middle passage

American  

Or Middle Passage

noun

History/Historical.

1. the part of the Atlantic Ocean between the west coast of Africa and the West Indies: the longest part of the journey formerly made by slave ships.

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middle passage British  

noun

1. history the journey across the Atlantic Ocean from the W coast of Africa to the Caribbean: the longest part of the journey of the slave ships sailing to the Caribbean or the Americas

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Etymology

Origin of middle passage

First recorded in 1780–90

Example Sentences

It switches between a ghostly, vaporous beat and a hectic middle passage filled with sampled and pitched-up voices and clattering percussion.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

During the deadly "middle passage" across the Atlantic, palm oil was a valued food that kept captives alive.

From Salon • Jul. 4, 2021

Upon disembarking, Africans who survived the horrors of the middle passage were sold to English buyers or to foreign traders looking to acquire slaves for transshipment to Spanish America.

From Slate • Jul. 28, 2020

But in the next breath, he noted the “indignities, dehumanization and atrocities” of the middle passage, which he said his own ancestors survived.

From Washington Post • Aug. 24, 2019

I go back and take the middle passage.

From "On the Far Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George