By the mid-17th century a profitable slave trade had evolved between the west African coast and the Americas, especially the sugar islands of the West Indies. Dutch, Portuguese, and later New England slavers would carry slaves from Africa to the Americas providing labor for the French and British sugar plantations. Ship captains consulted special books advising on the most profitable method of packing slaves below deck in their cargo holds. The illustration above is taken from one of those books.
The dense packing of human cargo as shown in the illustration resulted in problems that could cause serious illness and death for the captive Africans. What were these problems and how did the captains attempt to mitigate the death toll among their human cargo?
One of the major problems that this, for the lack of a better word, formation, would have faced was diseases caught by the lack of a hygienic environment.The conditions of these slave ships were not at the least hygienic and catching a disease would have been easy given the literally close knit packing of the slaves. However, if this disease was contagious, such a method of packing slaves will ensure that about every slave will incur the same disease. In a face of such a situation, the captains may have attempted to get rid of the person who is the initial source of the disease, or those who are fatally affected by it in attempt to mitigate the death toll, and hope that most of the slaves reach the Americas breathing so that they could be sold for some price.
ReplyDeleteCaptains of slave ships needed to bring as many slaves as they could to the Americas in order to ensure a profit. A problem that plagued many slave traders was the desire to commit suicide by the slaves. Living conditions on the ships were so bad that most of the time the slaves were lying in their own bodily functions for weeks and even months. There was also a lack of food and water, and disease was a problem as well. All these factors contributed to the slaves desire to commit suicide. Many Africans would jump overboard and drown themselves in order to rid themselves of their misery. Many more slaves would have done this if the Captains had not added nets around the side of the ship to prevent them from jumping.
ReplyDeleteA large problem that affected many slave ships was how to feed everyone. Many captains were stingy about the cost of food and did not care if some of their cargo should die of starvation, just as long as they didn't have to pay too much to feed them. Other captains thought that it would be worth it to feed their cargo, thinking it might drive up the slaves' prices. But no matter how often the captains had their 'cargo' fed, there was the shared problem of how to feed them amongst the slave ships. Some ships would distribute food to the slaves by means of armed guards. Allowing them to fight over what was distributed and attempt to feed themselves in their chained states. Other ships would take small groups of slaves undeck with armed guards, feed them, then bring them below deck again. As the later of these two methods was healthier for the slaves as they weren't eating food that would have been exposed to the unhygienic state of the lower decks, many captains chose the former so as to get the most for their money. In the case of feeding the slaves, many captains were inhumane and did not care about their cargo.
ReplyDeleteIn the mid-17th century boats were not very well cleaned so rats and other species roamed the ships for food and shelter. While the slaves were being shipped they were placed in the cargo holds where those species lived. The slaves would be stored with all of the rat feces which was highly infective and caused many diseases. Many passengers would also get sick from rat or bug bites. Without the help of good food and nourishment the sick passengers would almost never recover. The captains would try to separate the weak and ill but the disease spread to fast sometimes could not be stopped before it infected the whole cargo.
ReplyDeleteGrant
In the mid-17th century there were many issues for captive slaves on the voyage to America. Many boats had no bathroom facilities, and these people would relieve themselves right where they were sitting. Another problem was that these boats would only be cleaned once a week, but this would cease after the crew would decide the smell was unbearable. which would lead to more of these slaves to die., due to this unsanitary living space. The captains would try to clean the decks, but very often this would be overlooked. This was an attempt to reduce deaths and sickness.
ReplyDeleteOne problem caused by the dense packing of human cargo during the Middle Passage was that the slaves were not able to move when in the hold. This caused the slaves’ muscles to atrophy and took a toll on their physical and mental health. One former slave complained that, “it was more than a week after I left the ship before I could straighten my limbs”(Faragher 98). To avoid devaluing their cargo in this way, the slavers brought the slaves above deck every day. Although they were still chained, the slaves could at least walk a few feet. Furthermore, the slavers forced the slaves to jump up and down for exercise. Because of its bizarre appearance, this practice was known as “dancing the slave.” By allotting them time on deck and forcing them to exercise, the slavers mitigated the consequences of the almost three months that the slaves spent with not more than a foot and a half of space to lay in.
