...The middle passage has its own history of cruelty and violence. During the Atlantic slave trades, the middle passage connected Africa with the Americas. During the passages, the healthy as well as physical conditions were responsible for the loss of life of many slave men, women and children. The slaves were kept in shackles however, the women and children were treated slightly better but the treatment was still inadequate, because after all they were still a slave. The conditions for slaves were so bad that prior to the 18th century, an estimated 13% of the captured slaves did not survive the journey to the New World. Another cause of death was the slaves intentionally starving themselves as a form of rebellion; however, if they were caught...
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...effected the outcome of slavery in 1800s. These events all lead to one another and forever changed the face of slavery in the United States. Thomas Jefferson’s “diffusion theory” was the first of this series of events. Jefferson believed that selling “surplus” slaves from the east and moving them westward would help to put an end to slavery. By the end of the revolution, it was becoming apparent that two distinct regions were forming. One of these regions was enslaved and the other was gradually becoming free. Transatlantic slave trade had been ended and tobacco lands in the Chesapeake were exhausted and needed less labor. Jefferson thought that slavery was a “necessary evil” and that slave owning was beneficent, yet he also believed that slavery could be ended. Eli Whitney quickly destroyed this “diffusion theory” dream of Jefferson’s with his invention of the cotton gin. This invention of the cotton gin completely turned the economy around and was a game changer for wealth and labor. Cotton...
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...America before the late eighteenth century. The South Atlantic economic system centered on making goods and clothing to sell in Europe and increasing the numbers of African slaves brought to the New World. This was crucial to those European countries which, in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires. The evolution of slavery is crucial to understanding the importance of currently standing issues. Slavery began in 1440 when Portugal started to trade slaves with West Africa. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were also called “indentured servants” or “apprentices for life”. By the middle of the sixteenth century, they and their offspring were legally the property of their owners. As property, they were merchandise or units of labor, and were sold at markets with other goods and services. By the 17th century, Western Europeans developed an organized system of trading slaves. However, the slave trade did not run as smoothly as expected. Slaves were revolting and tried to flee the hardships of labor. Regardless of these attempts slavery expanded, leading to the "Triangle Trade." This trade, between Europe, Africa and the Americas, is held responsible for the dispersal of Africans in the Western hemisphere. This organized system lasted until the 1800's. Shortly after...
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...Word choice is by far one of the most significant aspects that characterizes literature in general. However, in regards to poetry, “the choice and order of words”, known as diction, is especially paramount. Author Robert Hayden was fully aware of this fact. Consequently, he placed an exorbitant amount of effort into selecting the phrases he would employ in his works. A prime example of this, is his piece “Middle Passage” where his word choice has a particularly colossal impact (“Elements of Poetry”). For starters, Hayden’s main diction strategy is to take on the different personas of people involved with the Middle Passage. Each of these factions has their own highly specialized jargon. In the first section, Hayden tackles the religious aspect...
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...Politics in Robert Hayden’s First “Middle Passage.” African American Review 45, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 557-573 Through the extensive dissection of Robert Hayden’s poem “The Middle Passage,” Carl Plasa argues that “The Middle Passage” was essential in addressing the segregationist structure of 1940s America. Although, according to Hayden, the main purpose of his work was to “contribute toward an understanding of what our past had really been like”(557). While it did just that, it had a more constructive effect on Americans in the 1940s. During a time of segregation, “The Middle Passage” reminded Americans of their past identity as oppressors. As Hayden recalls the hardships and cruelties upon the slave ships, his goal is to inspire a project of counter-violence. I specifically enjoyed the line, “Shuttles in the rocking loom of history, the dark ships move, the dark ships move” (567). This metaphor cleverly combines the slaves’ labor aboard the ships with the motion of the machines Northern American workers used to make profitable textiles. Through this ironic metaphor, I believe that Hayden is trying to tell Americans of the 1940s that most people wrongfully benefitted from slavery; it wasn’t just the south. He wants to remind Americans that no one was right when it came to slavery, and everyone should be accepting and sympathetic to all African Americans. Thus, Plasa provided me with an in depth look at the ongoing importance of the middle passage as it is used to inspire the end...
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...little history regarding slavery and slave trade despite the fact that slaves were African Americans who not only worked for free but were treated terribly, many individuals lack the knowledge of how slavery was originated and greatly impacted regions of the world. The Triangular trade was a trading method established by the Europeans hundreds of years ago. It’s referred to as the Triangular Trade because it consists of trade with Africa, America, and Europe creating a triangular route of trade. This system was developed to fulfill the needs of each country and to become industrialized. The Triangular Trade caused extreme complication and effected Africa in numerous ways. On the first leg of the trip European merchants went to Africa to trade their household goods in return for a desired number of slaves, Then shipped the slaves to America on what was known was the Middle Passage where they were sold for cash and bought tobacco, rum, sugar and cotton back to Europe where these products were sold for outstanding profits. This trading method was very successful because African Americans already practiced slavery in Africa and America was in high demand for laborers to work the sugar cane plantations and make profit trading the finished product to Europe. “The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade” (Middle Passage,Wikipedia). This was often...
