The Middle Passage: Below Decks on a Slave Ship

The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History · Jul 6, 2026 · 8m · transcript

In this episode of The Atlantic Slave Trade, Lucas and Luna descend into the hellish reality of the Middle Passage. Drawing on slave ship logs, surgeon's journals, and the testimony of Olaudah Equiano, they explore the brutal logistics of human cargo: how captains packed their holds, the arithmetic of profit and cruelty, the constant threat of disease and rebellion, and the psychological terror that defined the crossing. They examine the slave ship Brookes diagram that shocked Britain, the infamous roll of the slave ship Zong, and the little-known 1734 slave revolt aboard the Rhode…