Question

What is the second middle passage and why was it important to the African-American experience?

Answer 1

• After the Middle Passage and its circular trans-Atlantic trajectory bringing slaves from the coast of Africa to Brazil, the Caribbean or the United States, before circling back to Europe with goods and then Africa to start over again, the Second Middle Passage refers to the domestic slave trade as a second forced migration within the United States.
• Two and a half times more African Americans were directly affected by the second Middle Passage than the first one.It marked an uptick in the scale and brutality of American black slavery, and meant that some of the new states became slave states. It established the principle that the slave economy was capable of spreading into new states, and thus gave the sides in the Civil War something extra to fight over: the future of the West.
• The second stage of the transatlantic slave trade was also called the Middle Passage.The Middle Passage was a horrifying experience for slaves headed to the Americas. Slaves were quartered on ships for up to two months and treated as cargo. They were often chained in shackles and kept below deck where they had to lay down because there was less than three feet of height. Indeed, the years between 1830 and 1860 were the worst in the history of African-American enslavement.
• There was never enough food or fresh air for the slaves. Many of the slaves died of starvation and disease. Some were so tortured by the trip that they threw themselves overboard. The floors where the slaves were kept were usually covered with excrement and blood.
• Around the mid 1800’s tobacco had drained all the nutrients out of the soil and plantation owners like the Cameron’s moved west with the expansion of cotton. Most of the slaves that were sent west were did so with slave traders. Very rarely did slaves travel west with their families and owners.
• Most slaves were forced to walk across the south, chained together. They were devoid of human interaction. The death rate was lower on this second middle passage than it was on the passage across the Atlantic but it was still higher than the death rate at that time.
• The internal slave trade became the largest enterprise in the South outside of the plantation itself, and probably the most advanced in its employment of modern transportation, finance and publicity.
• The slaves were not fed enough, they were not given clean water nor were they allowed to rest enough on their long journey. Once they arrived in this new land they had to farm a new crop. They were working longer hours with more back breaking labor. They had lost all semblance of a life they had had back east.