Brief Summary Of Rutherford's 'Middle Passage'

Rutherford Calhoun is a man who finds himself being blackmailed into marrying Isadora Bailey. Because of this, Rutherford boards the Republic as a stowaway, which he later finds out is a slave ship. After loading Allmuseri tribespeople, they revolt and take over the ship. Only little crew survive, but they are soon rescued by a ship called the Juno. This book takes place in the 1830’s. On page 1, it states, “Entry, the first June 14, 1830.” During this time period, the Middle Passage took place with slavery and the slave trade. This is where the title “Middle Passage” came from. On page 32, it states that the ship a slave ship. “’Tis a slaver, Mr. Calhoun…” A character strength in Isadora is found on page 20, “There was no hatred in her. Or selfishness. No vanity, or negativism.” Rutherford has a character flaw of

Recently in our history class we also talked about purgatory. On page 65 it states, “The failure to experience the unity of being everything was the Allmuseri vision of Hell. And that was where we lived: purgatory.” So in the book, the Allmuseri were being taken there, which drove them crazy. In class we talked about how people who committed sin went to purgatory to basically pay for their sins.
A relevant quote I found is stated on page 117, “Anger, we say, is like the blade of a sword. Very difficult to hold for long without harming oneself.” I find this quote important because when we get angry, we tend to not think straight which would cause us to harm ourselves and others. Since the blade of a sword is very sharp, if you hold onto it for a long time, it will eventually hurt you. This is a very accurate comparison. Some new history that I learned from this book, is that ships not only picked up slaves, but they also gained other things. Again on page 32, “’Tis a slaver, Mr. Calhoun, and the cargo awaiting us at Bangalang is forty Allmuseri tribesmen, hides, prime ivory teeth, gold, and