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...The Autobiography of Olaudah Equiano is a woeful recount of an African boy who was kidnapped into slavery. However, with the story of Olaudah Equiano comes a question. Was Equiano an African who merely wanted to share his life’s story or was he born in South Carolina and wrote this as a calculated attempt to “increase the odium against the West India planters?” as Vincent Carretta states. If the first presumption is correct, then all is well and the story can be revered as a highly respected expositional work of history. Although, if the second is correct, then this calls into question Equiano’s right to play the victim in representing the slaves who suffered through the Middle Passage. The answer to this highly debated question lies in the accuracy of his details, the historical validity of his stories, and the fact that pro-slavery writers are the source of the original doubt. In his autobiography, Olaudah Equiano describes his experience of the Middle Passage with many details. For example, one of the most notable details he notes of the slave ship was the horrible stench that reeked from the lower deck. Equiano writes, “I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a...
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...October 9, 2014 HIS 2111, Instructor Wells Short Paper Assignment Slavery in British America This paper is about slavery in British America over time. I am going to talk about how slavery evolved, differences across regions and across all colonies, and factors that contributed to hardening of the line between slavery and freedom. Slavery was used by all great powers at that time (England, France, Spain, Netherland, Portugal…). In this big region of both Americas and West Indies, slavery was something as common as freedom is common today. Basically from Canada to Brazil there was some kind of slavery. Most of the slaves were imported from Africa especially in British mainland colonies, but there were a lot of Indian slaves as well in West Indies. Slavery was different between the regions in New World. For example slavery in Barbados was different as in New England, in Barbados there was plantation based slavery but in New England there were only few slaves that helped their masters with some minor work at their houses. Even between British mainland colonies there was difference in slave societies. First British mainland colonies did not heavily relay on slaves, because they had a big migration from Europe. People came from all over Europe, most of them came as indentured servants. For free passage over Atlantic they gave their rights to people that paid for their voyage. They obligated that they will work for free, some amount of time, for free trip and free land after...
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...Beloved Research Paper Prompt #5 Final Infanticide, neglect, rape, starvation, and loss are all terms describing what the institution of slavery may result in. These same words, however, can very easily fit to summarize Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a story that not only captures the overall theme of slavery, but also delves into a deeper understanding of what these hardships entail. Within it’s controversial pages, Toni Morrison’s Beloved properly and accurately portrays slavery’s brutality and harsh conditions. It is true that the Middle Passage was the largest migration of any group of persons, but no historian could completely grasp what trials and tribulations that this event encompasses. In Beloved, Morrison demonstrates just one of the many cruelties during the long journey across the Atlantic. Sethe recalls the sexual violence her mother encountered while being brought from Africa and the trauma brought about by such. Both Sethe’s mother and Nan were “taken up many times by the crew” (Morrison 66). During the travel to the New World, women were within a closer proximity to the deck and thus, closer to the white men on board. These black women on board were “prey to captains and crew members who would often rape them”, along with other forms of violence to keep order (Rice 9). Sethe’s mother was so affected by the traumatic experience that she murdered her children that were conceived from the white men raping her. This idea of sexual violence is not an exaggeration...
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...Influences on the Middle East and trans-Atlantic slave trade In Race and Slavery in the Middle East An Historical Enquiry, the author, Bernard Lewis, tackles difficult subjects such as slavery and racism without prejudice and manages to explain the slave trade development in the Middle East along with the great influence and contribution it had on the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Whether it was by enforcing institutions, networks, commercial patterns or Middle Eastern concepts or by following different ways of the slave trade. With his impartial academic analysis, the reader is able to comprehend the history behind the region where slavery lasted the longest. His twenty-four colorful illustrations where the reader can appreciate the culture of slavery are a great example of local perceptions in the Middle East. Slavery in the Middle East was a tolerable institution. From the very beginning the reader can appreciate that “the institution of slavery indeed had been practiced from time immemorial” and thus establishing the slave trade in the Middle East as something passed down from ancient civilizations. Although the methods for obtaining slaves changed throughout the time something that stay in consistency about the slave trade in the Middle East was tolerance. Tolerance, for the Middle Eastern, not only meant acceptance but compassion. All communities were united in order to urge slave owners to treat their slaves as humanely as possible and to ensure this policy was followed...
