The Middle Passage :: essays research papers

Most history books has preserve that between the years 1701-1760, millions of Africans were literally stolen away from their native lands leaving butt their families, work, heritage, and e reallything that was familiar to them. Robbed of their independence and hu human raceness they were reduced to cargo. This was what the Middle Passage too known, as the Slave Triangle was all about the traffic of goods and commodities among continents including the trading of black hands, women and children who were treated like property.The first leg of the journey was from Europe, chiefly Portugal to Africa. Many of the goods produced in Europe were not available in Africa or America. The Europeans traded manufactured goods, including weapons, guns, beads, cowrie shells (used as money), cloth, horses, and rum to the African kings and merchants in return key for gold, silver and slaves. Africans were seen as very hard workers who were skilled in the neighborhood of agriculture and cattle farming. They were also used to the extreme temperatures that people of transport complexions could not bear. T here had always been slavery in Africa amongst her own people, where men from different tribes/villages would raid other villages to kidnap the women for their pleasures, and the men to use as slaves. To learn that they could actually profit from this activity made the job of getting slaves very easy for the Europeans. Slaves acquired through raids, were transported to the seaports were they were help prisoner in forts until traded. at a time the goods were off loaded in Africa and the slaves loaded, the second leg of the journey carried slaves across the Atlantic Ocean to the North Americas (the new world).It is prudent to speak here to the inhumane way in which the slaves were transported during this first leg of the journey. The trading of slaves was very lucrative for the Europeans. As it goes in business, the higher the demand, the larger the quantities supplied. All the slaves were brand to show to whom they belonged, and the male slaves were shackled together and packed in the hole out like sardines, while the women and children were sometimes allowed to stay on deck.Any acts of trespass by the men or women resulted in severe beatings to discourage the behavior. speak out being beaten and shackled with a rival tribe man or not being able to communicate with the person beside you because you some(prenominal) spoke different languages