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The Middle Passage
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
● 10-15 million Africans between 1500 and 1900
● 2 million or 10 - 15% died● For every 100 slaves who reached the New
World, 40 died
Slave Exports to the New World
● 36,000 per year in the early 1700s● 80,000 per year in the 1780s● By 1750, slavers usually contained at least
400 slaves, with some carrying more than 700.
Shipboard
● Chained together● Spaces less than 5 feet high● “like books upon a shelf...so close that the
shelf would not easily contain one more.”● Slaves had only half the space of indentured
servants or convicts.● Urine, vomit, mucus, and horrific odors
The Middle Passage
● Seven weeks● Men and women were separated● Men were chained together and forced to
lie shoulder to shoulder● Women were left unchained● Fed only once or twice a day● On deck for limited time
Death Rate
● 25% in the 1600s and early 1700s● 10% in the 1800s● Malnutrition● Inadequate water rations● Dysentery, measles, scurvy, and smallpox● Arrived covered in sores or suffering fevers
Resistance
● Mutiny● Attempted suicide● Jumped overboard● Refused to eat
○ Smashed out teeth and fed them by force● One in ten voyages resulted in revolt
End of the Voyage
● “Seasoning”○ The final stage in the process of enslavement
● Some slaves escaped by running away and forming “maroon” colonies in remote parts of South Carolina and Florida