Editing Middle Passage (section)

{{About|the slave trade route}}
{{short description|Transoceanic segment of the Atlantic slave trade}}
[[File:Kenneth Lu - Slave ship model ( (4811223749).jpg|thumb|[[Slave ship]] model]]
{{Slavery}}
The '''Middle Passage''' was the stage of the [[Atlantic slave trade]] in which millions of Africans sold for enslavement<ref>{{cite book |last1=McKissack |first1=Patricia C. |last2=McKissack |first2=Frederick |title=The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/royalkingdomsofg00patr/page/109 109] |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0805042598 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/royalkingdomsofg00patr/page/109 }}</ref> were forcibly transported to the [[Americas]] as part of the [[Triangular trade#Atlantic triangular slave trade|triangular slave trade]]. Ships departed [[Europe]] for African markets with manufactured goods (first side of the triangle), which were then traded for captive Africans. [[Slave ship]]s transported the African captives across the Atlantic (second side of the triangle). The proceeds from selling these enslaved people were then used to buy products such as [[North American fur trade|furs and hides]], tobacco, [[History of sugar#Sugar cultivation in the New World|sugar]], rum, and raw materials,<ref name=walker>{{cite book |last=Walker |first=Theodore |title=Mothership Connections |year=2004 |page=10 }}</ref> which would be transported back to Europe (third side of the triangle, completing it).

The First Passage was the forced march of Africans from their inland homes, where they had been captured for enslavement by rulers of other African states or members of their own ethnic group, to African ports. Here they were imprisoned until they were sold and loaded onto a ship. The Final Passage was the journey from the port of disembarkation in the Americas to the [[plantation]] or other destination for enslavement into forced labor. The Middle Passage across the Atlantic joined these two. Voyages on the Middle Passage were large financial undertakings, generally organized by companies or groups of investors rather than individuals.<ref name="Thomas 1999">{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Hugh |title=The Slave Trade: the story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440–1870 |year=1999 |location=New York |publisher=Simon & Schuster |page=[https://archive.org/details/slavetradestoryo00thom/page/293 293] |isbn=0684835657 |url=https://archive.org/details/slavetradestoryo00thom/page/293 }}</ref>

The first European slave ship transported African captives from [[São Tomé]] to [[New Spain]] in 1525. [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] and [[Dutch colonial|Dutch]] traders dominated the trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, though by the 18th they were supplanted by the [[British Empire|British]] and [[French colonial empire|French]]. Other European nations involved were [[Spanish Empire|Spain]], [[Denmark–Norway]], [[Sweden]], [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth|Poland–Lithuania]], [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], and various [[Italian city-states]] as well as traders from the [[United States]]. The enslaved Africans came mostly from the regions of [[Senegambia (geography)|Senegambia]], [[Upper Guinea]], [[Windward Coast]], [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]], [[Bight of Benin]], [[Bight of Biafra]], and [[Angola]].<ref name="Lovejoy">{{cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Paul E. |title=Transformations in Slavery |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2000 }}</ref> With the growing [[Abolitionism|abolitionist movement in Europe and the Americas]], the transatlantic slave trade gradually declined until being fully abolished in the second-half of the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Colonial Blackness: A History of Afro-Mexico|last=Bennett|first=Herman L.|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2009|isbn=9780253223319|page=11}}</ref><ref name="EV Wolfe">{{cite book |last1=Wolfe |first1=Brendan |editor1-last=Miller |editor1-first=Patti |title=Encyclopedia Virginia |year=2021 |publisher=Virginia Humanities – Library of Virginia |location=Charlottesville, VA |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/slave-ships-and-the-middle-passage/ |access-date=4 March 2021 |chapter=Slave Ships and the Middle Passage}}</ref>

[[File:MiddlePassageMarker.jpg|thumb|A marker on the Long Wharf in Boston serves as a reminder of the active role of Boston in the slave trade, with details about the Middle Passage.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-23 |title=Boston Slavery Exhibit {{!}} Boston.gov |url=https://www.boston.gov/departments/archaeology/boston-slavery-exhibit |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=www.boston.gov |language=en}}</ref>]]

According to modern research, roughly 15 million enslaved Africans were transported through the Middle Passage to the Americas.<ref>[https://slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates Slave Voyages], Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade – Estimates</ref> They were transported in wretched conditions, men and women separated, across the Atlantic. Mortality was high; those with strong bodies survived. Young women and girls were raped by the crew. An estimated 19% of them died during voyage, with [[mortality rate]]s considerably higher in Africa itself during the process of capturing and transporting the enslaved people to the coast.<ref>Mancke, Elizabeth and [[Carole Shammas|Shammas, Carole]]. ''The Creation of the British Atlantic World'', 2005, pp. 30–31.</ref> The total number of 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 deaths.<ref name=holocaust>{{cite book |last1=Rosenbaum |first1=Alan S. |first2=Israel W. |last2=Charny |title=Is the Holocaust Unique? |date=17 April 2018 |page=132 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780429974762 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PxdWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT132}}</ref> The "Middle Passage" was considered a time of in-betweenness where captive Africans forged bonds of kinship, which then created forced transatlantic communities.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bell |first=Karen B. |title=Rice, Resistance, and Force Transatlantic Communities: (Re)Envisioning the African Diaspora in Low Country Georgia, 1750–1800 |journal=[[Journal of African American History]] |year=2010 |volume=95 |issue=2 |pages=157–182 [p. 158] |doi=10.5323/jafriamerhist.95.2.0157 |s2cid=140985496 }}</ref>