The Middle Passage
• October 1 – 2, 2015
• Objective: Students will analyze a primary
source document that describes conditions
aboard a slave ship during the Middle Passage
and respond to text-related questions.
Please get 2-3 markers
or colored pencils.
1
Warm-Up: How does geography influence
colonization? Include the terms ‘subsistence
agriculture’ and ‘commercial agriculture’ in
your explanation. You may work with your
seatmate.
For help, see AAA p. 181 or SA&E p. 109.
For weeks, months, sometimes as
long as a year, they waited in the
dungeons of the slave factories
scattered along Africa's west coast.
They had already made the long,
difficult journey from Africa's
interior …….. but just barely.
4
Of the 20 million Africans who were
taken from their homes and sold into
slavery, nearly half did not complete
the journey to the African coast,
many of them dying along the way.
And the worst was yet to come…
5
Triangular Trade
6
first leg of the Triangular Trade
Manufactured goods leave Europe for
Africa: cloth, spirits, tobacco, beads,
metal goods, and guns. These goods were
exchanged for African citizens who would
work as slaves in the New World.
7
second leg of the Triangular Trade
The Middle Passage was the journey over the
Atlantic Ocean with 400-500 people in a boat
with little air and much disease. The trip
could take from 2 - 4 months, depending on
trade winds.
Why did Europeans ship millions of Africans
to the New World?
8
(By the way,….)
Africans were skilled laborers. They
often had experience in farming and
livestock raising.
Africans were also …..
• accustomed to the tropical climate
• resistant to tropical diseases
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third leg
Raw materials planted and harvested from
slave-labor in the colonies were shipped to
Europe.
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•
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYfCRRNxX2o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alMd9bvMTRY
1. Duplicate the Triangular Trade between
Europe, Africa and the Americas in your
notebook. (reference today’s notes)
2. Use arrows and words to identify each leg
of the Triangle.
3. Label the Middle Passage.
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12
Look for the key ideas in the following photos
of the Middle Passage.
Ask yourself:
What details
are helping
me understand
the topic?
13
Captured!
Tribes often helped capture tribal enemies, a
“divide and conquer” strategy encouraged by the
Europeans.
Many were
captured as
far as 50-100
miles inland.
14
Slave forts
Christiansborg Castle, Gold Coast, ca. 1750
Cape Coast Castle, Gold Coast, 1727
15
Slaves being rowed to a newly
arrived slaving ship off the
Guinea coast – note the trading
fort in the background.
Crosssection
of a slave
embarkat
ion
canoe.
16
Boarding
the
ship
Boarding the
ship
andand
being
and
then
beingchained
chained
and
being
sent down
the
then being
senttodown
slave decks.
to the slave decks.
17
The model and charts were used
by slave reformers at the end
of the 18th century to show how
a slave ship could carry 400
slaves. On one voyage the ship
carried 609 slaves.
18
A successful voyage could expect a
loss rate of 1 in 20 slaves. A bad
run might suffer losses as high as 1
in 3, mainly due to disease.
The space between the deck shelves
could vary from 28 to 39 inches.
19
Africans were crowded and cruelly chained aboard
20
slave ships.
Slaves were
fed twice a
day.
Male slaves were chained,
women and children usually
21
went unshackled.
Slaves were brought up on to the top
deck to be ‘exercised’ or ‘danced’
usually once a day. This was usually at
the point of a whip. This was the most
dangerous time for the ship’s crew
when the slaves had an opportunity to
rebel. A loaded cannon was always
kept ready with a lighted match.
22
Diseased
and
rebellious
slaves were
often thrown
overboard.
23
24
Brain break
•
•
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/why-barber-giving-free-haircuts-kidswho-read-him-n420581
http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/retired-u.s.-marine-appeals-forhelp-for-afghan-interpreter-527651395867
“Eyewitness to History:
Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829”.
• slaver – slave ship
• interceptor – patrols looking to stop
(intercept) the slave ships.
• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/pfslaveship.htm
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Answer in your notebook. No pronouns.
1. Describe three things the author said
that you think are important. (At least 3
sentences.)
2. Explain why you think this document was
written and to whom it may have been written.
Provide a quote from the document to support
your answer. (At least 3 sentences.)
3. What question do you have that is left
unanswered in the document?
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Answer on the paper I give you. Use RACE
(5-7) from your notes and today’s lesson.
Turn in for a class assignment grade.
Who benefited from the establishment of
colonies in the Americas? What kinds of
hardships did the establishment of the
colonies create for Africans and for Native
Americans?
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