Resources for Chapter 2 – The Middle Passage
Opening Hook
Stowage of the British Slave Ship Brookes under the Regulated Slave Trade Act of 1788
loc.gov/pictures/item/98504459/
Documents
Document 2.1 – Atlantic slave trade timelapse video and database
Document 2.2 – Captain Robert Norris’s Logbook 1769
Document 2.3 – Olaudah Equiano’s slave narrative
Document 2.4 – Joseph Cirque and the Amistad rebellion
Document 2.5 – The Creole rebellion
Document 2.6 – An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa by Alexander Falconbridge
Check for Understanding
slaveryimages.org/database/image-result.php?objectid=1177
Additional Resources
Books
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery
Siddharth Kara, 2025
View on Amazon
The Zorg tells the shocking true story of the 1781 slave ship Zorg, whose crew threw more than a hundred enslaved Africans overboard when supplies ran dangerously low. The owners then filed an insurance claim, triggering a court case that questioned whether enslaved people were cargo or human beings.
Rebellious Passage: The Creole Revolt and America’s Coastal Slave Trade
Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie, 2019
View on Amazon
Rebellious Passage recounts the 1841 revolt aboard the slave ship Creole, the most successful slave uprising in U.S. history. Kerr-Ritchie situates the event within the broader context of America’s domestic coastal slave trade.
The Slave Ship: A Human History
Marcus Rediker, 2008
View on Amazon
This book reconstructs the world of the Atlantic Slave Trade by centering the lived experiences of enslaved Africans, sailors, and captains aboard slave ships.
Museums and Collections
International Slavery Museum
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/international-slavery-museum
The museum provides digital exhibits, a virtual tour, and educational resources about the transatlantic slave trade and its legacy.
Slave Voyages
https://www.slavevoyages.org
SlaveVoyages.org offers searchable databases documenting tens of thousands of slave ship voyages and provides interactive maps and visualizations.
Documentaries and Films
Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North
PBS/POV, 2008
https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/tracesofthetrade/
This documentary follows the descendants of the DeWolf family, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history, as they confront their ancestors’ role in the Atlantic slave trade.
Sankofa
Negod Gwad Productions, 1993
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108041/
This film tells the story of an African American woman who is spiritually transported back in time to experience slavery on a plantation.
Amistad
DreamWorks Pictures, 1997
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/
Steven Spielberg’s historical drama depicts the 1839 revolt aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad and the legal battle that followed.
Glossary
- abolitionist
- A person who worked to end slavery.
- agency
- The ability of individuals or groups to act independently and make their own choices.
- Atlantic Slave Trade
- The forced transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.
- cargo
- Goods or people transported by ship; enslaved Africans were dehumanizingly referred to as cargo.
- fetters
- Chains or shackles used to restrain prisoners or enslaved people.
- hold
- The lower interior part of a ship where cargo, including enslaved people, was kept.
- insurrection
- An organized act of rebellion against authority.
- Middle Passage
- The brutal sea voyage that transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.
- mortality rate
- The proportion of deaths within a population during a specific time period.
- primary source
- An original document or firsthand account created during the time being studied.
- rebellion
- Open resistance against authority or oppression.
- slave castles
- Fortified structures on the African coast where captured Africans were imprisoned before transport.
- uprising
- A sudden act of resistance or revolt.
- vessel
- A ship used for transportation across water.