African Americans During The Middle Passage

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Through the 17th and 18th time period, it was common for African men, women, and children to be taken from their homes and sold to be a slave. They were compelled by Europeans to sail to North America. Africans experienced atrocious treatment from the whites on this journey, and were then sold as slaves to the Americans. This duration was known as the Middle Passage, one of the three passages of the Atlantic Trade System. On this excursion, the crowd of defenseless, scared Africans were physically abused, intellectually victimized, and handled like cargo.
During the Middle Passage Africans were physically abused. This included being beaten, whipped, and raped. The white Europeans had advantages over the Africans, meaning they were superior and could do what they want to them. For one to be beaten was very common at that time. Europeans beat the Africans because they felt it was needed in the situation and
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Due to this it was common for the crew to rape the women. They were scared, panicked, and petrified. Being raped stripped the woman from their dignity, self respect, and virtue. The crew raping the women showcased how badly the Africans were treated. Being so vulnerable and already scared made it so easy for the Europeans to frighten the Africans. Because the Africans had no power all they could do was stay put and be scared. Thomas Phillips was a slave-ship captain. He wrote an account of his activities in A Journal of a Voyage in 1746. “...to terrify the rest…”(Source A). Thomas Phillips suggested that the crew was determined to scare the Africans and but them through agonizing time. Sometimes the crew would do things just to make the Africans scared. Terrorizing the Africans was cruel and displayed how bad they were treated. As one can see, being mentally abused as Africans were defined how bad the Middle