The Middle Passage Analysis

1667 Words7 Pages
The Middle Passage Ellie Devine The conditions on the slave ships were horrifying. Throughout the past lessons we have been focusing on the middle passage. In this particular paragraph I will be examining the conditions on the ship. Using source A I have noticed several things. The first of these is the fact that all the slaves are lying down. Studying the photo in more detail, you can tell that they are all lying on their backs, meaning this particular image is showing a loosely packed ship. I think the artist decided to show a loosely packed ship instead of a tightly packed ship to show that even though there are less people and there is more space to move, it is still incredibly claustrophobic and dense. I think another reason a tightly…show more content…
The first of which is that, even though they both acknowledge the fact that the slaves are washed, they didn’t go into detail. The truth was that the slaves were splashed with salt water from the sea. No soap, scrubs or fragrances, just salt water splashed onto painful and open wounds, often making them infected. Another lie I have noticed is the fact that Source B says ‘several meals a day’. This is incorrect as the slaves only got one meal a day, two if they were lucky enough. Focusing on the word ‘meal’ it suggests that this was an elegant dinner of fine cuisine, but we know from research that it was mainly stale bread and watery, cold soup. Where the writer states the ‘quarters were perfumed’ is almost humorous. To begin with, ‘quarters’ suggests the slaves had private rooms shared with 4 or so other people, but I know that all the slaves were kept cramped together in one huge area underneath the ship. Secondly, ‘perfumed’ is rubbish! The ships were renowned for smelling so bad in the hold. This smell was the mixture of blood, excrement, vomit and body odour. The slave traders/crew avoided going under deck at all costs, so to lie and say that the ‘quarters were perfumed’ was awful and hypocritical. Why would the traders/crew go below deck if they hated all those there and only if they had to? They would never offer to ‘perfume’ the room, they hated the slaves and wanted them to suffer as much as possible without them dying and one way was for them to stay in their own rotten
Open Document