Slavery In The Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was the voyage from Africa to the New World. In this voyage, there were many experiences that the African slaves had that were horrific. In the four stories, there is a lot of information about what these slaves went through on their journey in these ships. As terrible as these stories describe the treatment of the slaves, the information that is provided can not even explain how bad the people were treated. From not enough room to even stand, to being fed almost nothing, these slaves endured some extremely hard times when enduring the Middle Passage. Slaves that were sold in the time of the Middle Passage were sold for many reasons. The first reason someone could be selected to be a slave would be money. Money was very scarce in Africa during that time, and many families would go to great lengths to get some. In the first story “A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea”, the passage states, “And some there are, who will sell their own children, kindred, or neighbours.” This sentence proves that people had no mercy when it came to selling slaves. Slaves …show more content…
These slavers would feed the slaves only twice a day. They got fed once in the morning and one time in the evening. They were fed beans that were boiled down to “the consistency of pulp”. Also, they were fed boiled yams and rice with very little meat. The food that the slaves ate was not the worst part. The worst part is that the slavers put about ten slaves around a little bucket of that food. Then they gave the slaves one wooden spoon each to eat with for the entire journey. If they lost this spoon, they could not eat. The weaker slaves did not get to eat as much as the larger, more intimidating slaves because they all had to try to share a certain bucket of food. The stronger slaves had more control over that food because no one would stop them. Overall, the feeding methods of the European slavers was