Don Wildman

But what brings that free labor across the ocean, tragically, is what's called the Middle Passage.

The forced transportation of enslaved people from Western and South Central African coast, often working through intermediaries, these slave factors or traders, they were called, of course, worked for companies.

And they placed these folks captive onto these slave ships under the most horrific and lethal conditions.

We should describe this experience.

How long were they held before they were put to sea?

I'm being glib when I say that.

I agree with you.

Sure.

I mean that to put the onus on those who are using these people for their own good.

Of course, free labor becomes another term later on.

Yes, it was a dehumanization, a conscious dehumanization of these individuals.

The voyage would take up to two months.

And by middle passage, we're talking about a triangle, basically, that there is a... This is the second leg, right, of what essentially is this whole economic diagram.

How so?

Where is a good part to place the story of American slavery in this in this paradigm?

I'll be back with more American history after this short break.

This is the cash crop of Jamestown at that time.

That, of course, will spread far and wide in different kinds of efforts, like in rice and, of course, in cotton later on.

This begins what becomes the plantation system of production through the 1600s, spreading upwards to the Chesapeake.

The rise of rice, as I say, down in South Carolina depends on the landscape and the geography.