Alexander Falconbridge, The African Slave Trade(1788)
             Alexander Falconbridge was a surgeon on several of the slave ships that sailed from Africa to Europe. In this document Mr. Falconbridge describes the living conditions that the African people had to endure during the middle passage from Africa to Europe. What he describes is horrifying and yet insightful about the way the African people were treated and handled. His account of the horrors of the journey became very influential among the English abolitionists.# At some point later Mr. Falconbridge was named Governor of a colony of freed slaves in Sierra Leone, Africa.
             It was known by the slave traders that sometimes before the African people could reach the auctions, some of them would die from cruelty, lack of food, and a number of other things. The African people were bought at auctions that dealt with the selling of humans. The African people were bought by black slave traders in Africa. After they wee purchased they were taken to the slave ships in canoes. In these canoes they were made to lie down with their hands tied and were kept a close eye on. The food portions that the African people were given were so small that that it was barely enough to keep a person alive. In these canoes, the people were exposed to the rain, and lying at the bottom of canoes( which leak), the African people were hardly ever dry.
             After the African people reached the slave ships they were divided up. The men were placed in one room and fastened together two by two, with handcuffs on their wrists and irons riveted to their legs. The men were then sent below decks to a room partitioned off for them. The women were sent to a separate room, however they were not handcuffed together. The boy children were sent to a different room on the same deck essentially giving the men, women , and boys their own apartments. However, the living quarters were so tight that a person could only lie on his/he...