Sometimes referred to as the "Black Holocaust," the Middle Passage was the nightmarish journey slaves took from Africa to the New World. No one knows how many people made this journey nor how many died along the way. It was common to have a 50% or more mortality rate on these ships. Slave boats were notoriously foul, and it was said you could smell a slave ship from several miles away.
Slave ships were designed to hold human cargo, chained together in several levels of the hold. There were no windows down there. There were no bathrooms. Vomit, urine and feces flowed like waves over the enslaved. The rocking of the ship among the waves cut into flesh and tore at bones.
Click on the images below to see aspects of the Middle Passage:
Slave ships were designed to hold human cargo, chained together in several levels of the hold. There were no windows down there. There were no bathrooms. Vomit, urine and feces flowed like waves over the enslaved. The rocking of the ship among the waves cut into flesh and tore at bones.
Click on the images below to see aspects of the Middle Passage:
The Middle Passage was the middle leg of a complex economic trading system. This was known as the "Triangular Trade" and was essential to the economic success of the New World colonies, which needed the labor for sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations.
The people who were brought from Africa and sold in the New World were stripped of their cultures. They were forbidden to speak their African languages. They were punished if they said their African names. They were given new names and were bought and sold at will. Families were broken apart and children sold from their mothers' arms.
Most African-American people today cannot trace their ancestry beyond the Middle Passage. Their ethnicities and culture have been lost to history. They do not know their family names. Most people who voluntarily made the journey to the Americas can trace their names to the old country. Africans-Americans, for the most part, cannot. After slavery was abolished, many newly freed slaves simply took the names of the families who once owned them. Some made up their own names.
Today, the majority of African Americans are about 75% African and 25% European or other ethnic groups. But those percentages vary widely.
Today, there are companies that can help descendants of slaves try to figure out the ethnic groups to which they belong. But that process can be very expensive.
Click on the links below to learn more about DNA testing companies:
African Ancestry
Family Tree DNA
Ancestry DNA
Most African-American people today cannot trace their ancestry beyond the Middle Passage. Their ethnicities and culture have been lost to history. They do not know their family names. Most people who voluntarily made the journey to the Americas can trace their names to the old country. Africans-Americans, for the most part, cannot. After slavery was abolished, many newly freed slaves simply took the names of the families who once owned them. Some made up their own names.
Today, the majority of African Americans are about 75% African and 25% European or other ethnic groups. But those percentages vary widely.
Today, there are companies that can help descendants of slaves try to figure out the ethnic groups to which they belong. But that process can be very expensive.
Click on the links below to learn more about DNA testing companies:
African Ancestry
Family Tree DNA
Ancestry DNA