Slave traders captured and sent an estimated twelve and a half million Africans to the Americas in what is known to many as the Middle Passage. Perhaps less known is the Second Middle Passage of the domestic slave trade in the United States. In this lesson, students analyze a series of documents to answer the question: Why do historians refer to the slave trade within the United States as the Second Middle Passage?
[Teacher Materials and Student Materials updated on 9/27/22.]
Image: Photograph of pen used for holding enslaved people before auction in Alexandria, Virginia. From the Library of Congress.