The middle passage Essay Example
The middle passage Essay Example

The middle passage Essay Example

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  • Pages: 4 (1038 words)
  • Published: September 27, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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This was without a doubt the most horrific experience of my life.

We were taken from the shed with chains around our wrists and ankles they had already started to rub. Then we started to walk everyone was walking, the whitemen were shouting, shouting words none of us understood. There were cries coming from the slower children at the back of the line as they were kicked and whipped to speed them up. We were walking for days with the hot sun beating down on us, our clothes so badly ripped we got no protection this only added to our sores.

The chains were tight around our ankles I took small careful steps trying to minimise the pain. I started to think about Africa how we used to play out in the fields with t

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he long grass, running and hiding, all the parties in the evenings with my friends and family then. I felt the whip slash my back between the shoulder blades to speed me up the pain was awful but it took my mind of the soars on my wrists and ankles. We walked for miles it seemed never ending, the more we walked the further the place we were going to seemed away.Then we finally got to water, a lot of water, suddenly I thought about how thirsty I was.

Then in front of my eyes a massive thing floating on the water, It looked amazing but we couldn't stop to admire it we were dragged onto the decks. Above me was this massive sheet of white, then I felt the sharp pain of the whip across my shoulders again. I stumbled over

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the chains that were around my feet and I was shouted at I cried out in pain as the shock of the pain hit me. The Men were taken down into this dark hole in the bottom of the ship and the women and children went down another hole.Some people tried to escape but got whipped and shouted at, they cried out in pain as the whips hit there shoulders, babies and children cried out for there parents as they were taken down into the holdal.

The darkness was shocking, it took ages for my eyes to adjust to the light. I was laid down in this cramped space surrounded by people. I couldn't communicate with them, there was hardly enough room for me to sit up but I couldn't move anyway my chains I could feel them rubbing away at my skin causing flesh to gape out.I couldn't get to sleep that night the people lying next to me were crying out in pain crying for help but no one came I could feel the rats running across my face eating away at the open flesh on my legs and back.

The days went by slowly really slowly. We were kept in the holdal for so long the Stench of rotting corpses around me and the vermin excrement on the floor made me want to cry, cry for the people who have died here, cry for my family who I was sure I would never see again.That day we were taken out on deck. The light hit me like a thousand pins all sticking into my head . As I looked around to try

and see my family I caught sight of a woman her leg had been so badly whipped, it was all infected and had rats eating off of it. The white men were shouting and playing drums trying to make us dance to keep us fit how were we suppose to jump around when the chains round are feet were so tight the skin had started growing over top.

A man came round with a powder, which he put underneath the cuff round our ankles and wrists people were still crying. I was to just looking around at the state of the people and it made me want to cry forever. We were all led back down into the hold the woman with the eating away leg shrieked out in pain as she laid down. The white men that came in with buckets of water and lime juice, poured it across the floor it didn't do much though.

Weeks passed and still we were cooped up in this holdal the stench now had become unbearable the sweat from the people lying next to me, the smell of the rotten sludge they called food the breaths of all the people crying out in pain. We were eventually taken up on deck again the woman with the rotten leg was screaming out in pain my shoulders felt raw I saw the woman next to me had the shoulder bone sticking out I knew this had happened to me. A man came over to me and put some padding on my shoulder this had made the pain ever worse.I joined the cries of the other people as we were led back

down into the holdal.

The woman was kept up on deck then I can remember the scream that was so load you could hear it above the other screams. Then the woman was led downstairs and chucked on the floor she was now legless and in so much pain. I felt the fats all over my body the lice in my hair this was a feeling that I will always remember. Then like a dream we were led up on deck this was only the third time I had gone up on deck I looked but there was no screaming woman she had obversley been chucked over board.We were then scrubbed with brushes with really hard bristles they chucked salty water over us and started to scrub. .

The brush was taking away the loose skin and also the skin that was still attached the water stung so much in my whip cuts. I opened my mouth but no sound came out the men took a few women up into the cabins and led us onto dry land, dry land at last! I felt for the women being raped up on the ship but I was on dry land at last.

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