the journey begins in africa quizlet

If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser.

World History Project - Origins to the Present

Course: world history project - origins to the present   >   unit 6.

• WATCH: The Lives of Nailers in Industrial England
• WATCH: Cleaning Water Pollution in the Industrial Revolution
• WATCH: A Victorian Laundry Room and Washing Machine
• READ: The Rise of the West?
• READ: European States and Empires
• READ: Qing Dynasty
• READ: Ottoman Empire
• READ: Mughal Empire
• READ: Tokugawa Shogunate
• READ: Sub-Saharan Africa
• READ: Americas in 1750
• READ: Oceania and the Pacific in 1750
• READ: Italian Nationalism - A Point of View
• READ: Bismarck and German Nationalism
• READ: Economic and Material Causes of Revolt
• READ: Capitalism and Slavery
• READ: Imperialism and De-Industrialization in India
• READ: Industrialization and Migration
• READ: Meiji Restoration
• READ: The Emergence of Industrial Capitalism
• READ: Appraising Napoleon

READ: African Resistance to Colonialism

• READ: The Berlin Conference
• READ: Innovations and Innovators of the Industrial Revolution

African Resistance to Colonialism

• Most resistance wasn’t really aimed at something big and abstract like “colonialism.” Instead, acts of resistance were usually prompted by some new colonial policy – like taking away land, or forcing people to pay a tax, or forcing them to work for free on roads or railways.
• Most people under colonialism lived their lives normally until a policy like this came about. Then they resisted the policy as much as possible. But whether they won or lost, they returned to their lives as best as they could afterward.
• Most resistance is invisible to us today. It didn’t take the form of big battles or dramatic campaigns. It happened when workers slowed down their work, or people gave fake directions to visiting colonial officials and got them lost, or clerks sabotaged or lied on forms. Things like this don’t often appear in documents or records, but they probably happened a lot.

The Battle of Adwa

Samori ture, conclusions, want to join the conversation.

• Upvote Button navigates to signup page
• Downvote Button navigates to signup page
• Flag Button navigates to signup page

What Is the Middle Passage?

The History of the Trade of Enslaved People Across the Atlantic

 Bettmann/Getty Images

• The Institution of Slavery & Abolition
• The Black Freedom Struggle
• Major Figures and Events
• Important Figures
• Civil Rights
• Segregation and Jim Crow
• American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
• European History
• Latin American History
• Medieval & Renaissance History
• Military History
• The 20th Century
• Women's History

• Ph.D., Ethnomusicology, University of California Berkeley
• M.A., Ethnomusicology, University of California Berkeley
• B.M., Music, Barnard College

The “Middle Passage” refers to the horrific journey of enslaved Africans from their home continent to the Americas during the period of this transatlantic trade . Historians believe 15% of all Africans loaded onto these ships did not survive the Middle Passage—most died of illness due to the inhumane, unsanitary conditions in which they were transported. 

Key Takeaways: The Middle Passage

• The Middle Passage was the second leg of the triangular trade of enslaved people that went from Europe to Africa, Africa to the Americas, and then back to Europe. Millions of Africans were packed tightly onto ships bound for the Americas.
• Roughly 15% of enslaved people didn't survive the Middle Passage. Their bodies were thrown overboard.
• The most concentrated period of the triangular trade was between 1700 and 1808, when around two-thirds of the total number of enslaved people embarked on the Middle Passage.

Broad Overview of the Middle Passage

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, 12.4 million Africans were enslaved by Europeans and transported to various countries in the Americas. The Middle Passage was the middle stop of the "triangular trade": European ships would first sail to the western coast of Africa to trade a variety of goods for people who had been captured in war, kidnapped, or sentenced to enslavement as punishment for a crime; they would then transport enslaved people to the Americas and sell them in order to purchase sugar, rum, and other products; the third leg of the journey was back to Europe.

Some historians believe that an additional 15% of the 12.4 million died before even boarding these ships, as they were marched in chains from the point of capture to the western coasts of Africa. Approximately 1.8 million enslaved Africans, never made it to their destination in the Americas, mostly because of the unsanitary conditions in which they were housed during the months-long journey.

