The TransatlaNtic Slavery Trade
The Transatlantic Slave Trade lasted from 1526 until 1867. This journey was one of the most dangerous and deadly long-distance journeys of all times. Out of some 12.5 million slaves that were shipped to the Americas, only 10.7 actually survived. It involved many countries like Africa, Europe, Britain, West and East Indies, North and South America, and Bristol (1).
The Arrival of Slavery in the New WorldThe primary way that slaves arrived in the North America was through the triangular trade system, in which Europe traded goods with European traders living in Africa in return for slaves that they had stolen or purchased from tribe leaders. These slaves were then shipped to North America through a very dangerous journey called the Middle Passage. Once the slaves arrived, those who survived were auctioned off to plantation owners. The ships were then loaded with sugar and rum before returning to Britain (5).
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Movement of slaves through the middle Passage
As previously noted, the middle passage was the wretched and dangerous voyage that slaves were forced to take across the Atlantic to the West Indies and ultimately North America. The trip was so treacherous that 12% of those on it did not survive. On the journey, men and women were kept separately, but each sex was tightly packed onto the ship naked. Additionally, men were typically shackled throughout the voyage (7).
An enslaved Kanuri man described the journey by saying, "The people of the great vessel were wicked: when we had been shipped, they took away all the small pieces of cloth which were on our bodies, and threw them into the water, then they took chains and fettered two together. We in the vessel, young and old, were seven hundred, whom the White men had bought. We were all fettered round our feet, and all the oldest died of thirst, for there was no water. Every morning they had to take many, and throw them into the water" (2). In 1690 the number Africans per year forced on this journey was 35,000. 100 years later, that number rose to 85,000 people a year. By 1820, the ratio of Africans to Europeans who had crossed the atlantic was 4:1 (7). |
The Life of Plantation SLaves
Harriet Jacob's StoryIn the first slave narrative to be published by a woman, Harriet Jacobs gives a first-hand account of her life as a plantation slave. Published in 1861
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Walter Calloways'S STORY
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How does this impact Freedom and Movement?
Plantation slavery created movement of people through the triangular trade and the larger entity that it was a part of, known as the transatlantic slave trade. While this mass movement of people with black skin was beneficial for the white people who became masters, this movement was not a choice that people in Africa made for themselves. Therefore plantation slavery created movement, not freedom.