The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of Africans[1] were shipped to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade. Ships departed Europe
for African markets with manufactured goods, which were traded for
purchased or kidnapped Africans, who were transported across the
Atlantic as slaves; the slaves were then sold or traded for raw
materials,[2]
which would be transported back to Europe to complete the voyage.
Voyages on the Middle Passage were large financial undertakings,
generally organized by companies or groups of investors rather than
individuals.[3]
The "Middle Passage" was considered a time of in-betweenness for
those being traded from Africa to America. The close quarters and
intentional division of pre-established African communities by the ship
crew motivated captive Africans to forge bonds of kinship which then
created forced transatlantic communities.[4]
Traders from the Americas and Caribbean received the enslaved Africans. European powers such as Portugal, England, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Brandenburg, as well as traders from Brazil and North America, took part in this trade. The enslaved Africans came mostly from eight regions: Senegambia, Upper Guinea, Windward Coast, Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, West Central Africa and Southeastern Africa.[5]
An estimated 15% of the Africans died at sea, with mortality rates considerably higher in Africa itself in the process of capturing and transporting indigenous people to the ships.[6]
The total number of African deaths directly attributable to the Middle
Passage voyage is estimated at up to two million; a broader look at
African deaths directly attributable to the institution of slavery from
1500 to 1900 suggests up to four million African deaths.[7]
For two hundred years, 1440–1640, Portuguese slavers had a near
monopoly on the export of slaves from Africa. During the 18th century,
when the slave trade transported about 6 million Africans, British
slavers carried almost 2.5 million.<span>[8]</span>