Around 40% of the total enslaved population went to Brazil, with 35% going to non-Spanish colonies, and 20% going directly to Spanish colonies. Less than 5%, around 400,000 enslaved people, went directly to North America; most U.S. captives passed first through the Caribbean. All the European powers—Portugal, Spain, England, France, the Netherlands, and even Germany, Sweden and Denmark—participated in the trade. Portugal was the largest transporter of all, but Britain was dominant in the 18th century.

The most concentrated period of the triangular trade was between 1700 and 1808, when around two-thirds of the total number of enslaved people were transported to the Americas. Over 40% were transported in British and American ships from six regions : Senegambia, Sierra Leone/the Windward Coast, the Gold Coast, the Bight of Benin, the Bight of Biafra, and West Central Africa (Kongo, Angola). These enslaved Africans were taken primarily to British Caribbean colonies where over 70% of them were purchased (over half in Jamaica), but some also went to the Spanish and French Caribbean.

The Transatlantic Journey

Each ship carried several hundred people, about 15% of whom died during the journey. Their bodies were thrown overboard and often eaten by sharks. Captives were fed twice a day and expected to exercise, often forced to dance while in shackles (and usually shackled to another person), in order to arrive in good condition for sale. They were kept in the hold of the ship for 16 hours a day and brought above deck for 8 hours, weather permitting. Doctors checked their health regularly to make sure they could command high prices once they were sold on the auction blocks in the Americas.

Conditions onboard were also bad for the poorly paid crew members, most of whom were working to pay off debts. Although they inflicted violence upon enslaved people, they in turn were treated cruelly by the captains and subject to whipping. The crew was tasked with cooking, cleaning, and guarding them, including preventing them from jumping overboard. They, like the captives, were subject to dysentery, the leading cause of death on these ships, but they were also exposed to new diseases in Africa, like malaria and yellow fever. The mortality rate among sailors during some periods of this trade was even higher than that of captives, over 21%.

Resistance by Enslaved People

There is evidence that up to 10% of these ships experienced violent resistance or insurrections by enslaved people. Many committed suicide by jumping overboard and others went on hunger strikes. Those who rebelled were punished cruelly, subjected to forced eating or whipped publicly (to set an example for others) with a "cat-o'-nine-tails (a whip of nine knotted cords attached to a handle)". The captain had to be careful about using excessive violence, however, as it had the potential to provoke larger insurrections or more suicides, and because merchants in the Americas wanted them to arrive in good condition.

Impact and End of the Middle Passage

Enslaved people came from many different ethnic groups and spoke diverse languages. However, once they were shackled together on the ships and arrived in the American ports, they were given English (or Spanish or French) names. Their distinct ethnic identities (Igbo, Kongo, Wolof, Dahomey) were erased, as they were transformed into simply "Black" or "enslaved" people.

In the late 18th century, British abolitionists began inspecting the ships and publicizing details of the Middle Passage in order to alert the public to the horrific conditions aboard and gain support for their cause. In 1807 both Britain and the U.S. outlawed the trade of enslaved people (but not enslavement itself), but Africans continued to be imported to Brazil until that country outlawed the trade in 1831 and the Spanish continued importing African captives to Cuba until 1867.

The Middle Passage has been referenced and reimagined in dozens of works of African American literature and film , most recently in 2018 in the third highest-grossing movie of all time, Black Panther .

• Rediker, Marcus.  The Slave Ship: A Human History . New York: Penguin Books, 2007.
• Miller, Joseph C. "The Transatlantic Slave Trade."  Encyclopedia Virginia . Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2018, https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Transatlantic_Slave_Trade_The
• Wolfe, Brendan. "Slave Ships and the Middle Passage."  Encyclopedia Virginia . Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2018, https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/slave_ships_and_the_middle_passage
• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• Images of Enslavement and the Slave Trade
• What Was the Triangle Trade?
• How Many Enslaved People Were Taken from Africa?
• African Traders of Enslaved People
• A Short History of the African Slave Trade
• The Transatlantic Slave Trade: 5 Facts About Enslavement in the Americas
• Origins of the Trans-Atlantic Trade of Enslaved People
• Five Common Stereotypes About Africa
• The Role of Islam in Slavery in Africa
• Timeline of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• Events and Legacy of the Amistad Case of 1840
• International Trade of Enslaved People Outlawed
• The Untold History of Native American Enslavement
• Profile of Prince Henry the Navigator
• A Brief History of the Age of Exploration