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...Enslaved Woman vs. Daniel Metcalf Case Question 1: The court should follow the case of Bondie an Enslaved Woman vs. Daniel Metcalf because Bondi fought against her enslavement because she is from Indiana where slavery was illegal even though she was living in South Carolina. This is very similar to John’s case because slavery was prohibited in Illinois. Therefore, his labor in Illinois should grant him freedom. Understanding the Legal and Historical Basis for American Courts Considering British Precedent Question 2: There are various historical and legal ties between the British common law and the American legal system. When American colonies were first established, they followed some legal traditions and principles of...
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...The "Middle Passage” was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods, which were traded for purchased or kidnapped Africans, who were transported across the Atlantic as slaves; the slaves were then sold or traded for raw materials, which would be transported back to Europe to complete the voyage. The journey of slave trading ships was from the west coast of Africa, where the slaves were obtained, across the Atlantic, where they were sold or, in some cases, traded for goods such as molasses, which was used in the making of rum. However, this voyage has come to be remembered for much more than simply the transport and sale of slaves. The Middle Passage was the longest, hardest, most dangerous, and also most horrific part of the journey of the slave ships. With extremely tightly packed loads of human cargo that stank and carried both infectious disease and death, the ships would travel east to west across the Atlantic on a miserable voyage lasting at least five weeks, and sometimes as long as three months. Although incredibly profitable for both its participants and their investing backers, the terrible Middle Passage has come to represent the ultimate in human misery and suffering. The abominable and inhuman conditions which the Africans were faced with on their voyage clearly display the great evil of the slave trade...
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...The Middle Passage was a dark stage of history in which Africans were sent on vessels to America as part of the slave trade. Two particular slaves used these dreadful times to their advantage. Putting their experiences into writing, Phillis Wheatley and Olaudah Equiano wrote tremendously successful literary pieces that shaped the abolition movement. In both Equiano’s narrative and Wheatley’s book of poems, they reflect the similar experience of slavery, which greatly shapes the purpose and style of the author’s pieces. Much like Equiano, Phillis Wheatley was born in an African village. The only good memory recalled of her life in Africa was of her mother performing daily rituals to the rising sun in the mornings. She had the advantage of being purchased by Christian missionaries who were very kind to her. Her owners taught her to read and write, which led her to be the first African American woman to be published as a poet. It also caused her writing to be much more classical with a discreet sense of emotion. She used many allusions and...
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...reassesses the history of slavery. The documentary tells of how slavery was brought to America, and of the conditions under which these slaves were forced to live. The trade that began in Africa was not initially focused on trading humans, but rather on gold. Gradually, the British took control and started trafficking Africans to their colonies in America. The conditions slaves lived under changed drastically from the original conditions when they first arrived to America compared to years after the slave trade had been functioning. This documentary re-examines the appalling social injustice that existed during this time period and how race was associated to such injustice. The African men and women had no idea what their life in America would be like. When the British colonies were first established, white indentured servants were typically relied on to cultivate crops. This labor force consisting of white people soon changed, and the English definition of who could be enslaved changed from non-Christian to non-white individuals. The Portuguese sailed to West Africa seeking gold. Over time, the British took control of the trade in Africa, and the trade shifted from gold to humans. Africans were needed on the plantations in America. The Europeans built factories on the West African coast to hold captives until they were shipped across the Atlantic ocean to America, the voyage called the Middle Passage. Not everyone survived the harsh conditions of the Middle Passage. The surviving Africans...
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...The life of a slave in the West Coast of Africa Slavery was a time when people were treated unfairly and inhuman. Millions of innocent men, women, and children were held captive and died during this time. Slavery started in Africa but it became popular in the West Coast of Africa, where slavery was taking place at its fullest. Even though slavery in Africa was a common way of life for the people that lived there, it was not until the British came to the West Coast is when slavery became an economic interest, and was based on the trade and selling of slaves. Slavery had no age or gender. There were men, women and children and many members of their families that were taken into slavery. Men and young boys were mostly traded off to be sold during the middle passage. They were traded and sold to work in the in sugar “plantations in the Caribbean Brazil and Louisiana” (p. 107, Abina and the important men) were in need of strong healthy men and that were able to bear the harsh conditions of labor. Even though there were healthy young men and others who were young, these slaves were not lasting more than 7 years. They would die, after they died they would soon be replaced by others slaves. During the middle passage, there was an estimation of about 12.5 million Africans sold to be transferred and shipped to the Americas and other regions where labor was in high demand. This transfer and sale of slaves was taking place in the West Coast of Africa, there was an estimation of 74,000...
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