The Middle Passage
Slavery in North America, Mercantilism, and the
Triangle Trade
Which route is “the Middle
Passage”?
The Middle Passage
The Middle Passage is the trade route that enslaved
people took from Africa to the Americas.
Trace the Middle Passage on your triangle trade map.
It is called the Middle Passage because it was the
“middle” of the overall trade route.
Why the Middle?
Beginning or 1st step= ships with goods sailed TO
Africa and traded the goods for slaves.
Middle or 2nd step = ships with slaves left Africa, sailed
across the Atlantic to the Americas. Slaves were then
traded for goods (sugar, tobacco, etc)
Last or 3rd step = Ships left the Americas with their
goods (sugar, tobacco, etc) and sailed across the
Atlantic to Britain.
The Middle Passage
Question : What items were on the ship during the
“middle passage”?
Answer: SLAVES
Primary Sources
What is a primary source?
Hint: we studied some of the following primary sources
already: Speeches by Native American Chiefs, items
from American colonists
Click here or here to refresh your memory about
primary sources!
Middle Passage Primary
Sources
Look at the following primary sources about the
Middle Passage.
With each picture, ask yourself- what does this tell me
about the Middle Passage?
Some images have an explanation on the slide before itread the description and then look at the picture.
Check out an image of the engraving on the next slide!
Question: Who captured Africans and sold them to white slave
traders?
Answer: Africans captured Africans from other tribes to sell to white
slave traders
1725 engraving by Serge Daget entitled An Englishman Tastes the Sweat of an African.
Accompanying the engraving was a numbered list of descriptions in French, the numbers
of which corresponded to those on the image.
1. Negroes displayed for sale in a public market.
2. A Negro Slave being examined before being purchased.
3. An Englishman licking the Negro's chin to confirm his age, and to discover from the
taste of his sweat that he is not sick.
4. Negro Slave wearing the mark of slavery on his arm.
Heading for Jamaica in 1781, the ship Zong was nearing the end of its voyage. It had been twelve weeks since it had
sailed from the west African coast with its cargo of 417 slaves. Water was running out. Then, compounding the
problem, there was an outbreak of disease. The ship's captain, reasoning that the slaves were going to die anyway,
made a decision. In order to reduce the owner's losses he would throw overboard the slaves thought to be too sick to
recover. The voyage was insured, but the insurance would not pay for sick slaves or even those killed by illness.
However, it would cover slaves lost through drowning.
The captain gave the order; 54 Africans were chained together, then thrown overboard. Another 78 were drowned
over the next two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean,132 persons had been murdered.
1. What did the previous picture
portray?
2. What are the men doing with the
slave at the edge of the ship
3.Why did the ship captain decide to
throw people overboard to drown in
the middle of the ocean?
How African captured people had to spend the several months on board the ship as
they traveled from Africa to the Americas to be sold as slaves. This drawing shows they
had a space 3ft 3in high in the bottom of the ship. They had to sit very close together,
with no personal space at all.
The illustration showed 482 men, women, and children tightly packed into the Brooke's
hold (ship). The accompanying description stated that, according to records, as many as
609 slaves had been transported within the same space on the same ship.
Slaves were chained together, waiting
to be sold at an auction.
Primary Source
1. Read the information below about a slave who survived the Middle Passage.
2. Read excerpts from Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography with your seat
partner(s) and answer the questions.
Olaudah Equiano: Kidnapped into Slavery
Benin, Africa, 1756
Olaudah Equiano was the youngest boy in a family of seven children in the African
kingdom of Benin (now Nigeria). His village was called Essaka and his language and
tribe Ibo. In 1756, the year he turned eleven, Olaudah and his sister were kidnapped
from their village, tied up, separated from each other, and marched to slave ships
anchored off the Atlantic coast. There they were delivered to white merchants who
carried them across the Atlantic Ocean and sold them into slavery. Later, after
Olaudah leaned to read and write, he told the story of his capture.
Pick up the paper from the
front table with Olaudah’s
autobiography on it.
As you read, highlight or underline
words or sentences that stand out.
At the end of each paragraph, write a
one sentence summary.
What happens to Olaudah?
He was taken to Barbados, in the West Indies, and then to Virginia. There he was
sold to a British naval officer who insisted on changing his name to Gustavus Vassa.
When Olaudah refused to answer to that name, he was beaten. He spent the next
ten years at sea, during which he learned to read, write, and speak English. At the
age of 21 he bought his freedom and began to write his autobiography. It was finally
published in 1789, when Olaudah was about 40. One of the first books ever written
by an African in English, Olaudah’s personal account of being captured, sold, and
enslaved became a best-seller in Europe and America. He devoted his life to ridding
the world of slavery.
Resources/Bibliography
Resources from PBS "Africans in America"
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/index.html
Click the link above to learn more!!
Olaudah Equiano story from:
Hoose, Phillip. We Were There, Too! Young People in US History. New York:
Melanie Kroupa, 2001. Print.
TO TURN IN:
At the end of class you should turn in the following:
1. Paper with your answers to the questions from the PowerPoint slide Show
2. The Olaudah Equiano story paper with one sentence summaries.
Time Left in Class?
1.
2.
3.
4.
Pick up the pink paper from the front table.
Read the instructions.
Begin working on a rough draft of this assignment
This assignment will show me what you learned by looking at this
powerpoint and by reading Olaudah Equiano’s story – include lots of
details and information!
5. You will be working on this assignment tomorrow (Friday) in class as
well.