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Excerpt from "A Supplement to the Description of
the Coasts of North and South Guinea"

Published in A Collection of Voyages and Travels..., 1732
Compiled by Awnsham Churchill

One of the most frequently used terms in the vocabulary of slavery is "Middle Passage." This is a reference to the triangular route employed by most slave ships, the middle part of which was the voyage from Africa to the New World. Ships would sail from Europe to West Africa, where they would pick up slaves; then from Africa to the Americas, where they would sell the slaves for goods such as corn and tobacco; and then from the New World back to Europe, where they sold the products.

If one forgets for a moment that slavers were trafficking in human lives, and instead views this arrangement in pure business terms, it makes sense: rather than send empty ships on a transatlantic voyage, European merchants...