ABSTRACT
The Middle Passage, the name for the transatlantic route that carried slaves from the west coast of Africa to the Americas, was notorious for its brutality, being the engine by which human beings were transformed into commodities in the minds of slavers and purchasers alike. Alexander Falconbridge, who served on slave ships as surgeon during the 1780s, turned his back on the trade and joined the abolitionist cause. He gave testimony against the slave trade, and also wrote a book, excerpted as Document 1, about the horrifying conditions that slaves suffered aboard ship.
