The Middle Passage was the second leg of the triangular trade: the journey that carried enslaved Africans from the coast of West Africa to the Americas. Ouidah, as the principal embarkation point on the Slave Coast, fed hundreds of thousands of captives into this brutal system. Understanding the Middle Passage from Ouidah means understanding the scale of the human tragedy that unfolded from this small coastal town.

The journey

After being marched to the beach and forced through the surf into waiting canoes, captives were rowed out to slave ships anchored offshore. The ships could hold anywhere from 200 to 600 people, packed into holds with barely enough room to lie down. The crossing to Brazil took about 30 to 40 days. The crossing to the Caribbean took longer, sometimes up to 10 weeks.

Conditions on board

Conditions were brutal. Captives were chained in pairs, packed spoon-fashion, and allowed on deck only in small groups. Disease was rampant. Dysentery, smallpox and fevers killed thousands on every voyage. The mortality rate averaged 10 to 15 percent, meaning that of every 100 people who left Ouidah, 10 to 15 died before reaching the Americas. Their bodies were thrown overboard.

Legacy

It is estimated that more than two million captives were embarked from the coast of Benin, with Ouidah as the single largest port. The Middle Passage did not just transport people. It transported cultures, languages, religions and knowledge. The Vodun practised in Ouidah today is directly connected to the Vodou of Haiti, the Candomble of Brazil and the Santeria of Cuba — living proof that the Middle Passage carried more than bodies.

Learn more about the Middle Passage and Ouidah's role in the slave trade at Ouidah Origins.