Tom Feelings The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black Cargo English 12: African Heritage Modified by Jim Turner from Kelly Curran’s original.

Tom Feelings -1933-2003 Tom Feelings was born in New York, where he worked as an art teacher and illustrator. In the 1960s he worked as an artist in Ghana, and explored his heritage in the illustrations of The Middle Passage.

“In humankind’s shameful history of forced migration, the journey of the Africans from their bountiful homeland to the slave markets of the New World is one of the most tragic. It is a story that can never be told in all its gruesome details. It is estimated that ten to twenty million arrived in the New World alive, to be then committed to bondage. “ (cont)

Slave Coffle

Of the countless number of Africans ripped from the villages of Africa – from the Senegal River to Northern Angola – during nearly four centuries of the slave trade, approximately one third of them died on the march to the ships and one third died in the holding stations on both sides of the Atlantic or on the ships.

Cape Coast Castle Ghana Gate of No Return Cape Coast Castle Ghana There were many “Gates” of no return in different slave trade ports

Cape Coast Castle, Senegal Another “Gate of No Return”

Goree, Dakar, Senegal Another “Gate of No Return”

If the Atlantic were to dry up, it would reveal a scattered pathway of human bones, African bones marking the various routes of the Middle Passage.” Tom Feelings

Map of the Atlantic Slave Trade from 1450-1850 http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade/collection/large/G009.JPG Copyright 2008, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and University of Virginia

The Atlantic Slave Trade of Triangular Trade began in the early 1400’s The Atlantic Slave Trade of Triangular Trade began in the early 1400’s. Portuguese traders were the major players. South America or Spanish America was the destination The Dutch, British and French slavers played a larger part during the period from 1600-1700. and South America was the primary destination. In the 1700-1800’s, the Spanish, Dutch, British, and French were bringing thousands of slaves to the Americas, with only a small portion going to British North America as the plantation system grew. It was based on growing indigo, rice, and tobacco. During the 19th Century (1800’s) cotton plantations became a larger part of the plantation system in North America. As the slave trade was gradually outlawed, North Americans depended on slaves born into slavery, instead of taken from Africa. Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807, as did the United States in 1808. The Netherlands followed in 1814, France in 1815, Spain in 1820.

Choose one of the images before you Choose one of the images before you. Be prepared to present the following to the class: What was your initial reaction to this image? Draw attention to specific details in this work of art. What do you believe to be the “message” or theme of this work of art? What emotion is meant to be evoked by this drawing? Creative Response - give this drawing an appropriate title or compose a few brief lines of poetry in response to this work of art.