Explain The Conditions Of The Transatlantic Slave Trade

The Conditions of the Atlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic Slave Trade began in the 16th century and ended in the 19th century. It is also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and it was a time where slave merchants brought enslaved Africans mainly to the Caribbean and Brazil, but some were also brought to the English colonies. Slaves were brought over to the Americas by ships. The conditions of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the ships were very bad for the slaves. They were treated terribly, and it affected the rest of their lives. Slaves were packed onto the ships in two different ways. The first way was called the loose packing system. This was where captains shipped fewer slaves to reduce the amount of diseases and deaths among the slaves. The second way was call tight packing. This type of packing, was where captains believed the more slaves they had, the more profit they would make. So they packed as many slaves as their ship could carry. When the slaves were in the ships, they were chained up from their ankles to their wrists. Because of this, they had little to no space to move. …show more content…
Some ship captains didn’t provide any kind of hygiene. Other captains would place buckets for the slaves waste, but they would never have one bucket for each slave. If the slaves were close to it, they would use the buckets. However, the slaves that were far away would fall on top of others while trying to reach the buckets. Some of the slaves that weren’t close to the buckets would just get rid of their waste where they were laying. Also, slaves were only washed every once in awhile. Finally, the ship was so hot and humid that the floors were covered with layers of filth during most of the