Captive Passage - Departure
The Mariners' Museum
The Transatlantic Slave Trade QuizResourcesSponsorsHome
IntroductionDepartureMiddle PassageArrivalAbolitionLegacy

Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas
Interior to the Coast

Captive Passage
has been made
possible in part by:
National Endowment for the Humanities
Recognition of
additional sponsors
for this exhibition
can be found by
clicking on
ExhibitionSponsors.

DepartureDeparture from AfricaWest Africa Before Slaving
Contact Between Europeans and AfricaThe Enslavement of AfricansResistance and Endurance

Interior to the Coast

The East Prospect of Capecoast Castle
The East Prospect of Capecoast Castle
While we were going to the vessel, our master told us all to appear to the best possible advantage for sale. I was bought on board by one Robertson Mumford, steward of said vessel, for four gallons of rum, and a piece of calico, and called VENTURE, on account of his having purchased me with his own private venture. Thus I came by my name.
Venture Smith, from A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America. Related by Himself (1798)

Untitled
Untitled
As the slave trade grew, traders used a complex network to tap deeper and deeper into the African continent. Traders would shackle the slaves to prevent their escape, then force-march them overland from their homelands or ferry the captives down rivers via canoe. This journey often lasted weeks or even months. Perhaps as many as half died on these forced marches. Those too ill to continue were killed outright or simply left to die.

The East Prospect of Capecoast Castle
The East Prospect of Capecoast Castle
Most of the captives went through many owners before arriving on the coast. Once there, the survivors were imprisoned in the numerous European slave-trading forts that ran along Western Africa's Gold Coast. Elsewhere they were kept at work or penned up in baracoons to await transportation across the Atlantic.
 
 

The Transatlantic Slave Trade Quiz | Resources | Sponsors | Home
Introduction | Departure | Middle Passage | Arrival | Abolition | Legacy

Age of Exploration Make some discoveries of your own in this guide to 1000 years of maritime exploration. learn more USS Monitor: History and Legacy This Civil War ironclad was a technological marvel; explore her continuing story. learn more Chesapeake Bay: Our History and Our Future From the Powhatan Indians to modern shipbuilding, explore the character of the nation's largest estuary. learn more Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas They arrived in chains, but their contributions have forged new links in the history of the Americas. learn more Battle of the Atlantic: Allied Naval Intelligence in World War II While German U-boats wrecked havoc on merchant shipping in the Atlantic, Allied intelligence worked diligently to break the enemy's communication codes. learn more Birth of the Navy Follow the US on its journey to becoming the world's leading naval power. learn more Women and the Sea She used to remain on shore, but today, she captains the ship. learn more [ Navigation Bar ]

Copyright © 2002 by The Mariners' Museum