In Their Footsteps: Human Migration Out of Africa

Paul Salopek is an award-winning journalist and National Geographic Explorer, who is following the footsteps of our ancestors out of Africa. As he walks, Salopek is documenting the places he travels, the people he meets, and telling the stories of our human history, from the very earliest humans to our more recent past.

Anthropology, Archaeology, Geography, Human Geography, Social Studies, World History

Salopek and Hessan

Picture of Paul Salopek and guide Ahmed Alema Hessan outside of Bouri

Photograph by John Stanmeyer/National Geographic

Paul Salopek is an award-winning journalist and National Geographic Explorer. He is also a walker. And he is on a very long walk. One that will last at least 10 years. One some of our human ancestors took about 60,000 years ago, by some estimates. In 2013, Paul Salopek set out to walk the path some of our ancestors walked when they migrated out of Africa. He has named his expedition the Out of Eden Walk. His route will take him from Ethiopia to the Middle East, through Central and Southeast Asia, and across China. The land bridge our ancestors used to cross from Asia to North America has long since disappeared. So Salopek will take a ship across the Pacific Ocean. He will then walk through the West Coast of the United States and Mexico. He will cross Central America to South America and walk along its western coast to Tierra del Fuego—the southernmost tip of the continent. Just as some of our ancestors did, Salopek will travel mostly along the outside edges of the continents, near oceans, and seas. As he walks, Salopek is documenting the places he travels and the people he meets. Salopek is also telling the stories of our human history, from the earliest humans to our more recent past. Some of the places he has walked through have clues that can help us understand early humans and our even-earlier hominin ancestors . In the Beginning Salopek chose Herto Bouri, Ethiopia, for the starting point of the Out of Eden Walk. This desert site is a good place to start retracing the steps of early humans. It is the location of the 160,000-year-old Herto man fossil . Herto man is thought by many scientists to be the oldest fully recognizable, modern human ever found. It is one of the paths believed to have been taken by some of our early ancestors from Africa to Europe and Asia. Fossil evidence shows that these early humans made crude stone tools. They also possibly had rituals for their dead. Herto man is proof that modern humans ( Homo sapiens ) lived in Africa at least 160,000 years ago. And they seem to have stayed there for a long time. Though it is unclear when some modern humans first left Africa, evidence shows that these modern humans did not leave Africa until between 60,000 and 90,000 years ago. Most likely, a change in climate helped to push them out. Experts suggest that droughts in Africa led to starvation , and humans were driven to near extinction before they ever had a chance to explore the world. A climate shift and greening in the Middle East probably helped to draw the first humans out of Africa. Food Is Life The finding and processing of food was very important to our human ancestors . It isn’t surprising that they made tools to help them with this task. Gona, in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia, is the earliest known stone tool site. It is littered with artifacts of 2.6-million-year-old tools. The tools found at Gona were crude, sharp objects. They weren’t made by the modern humans such as Herto man. Instead, they were created by earlier hominins . And they weren’t used to hunt the antelopes whose fossils are found scattered nearby. Scientists do not think these early hominins were brave hunters. Instead, they were likely scavengers . They used their tools to cut up carcasses and break bones to get to the nutritious bone marrow . Scientists do not know for sure how much meat these early toolmakers ate or if they cooked it. But it is likely that most of their food was plants. Settling Down Early humans were mobile. They were hunter-gatherers . But about 10,000 to 13,000 years ago, something changed. In a valley called Wadi Natuf in what is now the West Bank, in the Palestinian territories, some humans stopped their roaming and settled down in one place. They developed tools to harvest the abundant local grains. Eventually, these Natufians began to grow food instead of just gathering it. The concept of claiming land was born. The change from hunting and gathering to farming had advantages for early humans. With greater food availability, some humans were able to focus time on doing activities other than looking for food. It also enabled the establishment of larger groups of humans. But there were also disadvangtages. Mass outbreaks of infectious diseases , like today’s flu, were one of the by-products of human settlement. Large groups of people gathered in one place made it easier for disease to spread. New Understandings If you are interested in human migration , as Paul Salopek is, Dmanisi, Georgia, is an interesting place to be. A bridge between Europe and Asia, the site has been a popular crossroads for almost two million years. The evidence is in layers of archaeological remains. The 1,400-year-old remains of the medieval city of Dmanisi are found in the top layer. Below that are the remains of a 5,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement. And below that? The 1.8-million-year-old fossil remains of one of our early ancestors . They are among the earliest hominin remains found outside of Africa. These fossil remains really captured Salopek’s interest, and he visited the nearby National Museum to see them for himself. The skulls found at Dmanisi are important. Finding them changed scientists’ understanding of human evolution. The fossils showed a mixture of features from three different hominin species. This helped scientists to better understand how these species related to each other. Even more importantly, one of the skulls showed the earliest known evidence of compassionate behavior. The skull belonged to an older man. His jawbone showed that he had only one tooth while he lived. Almost two million years ago, he would not have been able to survive on his own without teeth. Yet, his bones show that he lived for years after losing them. This tells scientists that someone—another hominin —had bothered to take care of him. Something in Common The Out of Eden Walk will take Salopek at least 10 years and 33,796 kilometers (21,000 miles). He will cross five continents and more than 30 countries. Along the way, he will encounter many different languages, ethnicities, and cultures. He will hear stories from thousands of people. But everyone he talks to, from the nomadic Afar herders in Ethiopia, the refugees in Turkey, and the policeman in Pakistan, all have something in common. They share some of the same ancestors. Salopek walks the route some early humans took as they migrated out of Africa. And every person he meets along the way can trace their own ancestral path back there.

