"transatlantic passage"

[Wilson Gray]

FWIW, I agree with Dave, but I haven't checked to be sure.

-Wilson

On 4/27/06, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "transatlantic passage"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I thought it was "middle passage" that referred to the slave trade, a
> reference to the middle leg of the triangular trade route. The OED3 has a
> cite as early as 1788.
>
> Google gets 217 hits for "transatlantic passage" + slave + trade, compared
> to some 138,000 for "middle passage" + slave + trade.
>
> --Dave Wilton
>   dave at wilton.net
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of
> Arnold M. Zwicky
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 1:35 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: "transatlantic passage"
>
> this seems to be query day...
>
> in discussions at the Stanford Humanities Center of a fellow's
> presentation on John Singleton Copley's "Boy With a Squirrel", the
> question came up of who was the first to use the term "transatlantic
> passage" with reference to the slave trade (or, at least, when and in
> what context did it become a standard way of referring to the
> carrying of slaves across the atlantic).  not in the OED, so far as i
> can tell.
>
> (yes, it's relevant to the painting.)
>
> arnold
>
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