Frances k-t

What was life like in Africa?
Life in Africa was nice, it wasn’t fully of luxurious items or anything but they had all the essentials that they needed.The people in Africa were not originally seen as slaves but more as trading partners because they were originally part of the triangular trade. They also were trading partners with China and Arabia.

How were the Slaves captured?
The slaves were either captured in war, so they were taken as prisoner or they were sold to the people so they could give money to their family. However, others were given in to slavery as to pay a debt or sold as punishment. After they were captured they were attached using shackles and forced to walk along the coast for weeks...sometimes months until they reached the ship.

What emotions did the Slaves experience during and after capture?
When the slaves were being captured they were terrified and scared. But it depends on how they were captured depending on how scared they would be for life, but being captured at all is very frightening; but especially in war it would be more frightening as they would have been fighting which is scary enough as it is. But if they were sold they must of felt hurt or betrayed, but sometimes-whole families were sent out which would make the parent fear for their children.

What were conditions like on the ship?
The conditions on the ships were horrific. They were all kept together in exceptionally small spaces all cramped together so no space would be wasted. The ill were also stored in with the healthy (even though non were very healthy) which shared the illnesses and diseases with everyone. There was also a lack of fresh air as they were rarely allowed above deck, which would cause people to get seasick. There was also a lack of sanitation on the ship, which also made people ill.

What kind of treatment could a slave expect?
Slaves were not treated as proper beings on the middle passage; they were treated as useless inanimate objects, which didn’t do what they were supposed to. They were also seen as a waste of space as shown by the conditions they were kept in. They weren’t given any proper treatment aboard the ship, so when people died they were just thrown overboard.

How were the ships organised?
The ships were organised in a way so that no space was wasted, so everything was very tightly packed in. The ships weren’t organised in a way so that the slaves would easily be able to move around it was more designed in a way so that they could get as mint slaves on-board as possible.

Why would slaves die on the ship?
There are many reasons why slaves died on the middle passage: Illness and disease being spread throughout the ship, people being sea sick or claustrophobic due to the lack of space, people rioting, arguments that lead to murder, punishment and sometimes suicide. It was so bad that around 15% of the slaves died at sea.

What would happen when the slaves first arrived in America?
When the ships reached America the slaves were prepared for sale: They washed, shaved, scrubbed and rubbed them with palm oil to make it look like they had no sores nor wounds caused by the conditions caused on the ship. At the auction is when the families that managed to stay together, and bonds that were formed throughout are also broken up and sold to different people.

What was a slave sale like?
The slaves became more and more expensive as time went on, as there was a very high demand for slaves. There were two types of slaves sales: The first one is the highest bidder which is when the person who bids the highest get that slaves, and the other type is grab and which is when all the slaves are in a line and the bidders grab a slave and then buy it.