Middle Passage

noun

: the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas

Examples of Middle Passage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In Moreau de Saint-Méry’s telling—which came some 30 years after Makandal’s death—this famous maroon was born in Africa but survived the Middle Passage to end up on the estate of Lenormand de Mézy, in Limbé, in the north of Saint-Domingue, where sugarcane dominated. —Literary Hub, 5 Jan. 2026

The distant memory of the Middle Passage remains. —James Meyer, Artforum, 1 Jan. 2026

Many pictures feature Black subjects swimming or playing in water, a subtle reclamation of a leisure activity that has historically excluded some Black Americans, and a nod to a dark history of the Middle Passage. —Chris Wiley, New Yorker, 20 Dec. 2025

Should the museum maintain the case showing football great Jim Brown’s No. 32 jersey but dismantle the exhibit depicting the horrors of the Middle Passage that brought millions of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to endure centuries of enslavement in the Western Hemisphere? —William C. Hine, Twin Cities, 23 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1758, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

Middle Passage

noun

: the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas