Middle Passage

The forced Atlantic voyage of enslaved Africans to the Americas, part of the transatlantic slave trade. Captives endured confinement, disease, violence, and high mortality aboard slave ships.

Slave ship: A vessel used to transport enslaved people, especially across the Atlantic. Its layout and operation confined captives during the crossing.
Transatlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic for enslavement in the Americas. The Middle Passage was its central ocean-crossing stage.
Olaudah Equiano: An abolitionist and writer whose autobiography describes his enslavement and Atlantic crossing. His first-person account conveys fear and conditions aboard a slave ship.
African diaspora: The worldwide communities descended from African peoples dispersed through migration, including forced migration. The Middle Passage forcibly created enduring African-descended communities across the Americas.
Brooks (slave ship): A British slave ship whose 1788 plan depicted densely packed captives on its lower deck. Its widely circulated diagram made the trade’s shipboard confinement visible.
Atlantic slave trade in Brazil: The large-scale forced importation of enslaved Africans to Portuguese America and independent Brazil. Brazil received more enslaved Africans than any other destination in the trade.
Ottobah Cugoano: A Ghanaian-born abolitionist who wrote against the slave trade after being enslaved and transported to the Caribbean. His testimony linked personal experience of the crossing to abolitionist argument.
African-American culture: The diverse cultural traditions and practices developed by people of African descent in the United States. Its formation reflects survival, adaptation, and creativity after forced Atlantic migration.
Stowage of slaves: The arrangement of enslaved captives in a ship’s hold for an Atlantic crossing. Packed arrangements increased confinement and exposure to illness.
Portuguese colonization of the Americas: The establishment and expansion of Portuguese rule in the Americas, especially Brazil. Plantation labor demand there drove extensive voyages from African ports.

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