Life on board slave ships
Slave ships spent several months travelling
to different parts of the coast, buying their cargo.
The captives were often in poor health from the
physical and mental abuse they had suffered.
They were taken on board, stripped naked
and examined from head to toe by
the captain or surgeon.
Conditions on board ship during the Middle Passage were terrible. The men were packed together below deck and were secured by leg irons. The space was so cramped they were forced to crouch or lie down. Women and children were kept in separate quarters, sometimes on deck, allowing them limited freedom of movement, but this also exposed them to violence and sexual abuse from the crew.
The air in in the bottom part of the ship where people were held was foul and disgusting. Seasickness was common and the heat was oppressive. The lack of sanitation and suffocating conditions meant there was a constant threat of disease. Epidemics of fever, dysentery (the ‘flux’) and smallpox were common. Captives endured these conditions for about two months, sometimes longer.
In good weather the captives were brought on deck in midmorning and forced to exercise. They were fed twice a day and those refusing to eat were force-fed. Those who died were thrown overboard.
The combination of disease, very little food, rebellion and punishment took a heavy toll on captives and crew alike. Surviving records suggest that until the 1750s one in five Africans on board ship died.
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