Questions:
Significance of the Trans-Atlantic moment in the making of the Atlantic African Diaspora between the 15th and 19th centuries
Experiences and reactions of captured Africans in the Middle Passage during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The Middle Passage refers to the voyage made by slaves and their slaveholders between Africa and the Americas between the 15th and 19th centuries. The Middle Passage became infamous not so much because of the journey itself but rather due to the inhumane treatment that the slaves underwent. To the seamen, the slaves were just another consignment of cargo to be delivered to their buyers. The slaves were cramped in small spaces with limited food and water, disease prevalence and inevitably death became the norm rather than the exception. In fact, some historians estimate that upwards of four million slaves lost their lives during these voyages. The Middle Passage became a conduit of slaves to the Americas but to a majority of the slaves, of death and misery.
The horrors of the slaves begun even before they were boarded the ships. They would be violently captured by chiefs, kings and warlords and forced to take long treks from the interiors of West Africa to the seaports for collection. Some spent days even months on slave docks awaiting collection. Once the slave ships arrived, they were sold off sealing their fates and condemned to the misery of the Middle Passage.
Conditions in the ships were deplorable. Once inside, many were branded with hot iron for numbering and for identification. Driven by the desire for profits, the seamen packed many of them in limited spaces. Men were chained together to save space and for security reasons. Women and children were not chained but even they did not have any space. The cramped spaces meant the air was filthy, which was made worse as they were often kept below the deck.
Diseases and death occurred more often during the voyage. Most of the slaves were fed once a day on a diet of corn and rice (all carbohydrates) leading to malnutrition. Water was also rare. As a result, instances of dysentery and other related diseases were high. Meals became even scarcer as the journey progressed due to limited storage spaces. It was worsened due to the long periods the voyages, which often took over six months. Mortality rates were high as there was little or no medical attention at all given to the slaves. The corpses were thrown off into the sea though it often took the crew time to do this as they disliked being in the slave chambers. It serves as an illustration of just how deplorable the conditions were below the decks. It was not uncommon for some of the slaves to remain chained to a corpse for hours even days on end.
The seamen used harsh punishments against the slaves to stem descent or whatever they perceived as indiscipline. The most common form of punishment was caning. It was used even in instances where the slaves were merely requesting for essentials such as food and water or calling for help in case of illness. This inhumane treatment resulted in some incidents of attempted rebellion, which were rarely successful as the leaders of such were often killed and thrown into the sea. Some ships were also manufactured with special prison-like facilities to separate the slaves in case of an attempted rebellion. In the ships, natural occurrences such as pregnancies were severely punished. Once these women gave birth, the babies would be killed and thrown into the sea. It was to ensure that the women fetched a good price and to reduce the nuance of catering for newborn babies. In some instances, the crew used rape against women as a tool of punishment.
Most could not cope with the distress. As such, suicide rates were high. Some accounts of slaves show that some of the bumped their heads against blunt metal objects until they died.
However, the most common means of suicide was self-starvation. With time, the crew realized this and resorted into torturing the slaves until they ate. Those that could not eat were force fed by using speculum orum, which kept their mouths open during feeding. It was because the slave traders needed them alive and healthy as they could fetch better prices for them this way. Others opted to throw themselves into the sea and drown though with time, the crew developed measures to counter the same by having nets all-round the ships.
The most severe was the psychological torture that these slaves underwent. The inhumane nature of the seamen allowed them to rape freely the women and using some of them as harlots. Incidents of food scarcity and slow voyages resulted in some of the slaves being thrown overboard. Sometimes, these cruel acts were undertaken merely as a show of dominance by the crew. The situation was also compounded by the fact that a majority of the slaves did not have a common language. As such, on top of the physical mistreatment, the psychological burdens that these slaves bore were unimaginable.
In conclusion, the Middle Passage sealed the fate of many Africans. It condemned them to long treacherous journeys into an unknown land shepherded by white people who were strangers to them. The voyages were made worse by the inhumane conditions in the ships certainly made worse by uncaring seamen. The conditions were so deplorable that to many, death became a better prospect. There were however even deprived the chance of committing suicide leaving a majority with no option other than to painfully wait for their unknown fates.
Significance of the Trans-Atlantic moment in the making of the Atlantic African Diaspora between the 15th and 19th centuries
The Atlantic African Diaspora grew overwhelmingly over the course four decades due to slave trade. Africans, more so from West Africa, were shipped to the western world to act merely as sources of labor. However, their captors unwittingly led to the creation of the largest Diaspora population to be found anywhere in the world at the time. Many of them continued with the propagation of their populations through birth, therefore, further increasing their numbers and almost all of them never to return home.
The background to the creation of the Atlantic African Diaspora is the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. However, the enslavement of Africans had begun even before the 15th century. A small number of them had been shipped to Europe and the Middle East. Improvements in technology (better ship design and more successful exploration) led to the explosion in slave trade. The Portuguese were the first to expand their territories into Africa and were followed suit by other European powers. The increased clamor for labor came with the discovery of the Americas. The Europeans intended to expand agricultural production in the newly found lands. There were however shortages in labor owing to small number of Europeans and natives.
Africans presented the best opportunity to deal with the labor shortage. It was due to a multiplicity of reasons. The Europeans viewed Africans as inferior to them; they also presented slave traders an opportunity to make money and most importantly, they acted as a source of free labor. It, therefore, led to onset of the largest ever-recorded forced migration of any human population. While there is no agreed figure on the number of Africans forcibly moved, many
estimate that tens of millions were shipped to Europe and the Americas as epitomized by the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.
The Trans-Atlantic slave trade had a devastating impact on Africa. The loss of a huge population especially those able to work led to the continent’s underdevelopment and as such more vulnerable. It made the continent to become an easy target during the frenzy in the scramble for Africa and the subsequent colonization. The domination by European powers ensured that the trading of slaves from Africa continued to flourish.
The huge number of African slaves shipped to Europe and the Americas played a key role in the shaping of the population dynamics of these regions. That was especially the case in the Americas as it was the destination for most of the slaves during the Middle Passage. The Europeans had also created huge plantations in the recently discovered Americas and as such, the demand for labor was high. It was filled by the African slaves who ended up contributing huge proportions of the populations in these areas. It is especially the case in Brazil, Haiti and Louisiana where there were huge sugar and tobacco plantations. In some of these areas, nearly all of the occupants were Africans. Over the four centuries, their populations grew through the continuation of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as through birth.
In conclusion, it is evident that Trans-Atlantic slave trade had the effect of establishing a huge community of Africans in the Americas and Europe. Whether this was intended or not remains a subject of debate. However, what is clear is that it had the effect of permanently altering the demographics of these regions.
Bibliography
Randy, Sparks, 2014. Where the Negroes Are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade. The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 71, No. 3, pp. 479-483 Published by: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture DOI: 1 0.5309/willmaryquar.71.3.0479 Retrievedhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5309/willmaryquar.71.3.0479
Segal, Ray, 1995. The Black Diaspora: Five Centuries of the Black Experience Outside Africa. New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
