Sequence into the art of darkness Activity worksheet

Compétence visée (niveau B2) :

Peut comprendre les points essentiels d’un texte littéraire et inférer le sens de mots en s’aidant du
contexte

Read the text and answer the questions.

The Middle Passage served not only to erase a slave’s sense of human dignity, but the journey also wiped
away the collective knowledge and cultural history of those captured.

Before boarding a slave ship, captives were stripped of any physical connections to their past lives, their
heads were shaved, and their clothing and adornments removed. […] Slaves were systematically
dehumanized. Once aboard the slave ship, this practice continued. Women in particular were subjected
to brutal rapes and sexual abuse during their journey; many women arrived at the shores of the New
World carrying the children of their abusers.

Mutiny was not uncommon aboard slave ships; so, to protect themselves against the threat of
insurrection, ship captains typically kept male captives in chains and below deck at all times. Women were
commonly provided more liberties; typically left unchained, they were often allowed to remain above
deck, sometimes even permitted to move about freely. This limited amount of freedom provided women
opportunities to communicate and organize many of the slave uprisings that occurred during the Middle
Passage.

Molly Morgan, “Women’s Resistance in the Middle Passage: A Story Lost at Sea”

albany.edu

deck: pont

1. Expliquez la phrase “slaves were systematically dehumanized” en vous appuyant sur le

texte.

Les esclaves étaient privés de leurs vêtements, de tout ce qui les rattachait à leur passé.
Leurs crânes étaient rasés à blanc et les femmes étaient violées (et tombaient parfois
enceintes).

2. Comparez les conditions de captivité des hommes et des femmes à bord du navire.

Les hommes étaient enchaînés sous le pont/dans la cale et les femmes étaient libres de
leur mouvement et pouvaient se déplacer.

3. Quelle était la conséquence directe de cette organisation ?

Les femmes pouvaient organiser des mutineries.
Sequence into the art of darkness Activity worksheet

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4. Relevez les trois équivalents anglais du mot «révolte » dans le texte.

Uprising – mutiny – insurrection

5. En vous aidant du contexte, trouvez l’équivalent français des mots suivants :

a) Erase : effacer
b) Wiped away : effacé
c) Stripped : dépouillé
d) Adornments : accessoires/ parures
e) Rapes : viols
f) Journey : traversée

Let’s recap !

Explain how the Middle Passage was organised and what happened during the journey.

During the Middle Passage, the journey (across the Atlantic Ocean) between Africa and the
West Indies (and North America), the slaves were dehumanized as they were stripped from
their clothes and everything reminding them of their past lives and cultures. Their heads were
also shaved and the women were raped.

We learn that the captains kept the male slaves below deck and the women unchained to
avoid mutiny. But it was a mistake since the women took advantage of the situation to
organise uprisings/insurrections.