Category: The Middle Passage

“Every morning, perhaps, more instances than one are found of the living and the dead fastened together.” John Newton – Slave Ship Captain After several voyages, Newton quit the slave trade, became a minister, and wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” with its autobiographical line “…that saved a wretch like me.” THE MIDDLE PASSAGE © TOM… Continue reading Middle Passage 3A

“…the average voyage took from five to twelve weeks.” The triangular trade system was so named because the ships embarked from European ports, stopped in Africa to gather the captives, after which they set out for the New World to deliver their human cargo, and then returned to the port of origin. The Middle Passage… Continue reading Middle Passage 2

INTRODUCTION DR. JOHN HENRICK CLARKE Nowhere in the annals of history has a people experienced such a long and traumatic ordeal as Africans during the Atlantic slave trade. Over the nearly four centuries of the slave – which continued until the end of the Civil War – millions of African men, women, and children were… Continue reading Introduction