The Middle Passage and seasoning of enslaved Africans in America

¶ … enslaved Africans. A discussion of mercantilism and triangular trade.

Africa would never be the same after the early sixteenth century, with Europeans poring in and kidnapping large numbers of people. White people intended to use the slaves as a working force on the newly found continent. At the time, black people had been considered to be inferior to whites, unholy and thus undeserving equal treatment.

The passage from the African Continent to the New World had been a living hell for the black people fortunate enough to get there alive. Their torment would not stop at their arrival and, once having landed on the American continent, black people had to go through a series of dehumanizing events.

Europeans had accidentally stumbled on the American continent with Columbus wanting to find an easier route to the Indies. After having explored the new continent, the Europeans had begun to enslave and to exploit the natives. In need for a stronger slave working force, Europeans turned to bringing Africans across the Atlantic into the American territory. One source of African slaves came from the captures they made, another one, richer than the first was supplied by the slave traders in Africa. African leaders had also made profits from the slave trade as they constantly assaulted inland tribes from where they took prisoners. The concept of slavery had changed for the whole world during the period, as slavery had started to be envisioned on a racial concept.

Portugal and Spain had been the first countries to specialize in slave transporting from Africa to America. Observing that the business had been highly profitable, other major European countries had gotten involved. The slaves taken to America had been mainly used to cultivate sugar, which was later taken and sold in Europe. The English had emerged as the main slave traders from Europe after having led several wars against the competing countries.

Europeans only intended to make profits from the sale of black people as slaves. They didn't care much for the well-being of their prisoners and so they decided to fill the boats with as many blacks as they could in order for the operation to be more cost-effective. To the end of the slave trade business, in the early 18th century, sailors called the journey from Africa to America the "Middle Passage." The voyage had been called like this because it had been the middle part of a bigger three-stage journey: from England to Africa, from Africa to America, and then back to England again.

Traders firstly went to Africa to trade in European goods for African slaves. Subsequent to that, the traders transported the slaves to America where they would sell them in exchange for various products such as sugar or tobacco. Later, they would sell or trade the respective products to Europeans. Finally the process would be taken all over again with the traders going back to Africa.

Life had not been easy for the prisoners that survived, as they had been taken over and prepared for their lives as slaves. The operation of preparation had been called "seasoning" and it involved a sort of training process which would make blacks good slaves for the American world.

The main African centers had been found in Senegambia, Sierra-Leone, Oyo, Dahomey, and Benin. The trip from inland towards the ports in which the European awaited for the slaves had also been unforgiving for the prisoners. Captives would have to travel for hundreds of miles while they were tied up in order to prevent them from running away. Many of them died on their way towards the ports.

The time it took for ships to get from Africa to America varied between forty days and six months. The conditions onboard ships had been horrible and prisoners had been packed by ship captains to the last loading limit in order for their profits to grow. Approximately one third from all the black slaves ever to have been captured for the purpose of being sold to Europeans had died on the road in the ships that they had been forced to embark on. Another third of them supposedly died on their way from Africa to America, or during the process of seasoning.