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Unit 1 Slaves for Plantations
Listening Comprehension
From the late 1500s to the early 1800s, European nations ran a huge number of plantations,
farms that relied on slave labor, in the New World. While this took place in almost every
European colony, it was most common in Caribbean islands like the Bahamas. It was on these
islands then the European ran their sugar cane plantations. Highly profitable for the plantation
owners, sugar cane was the backbone of the slave economy, but it took a terrible toll on the
African slaves who actually did the work. For a slave, being sent to a sugar plantation was
practically a death sentence.
To make up for the high death rate among their slaves, the Europeans had to constantly
bring new slaves from Africa. This led to one of the most horrible aspects of slavery in the
Americas, The Middle Passage. After slaves were bought or captured in Africa, they had to be
transported by ship to the Americas. This trip was known as the Middle Passage.
Packed side by side on a slave ship, the slaves were kept in chains for the entire duration of
the trip, which could last anywhere from one to six months depending on the weather. They
were fed just enough food to keep them alive. This served two purposes. Not only did it allow
slave traders to keep their costs down, the near starvation of the slaves also kept them so
weak that they had little chance of resisting during the Middle Passage. Under such horrible
conditions, it is not surprising that the death rate on the Middle Passage was often higher than
the death rate on the plantations themselves. It is estimated that of the 20 million slaves
taken from Africa, nearly half of them died before they ever reached the Americas.
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Listening Comprehension
From the late 1500s to the early 1800s, European nations ran a huge number of plantations,
farms that relied on slave labor, in the New World. While this took place in almost every
European colony, it was most common in Caribbean islands like the Bahamas. It was on these
islands then the European ran their sugar cane plantations. Highly profitable for the plantation
owners, sugar cane was the backbone of the slave economy, but it took a terrible toll on the
African slaves who actually did the work. For a slave, being sent to a sugar plantation was
practically a death sentence.
To make up for the high death rate among their slaves, the Europeans had to constantly
bring new slaves from Africa. This led to one of the most horrible aspects of slavery in the
Americas, The Middle Passage. After slaves were bought or captured in Africa, they had to be
transported by ship to the Americas. This trip was known as the Middle Passage.
Packed side by side on a slave ship, the slaves were kept in chains for the entire duration of
the trip, which could last anywhere from one to six months depending on the weather. They
were fed just enough food to keep them alive. This served two purposes. Not only did it allow
slave traders to keep their costs down, the near starvation of the slaves also kept them so
weak that they had little chance of resisting during the Middle Passage. Under such horrible
conditions, it is not surprising that the death rate on the Middle Passage was often higher than
the death rate on the plantations themselves. It is estimated that of the 20 million slaves
taken from Africa, nearly half of them died before they ever reached the Americas.
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