Slave Trade Conditions

The Atlantic Slave Trade conditions were extremely harsh for the slaves. Most of the slaves were African American and of course hated what they had to go through. The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted from the 15th through the 19th centuries, across the Atlantic Ocean. Slaves were chained down in the lower deck where the air was humid and hot. Slaves were put right next to each other with no room to move around. They would get excrements that would leak through the board above the ones on the lower half; they couldn 't help where they were placed throughout the bottom deck. Being a slave during this time was miserable; everyone wanted to die because of it. There were two ways the captains were able to load their boats with slaves. One of the systems …show more content…
Death numbers were important, on a Portuguese ship, usually one hundred out of five hundred died because of unrecorded disease. The most popular diseases were small pox, flux, and scurvy. In order to prevent scurvy, sailors would make the slaves be active by participating in something so called a dance. Sailors would whip at the naked bodies of those who screamed and jumped from the pain of the dance. The chains were left on during the whippings and usually tore away at their flesh. During the 1500s, more than half died on board; during the 1800s that percentage dropped …show more content…
So having food was a big deal to the slaves and captains. Some captains bought a good supply of food hoping that the healthy slaves would be worth as much as the food. But, other captains just wouldn’t buy hardly any food, even if much of their slaves died of starvation. The slaves ate on the deck of the ship. The slaves were taken out and watched very closely, the sailors would feed them and many sailors were there guard them. The sailors guarding would have loaded guns so that slave rebellion didn’t occur. There was a rule on how much food could be brought onto a slave ship but the captains usually ignored this rule. How much water needed on a boat became a rule later on. Water was a problem on the ship, but captains were careful how much water they brought onto the ship. Dehydration occurred often on the ship, but most of the time slaves had enough water. Slaves would drink as much water as they could, more than a normal person would, since it was so hot and humid below the