Captive Passage
has been made
possible in part by:

Recognition of
additional sponsors
for this exhibition
can be found by
clicking on
ExhibitionSponsors.

This Web site
was written by:

Mark Arduini
Bill Cogar
Kim Gove
Anna Holloway
Julia Hotton
Anne Marie Millar
Tracey Neikirk
David Rieger
Rhonda Todd
Barbara Wright
Randy Wyatt

Special thanks to
Joan Allison
for her assistance
in compiling
the Bibliography.

Arrival: Life in the Americas

Whole World

Once arrived in the Americas, most Africans were sold several times before reaching their final destination, often hundreds of miles away. The majority ended up on plantations, particularly in the Caribbean. Large numbers also worked in mines, in towns, and in the countryside. Many had been skilled craft workers in Africa and were put to work as carpenters, metalworkers, watch smiths, gun makers, coopers, and sailors. As slave owners established households, women were brought in from the fields to take on duties as servants, nurses, dressmakers, and cooks.

View of the Port Antonio in the Parish of Portland, Jamaica

Slaves also changed the landscape. They cleared forests, shaped fields, constructed roads and buildings, and dug canals. They created the environment--and the wealth--that allowed their owners and their families to flourish.