The slaves were transported on Enormous ships called "Guinamen". these ships would travel for months at a time through the entirety of the Atlantic ocean. These ships would consistently bring up to 700 slaves per shipment. These slaves were transported through disgusting conditions. The amount of time that the trips took from one continent to another did not help the slaves situation or the crew members. Slaves would frequently suffocate and or asphyxiate from the positions that they were tied to. They would sometimes die due to disease and starvation or simply just suicide. The slaves would revolt and not eat in rebellion to the white men.
Mean while for the Crew members, they were practically forced to get on these ships and work for the captain. These white men were usually just indebted people or criminals that were largely expendable. these indebted crew members were always in danger on the ships. They were constantly exposed to violence and the threat of death. Some of these threats where just the constant plague of diseases that the white crew members came across on the long trips. There would be feces and all sorts of other garbage in the below decks of the Guinamen. These feces and bodily fluids festered and turned the living conditions in the ship especially worse, cholera and E-coli would run rampant in these ships.
(the slaves were chained up and crammed below deck)
The Captain had his own living quarters, mean while the crew members lived together, and the slaves remained below deck for the entire time that they were on the Guinamen.
Food would occasionally spoil and frequent starvation occurred.
Feeding 700+ people on a ship for 1-2 months proved to be very difficult.
https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/slave_ships_and_the_middle_passage
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/slave-route/transatlantic-slave-trade/
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ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post as it gave me a better insight to what the Transatlantic Trade was and the brutal conditions that the slaves and the crew members had to endure. I didn't know that so many diseases spread on the ships like chorea and e-coli. I also never thought about how much of an issue food would be on the ships but starvation occurred as you mentioned on the ships. I think it would have been really interesting if there was a case where the slaves overtook one of the transatlantic ships as they far outnumbered the crew members and the captain. I decided to do some research and found out that there was a ship called the Claire where slaves drove the crew members and captain off the ship. The slaves landed near Cape Coast Castle and were liberated.
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I found it interesting how you brought to light all of the conditions, as well as the class of people working on a given slave ship, even including those controlling and sailing it, who were also in danger, unlike what many would believe regarding these journeys. I never realized that not only the slaves were in a constant state of danger throughout the trips, but also the crewmen, who oftentimes would be at the risk of illness or experiencing violence, although to a much lesser extent in comparison with the slaves. You also mentioned the presence of various diseases, like e-coli and cholera, which would both be contracted through living in very close quarters, and the consumption of contaminated food and water, circumstances that would be prevalent throughout the ship. After researching more on this topic, I found out that during the 1750s, one in five slaves would die, and they would be thrown overboard promptly after. The ships were simply overcrowded, with the incompetence of the crewmembers, as well as huge amounts of slaves overwhelming supplies and resources, alongside the lack of sanitation leading to such a brutal rate of survival during this era. This, in turn, resulted in more laws and regulations being instituted to better control these conditions on board. Following the 1800s, the mortality rate dropped significantly, declining to roughly one per eighteen slaves dying aboard the ships.
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https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/middle_passage/index.aspx