseases and deaths, the cargo was highly conditioned in terms

of the number of captives that arrived in the New World. Currently, there are statistics
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Race, Slavery, & Emancipation: Essay UP876009

that represent the number of slaves carried by the different traders and the number of

deaths during their voyages. During the years 1680-88, the Royal African Company

transported 60,783 slaves, of which 14,388 died during the passage (23.7 percent).

Between the years 1720-25, the company carried 9,949 slaves of which 1,311 died (13.2

percent). Regarding the Nantes traders, the mortality rate lead to an average of 12

percent between 1713 and 1777. In the case of the Dutch ships between 1680 and 1749,

the death rate calculated was that of 16.8 percent. Anyway, we can see a decline in

mortality in the late years of the Atlantic passage, where the Portuguese, for instance,

obtained an average of 7.7 percent of death rate between 1795 and 1799.

The number of humans treated as objects and the destiny they had depicts how

dreadful the slave trade was, emphasizing the Middle Passage, where these people

suffered various atrocities (from punishments to diseases) only by the fact of being

considered as slaves. With over ten million slaves transported during this period, almost

15 percent of them died during the voyage to the New World due to the conditions

experienced, which led to despair and in several cases, suicide. Undoubtedly, these

events represent the hellhole and the anguish endured by the African people.

REFERENCES:

Curtin, Philip, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, 1969)

Palmer, Colin, Human Cargoes: The British Slave Trade to Spanish America,

1700-1739 (Urbana, 1981)

Thorton, John, (ed.), Africa and African in the Making of the Atlantic World,

1400-1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 74

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Race, Slavery, & Emancipation: Essay UP876009