The Abolition of The Slave Trade

Rugendas, Johann Moritz, Voyage pittoresque dans le Brésil. (created 1835)

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture / Photographs and Prints Division

ID# 485325

The Middle Passage

At the outset of the illegal period, owners used smaller, faster vessels than previously, and they increased the number of captives per ton. After 1850 much larger vessels came into use and the people per ton ratio fell once more. Shipboard mortality increased in the illegal phase of the traffic.