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Welcome to Katie and Katie’s podcast on the journey of slave voyages during the transatlantic slave trade. 

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In this podcast, we aim to take you on deck to observe the true narrative of this treacherous sea migration, from the conditions you would expect to see on board ship to the demographic of the passengers that were transported, what has come to be known as the middle passage. 

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First, there are a few keywords to cover to help you understand the podcast. 

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A slave refers to a person who is legally the property of someone else and was bought and sold like an asset. 

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In this context, slaves were taken from West Africa. 

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The term middle passage refers to the journey across the sea that was taken by slave ships heading from West Africa to the West Indies. 

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A merchant ship is a ship that is conventionally used for transporting cargo, but in this case it was used to transport people. 

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So where were these slave voyages taking place, and what would you expect to see if you were to go back in time and witness a dangerous journey for yourself? 

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Let us take you somewhere hot, the West African Gold Coast, to be more specific. 

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This was where captured Africans were bundled tightly into cramped merchant ships, just like any other consumable cargo laid to be taken to the West Indies to be sold as slaves on plantations. 

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In this episode, we're excited to share the first hand account of a slave known as Olaudah Equiano, whose written work was published after he was able to save up to buy back his freedom from his last master. 

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Now, Olaudah’s story is unique and valuable to historians as it offers a first hand account of being captured on the coast of Africa and being loaded onto a slave ship, the dangerous and infamous middle passage journey. 

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But before we get into Olaudah’s story, it should be good to give some context as the conditions aboard these slave ships. 

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Slaves who are to be transported to the West Indies would expect to live in tight, cramped conditions where it be easy for diseases to spread. 

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Therefore, this meant that the mortality rate of captured slaves was incredibly high. 

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The spread of dysentery among slaves during the voyage was exacerbated by congestion and poor nutrition. 

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So why did slave merchants force such horrendous conditions upon captured Africans? 

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The grim answer is that these merchants expected and accepted that some of their captors would die during the voyage, but that a large number had also survived the voyage to bring them a high income once the slaves were delivered to the auction houses on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. 

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The ship's hold was usually only five feet high, sometimes with a shelf running around the edge to carry yet even more enslaved Africans. 

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People were loaded in so close together that one caption described them as being like books on the shelf. 

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An admissible account from a particular merchant slave ship known as the Edgar, which arrived off the Gold Coast in 1681 with the capacity to carry 320 slaves over to the West Indies, describes a first hand account of the conditions that were present on deck. 

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Every new delivery of captives added via flavor of sweat, urine and excrement that painted the decks where the captives lay. 

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Each new body required space where now none was left to be had. 

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Olaudah Equiano wrote his personal experience of being a slave in the West Indies and America in his famous autobiography. 

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Roughly six months after being abducted at Creona was brought to the coast, where he encountered a slave ship and white men for the first time. 

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As it was for all slaves, the middle passage for Equiano was a long, arduous journey. 

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A section from his autobiography details Equiano's Tail flying first hand experience being on the slave ship crossing the middle passage. 

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Now that the whole ships cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential, the closest of the space, and the heat of the climate added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated, or this produced copious perspiration's. So there soon became unfit for respiration. 

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From a variety of lobes and smells. 

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And brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victim to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchases. 

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So, Katy, why was there such need for slaves to be shipped to the West Indies? 

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A very good question. While the transatlantic slave trade was largely based on upper and middle class demand for coffee, sugar and other goods, the demand was so vast that it led to the transportation of roughly 12.5 million slaves across the Atlantic. 

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In the period spanning 1501 to 1875. 

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Now imagine the conditions described by the witness on board the early slave ship, the Edgar, in 1681. 

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But now imagine this in months on end. 

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The grueling journey across the Atlantic took many months. 

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The Edgar took over three months to make its way along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe and down the coast of Africa to reach its destination. 

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Death and disease were all around the slaves, watching those they boarded with, dying before them, and wondering what their fate was to be both on board. 

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And upon arriving at their destination. 

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It is important to imagine the slave ships accurately and therefore understanding the demographic is important. 

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An interesting way to look at the middle passage is through the lens of gender. 

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The importance of gender can sometimes be forgotten. 

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This could be a unique and interesting area to focus on in any essays you may write relating to the topic. 

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The gender demographic aboard slave ships were weighted towards men, with men outweighing women almost 2 to one. 

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Men were seen as more desirable, as the hard labor of transatlantic slavery created a preference for male physiques. 

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Males willingly used in the Continental African slave trade as domestic and sex slaves as the 18th century came along. 

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They were, however, desired as breeders. 

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Those women who did enjoy the slave ships were subject to assault and abuse, leading to many of them to take their own lives by jumping overboard. 

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The gender demographic is definitely something to remember when trying to imagine life on board the ship and when writing about the middle passage. 

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Once again, we asked you to imagine life on board a middle passage slave ship. 

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Under these living conditions and treatment, it is hard to believe that slaves would not react. 

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Contrary to common assumptions, the narrative of the oppressed being subdued and accepting of his treatment is largely false. 

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On middle passage slave ships, one in 10 voyages was affected by revolt, violence, slaves fought back against oppressors, and many jumped overboard, drowning themselves, rather than enduring the suffering of middle passage or in protest. 

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Slave traders. 

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Witnesses of these rebellions are useful in trying to imagine life on board a slave ship. 

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John Casanova was first mate aboard the London slave ship in 1700. He witnessed captive slaves armed themselves and attacked the crew with knives. 

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The slaves were able to kill one member of the crew with 14 or 15 stab wounds, injured a maintenance crew members leg see that was unable to move and finally injured. 

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3 sailors throw one of them overboard. 

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The rebellion was violently suppressed, but the slaves fought back, with many drowning themselves. 

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When looking at the middle passage in this way and the capture of African people, the rebellions remind us that many fought back and that the slaves resisted their capture, which is often largely left out of history books. 

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Now that we have taken you on a trip of what it would have been like to endure the slave trips across the Atlantic, we will finish off the podcast by testing your knowledge of what we've just learned. 

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Can you remember how many women compared to men, traveled on the middle passage slave ships? 

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Well done. 

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If you said 2 to one, the transatlantic slave trade was predominantly dominated by men. 

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How many slaves were transported across the Atlantic in the period of 1501 to 1875? 

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Well then if you said roughly over 12.5 million. 

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How long did the voyage across the Atlantic take? 

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The voyage took many months. 

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In some cases. 

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One of the earliest slave ships, the Edgar, took over three months to reach its destination. 

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How many slaves did Edgar have the capacity to carry over to the West Indies in 1681? 

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Well done. The answer is 320 slaves were tightly packed onto merchant ships. 

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Thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcast. 

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I hope you enjoyed your brief lesson and now feel more confident in understanding what the middle passage was and the impact it had on so many lives.