Media Credits

The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

Expert Reviewer

Production manager, last updated.

February 9, 2024

User Permissions

For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service .

Interactives

Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.

Related Resources

Paris 2024 Olympic flame begins journey to France

The three-masted ship set sail from Greece's largest port 90 days before the opening ceremony of the Games on July 26.

In addition, French organizers are eager that the Olympics will inspire and help "engage more youth in sport," he said.

The Olympic flame for Paris 2024 began its journey from Greece's Piraeus port to France on Saturday on board the French ship Belem.

It was the first time in the history of the Games that the Olympic Flame has been transported by sea.

Belem, launched in 1896, the same year the first modern Olympics was hosted in Athens, carries the flame in a lantern.

After crossing the Mediterranean, it is scheduled to reach the port of Marseille on May 8 to kickstart the second leg of the torch relay.

The Greek leg of the torch relay started on April 16 from Ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympics 2,800 years ago, where the flame was ignited next to the stadium where ancient athletes competed.

In an official handover ceremony held on Friday at Panathenaic stadium, the venue of the 1896 Games, Tony Estanguet, president of the organising committee of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, received the flame.

"We are looking forward to welcoming the world," Estanguet said on Saturday shortly before carrying the flame on board Belem.

The 2024 Olympic Games, hosted by France a century after the first time the country hosted the Olympics, will place an emphasis on sustainability and gender equality, he said.

The Games will end on August 11, to be followed by the Paralympics, but after the curtain falls, Parisians will have a clean river Seine to enjoy and new facilities, he told Xinhua of the Paris Olympics' legacy.

Estanguet also sent a message for the Olympic Truce. "Athletes are the best ambassadors of peace," he said.

"The Olympic flame is a symbol of the Olympism, carrying the values of peace and unity," French Minister for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Amelie Oudea-Castera told Xinhua on Saturday in front of Belem.

Olympias, a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme (three-rower) vessel, escorted Belem and the flame to the exit of Piraeus port, as spectators waving French flags wished good seas and best success to the Paris Games.