Analysis on Daniel Mannix’s Article
The Middle Passage By: Daniel P. Mannix and Malcolm Cowley The Middle Passage, a common slave trade route in the late 1700’s, is one of the most horrific icons in world history. This article, written by Daniel Mannix and Malcolm Cowley, gives great information concerning how the slaves got there, the treatment of the slaves, slave behavior, and the voyages. In contrast to popular opinion, the majority of slaves brought to America were sold by other Africans, not captured by Europeans. Many of the tribes in Africa’s economy depended souly on the slave trade to provide income.
Slaves could have gotten on the ship by committing juvenile crimes like stealing to being sold by their own families for a profit. The main source of slaves, though, was inter-tribal wars. The wars produced thousands of prisoners of war who were often captured and sold to the Europeans. Wars would often erupt for the soul purpose of the slave trade. It was a staple in many African economies back then. Once the slaves were sold, they were taken to the ships where the men were shackled twoby-two but the women were allowed to venture all throughout the boat, but usually stayed on deck.
The ship life would best be described as torture. They were forced to live on two meals a day, but only if they were healthy. The sick slaves would not be given food and would often die a slow and painful death. At night, they would be packed into the cargo hold, still shackled, only given about the size of a coffin to sleep. There were no bathrooms on board, so the cargo holds were filth-ridden with human excretion. On a rough night at sea, the slaves would wake up with their skin completely raw from rubbing against the splintered wood all night, sometimes down to the bone. They were treated like caged animals.
There were differing views among slaving captains on how to run their ships. There were the “loose-packers” and the “tight-packers”. Loose-packers often kept their ships clean and did not carry as large of a cargo as to give the slaves more room and freedom. They believed that if the slaves were kept happy, they would not suffer high numbers of fatalities and would return to their ports with healthier slaves to sell. Then there are the tight-packers who would try and fit as many slaves as possible into their ships, giving them very little freedom and often having hundred of fatalities.
Their belief was that if they started with so many slaves, although they would suffer many fatalities, they would return with just as many slaves as the loose-packers. The treatment of the slaves on the tight-packers’ ships was extremely cruel and degrading. Although loss of life was high, the tight-packers’ method was the more favored method of slavetrading. The voyages would last anywhere from 3 weeks to a year. Along these voyages, mutiny erupted, disease spread, and suicide was common. Many of the slaves believed that when they died they would return to their homes so there were many suicides on the ships.
Slaves would be watched carefully to make sure they did not kill themselves but they could not force them to eat, so starvation was a common form of suicide. For the ones who survived the journey, they had a long life of labor and mistreatment to look forward to. They would be sold soon after they landed, the healthy ones going for much higher than the sick ones. After suffering such a long journey, the jubilation of getting off the ship doesn’t last very long, but they were done with the infamous Middle Passage.
