The Atlantic slave trade, also known as the trade cycle, which "involved the human trafficking of black people to the colonies" became vital to the colonial economy ( “American Yawp”). These slaves were primarily captured on “the west coast of Africa, the Gulf of Guinea, and the west-central coast” (“American Yawp”). Millions of African slaves were forced across the Atlantic to the New World in a horrific journey known as the Middle Passage. On the first part of the journey, traders brought goods to Africa in exchange for slaves; it was a “land voyage” consisting of delivering slaves to the coast. In the “middle” section, slaves were transported to America on an ocean voyage. According to the accounts of Olaudah Equiano, a survivor of the journey, he wrote that the journey was terrifying and resulted in the deaths of millions of Africans. This was due to the barbaric conditions inside the ships, the spread of disease, and brutal treatment, which caused some slaves to escape such situations by committing suicide ("American Yawp"). According to Alexander Falconbridge, African slaves were treated disastrously; they were crowded into a limited space and lay in “a pool of excrement”. “Dysentery” was the greatest cause of death during this journey. Cruel means, such as whipping, were used by ship crews to