The Middle Passage by Charles Johnson

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Recommended: Discussion on the middle passage

In the novel “The Middle Passage” by Charles Johnson, mental slavery is a huge factor that is used throughout the book. Metal slavery is the inability to view events, or one’s self, differently from commonly held beliefs. This explains that if you have heard something that is most likely not true and will not research history on it, but spread it around as if you did thus being ignorant as the person that told you. I think that mental slavery is a terrible thing in the world today because everyone is or was a slave captivated by lies or false accusations. In the novel it was possessed by almost every single character in “The Middle Passage”. Within my essay I will discuss the topic of mental slavery and how it affects four characters that I chose from this inspiring novel .
One of the first people I picked from the novel is Diamelo. Diamelo is one of the Allmuseri that was unknown at first. However, when the rebellion from the slaves happened we could see that he was an important figure as one of the head men. During the rebellion’s planning, Diamelo is one of the only Allmuseri who does not approve of Rutherford being on the inside of the meeting. His cold heart does not try to see the good in Rutherford, even if he is African American, the fact that he is American makes him hideous to Diamelo. All he sees in Rutherford is a pathetic man, because in his cold heart is full of hatred. He has strong hatred for the mere American man. Diamelo is mentally enslaved by hatred. Every since he got locked away on that ship he has hated Americans. He has hated every single person because he was a captured slave. He hated Americans because of the harsh conditions Captain Falcon let the Allmuseri live under. All of the deaths he has beneath t...

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... he finally got off the ship, I hope and assume that he cleared his head and helped himself to exit his entrapment from his old life to a brand new one.
Overall, in the novel “The Middle Passage”, mental slavery is alive in many people. Fortunely, only some people were brought out of their jail cells and were open into a new life, but some will probably be trapped forever. I have mentioned that each character was enslaved in some way and how from in the book. Mental slavery is not a joke and can make or break people. It can change a person and the way their life can turn out for them. Make sure you are not mentally enslaved because it can hurt you now or later.

Works Cited

• Johnson, C. (1990). The Middle Passage. New York, NY Scribner Publishing
• The Anacostia Gazette (2011) Mental Slavery. Ag-east.org. Retrieved from http://www.ag-east.org/achieve/Mslavery.htm

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