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The Role Of Slaves In The Middle Passage

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The capture in Africa was the beginning of the suffering for the slaves. There were three main methods that the slave traders used to capture slaves which were tricking, kidnapping and buying them from tribe leaders. To trick the slaves, they would use pieces of colored cloth to lead the slaves to the ship. Once they realized what was happening, it was too late to escape. The slave traders also kidnapped the slaves by force and other tribe leaders would capture people from opposing tribes. Those tribe leaders would sell their prisoners to the slave traders for money.

The Middle passage is the journey on board of a slave ship from Africa to the United States. The Middle passage is usually 3-4 weeks long. This journey was very painful because the slaves had little room and little food which made diseases common and spread very quickly. The two leading factors for deaths on a slave ship were starvation (since the food was randomly throw into the crowd from the top) and diseases. The dead bodies would be thrown into the ocean by the Whites. Slaves would also tried to suicide by …show more content…
This is where the slaves were separated from their families. Slaves would get sold at the Auction Block and most of them never saw their families again. Before a slave arrive at the Auction Block, slave traders or slave owners would dress them up nicely, and make them look healthy and strong. They would use methods such as taking meat skin and wiping it all around the slaves mouth, making the slaves look like they have been eating plenty of meat and is in good shape for labor. Before auctioning, the buyers would them the slaves to do movements such as jumping up and down, and opening their mouth to check if the slaves were in good condition. Most slaves were sold 3-4 times in their lifetimes. Some mothers would cheat the Auction Block by killing their babies before the masters had the chance to sell

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