ReplyDeleteSources:
DeleteFaragher, John M., Mari J. Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many; A History of the American People; AP Edition. Sixth ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
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ReplyDeleteOne of the leading problems of the slave trade of the 17th century was the issue that the slave women were constantly abused by the common sailors. The men would indulge, which combined with the diseases already thriving in the cargo holds, often resulted in many deaths especially throughout the black women. While the fevers and STD deaths were mostly not preventable, many captains did not allow their crew to interact with the women. This way, some of the many disease-caused deaths were prevented.
ReplyDeleteThe inhumane method of "packing" slaves like such on a boat not only creates problems, but advances previous ones. The slaves were picked up from Africa, a continent that, at the time, did not have the most accurate knowledge of hygiene and disease prevention. It is possible that some slaves already had a disease before being picked up to be taken away onto the boat. These diseases could not only kill the person who has them, but could also spread to other slaves and crew on the boat. The captains did not attempt to control this issue because they most likely were not aware, like many of the slaves themselves, that this was a condition. Moreover, it's not like the captains would carry medicines for the slaves on their boats. While captains did try to clean the boats, they were not able to remove bacteria and pathogens that would further exaggerate any existing disease and sickness cases.
ReplyDeleteOf the many problems caused by this arrangement, most issues developed because of the lack of sanitation and malnourishment. Though the ships provided the lower decks with tubs so that a number of individuals could ease themselves, the Africans could never really get to these stations in time and would often end up relieving and leaving their waste where they lie. The crews had been ordered to mop and clean these areas, but often, the task was so dreaded that it had been rarely performed. To counteract this situation, the captains included a period where these captives could receive exposure to breathable air. However, most of the slaves’ time was spent in the unsanitary confines of the lower deck, and these short-lived periods to get fresh air could never take effect. Africans were therefore left to either sicken or die. Other outbreaks of epidemics like smallpox, measles, and yellow fever were also common. Sexual interactions among the crew and women had also taken place and since no technology preventing sexually transmitted diseases was present, the mortality rate would have increased. The ships’ leaders could have denied or prohibited these circumstances, but they could have still secretly occurred. Malnourishment additionally played into the numerous fatalities. The captains were able to provide a simple morning meal of beans, but there were still little to no other forms of varied nutrients. The captives’ immune systems were therefore weakened and even more vulnerable to the emerging diseases on board. Dehydration, on the other hand, was considered to be another major factor for the African slave death toll. Once more, the captain may have been able to provide some water, but it was unlikely purified and possibly shared among all the individuals thus contributing to the suffusion of disorders.
ReplyDeletePatrick, Leslie. "slave trade, 1585–1763." In Smith, Billy G., and Gary B. Nash, eds. Encyclopedia of American History: Colonization and Settlement, 1608 to 1760, Revised Edition (Volume II). New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
DeleteItemID=WE52&iPin=EAHII376&SingleRecord=True (accessed August 26, 2013).
Faragher, John M., Mari J. Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many; A History of the American People; AP Edition. Sixth ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
The Africans had many problems as they were being transported to the "New World." Being stuck inside the ship with no sunlight was obviously very unhealthy. Before their capture the Africans were use to lots and lots of sun. However without sunshine to synthesize vitamin D, the Africans were at risk of developing Rickets, Osteoporosis,and Hypocalcemia. These diseases aren't always fatal but because the affected Africans wouldn't seem healthy and able to work the captains would kill them to save resources for the healthy. I don't believe the captains were aware of Vitamin D deficiency but if they were, to mitigate the deficiency they could have brought the slaves up onto deck everyday for 20 minutes at a time
ReplyDeletesource:http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/nutritional_disorders/vitamin_deficiency_dependency_and_toxicity/vitamin_d.html?qt=&sc=&alt=
DeleteThe dense packing of the human cargo resulted in problems with disease, hygiene, and basic human needs that would cause serious illness and death for the captive Africans. The captives are densely packed, and as stated before, would allow multiple diseases to spread easily, and result in dismal hygiene with not enough room for bodily fluids and waste to be disposed of effectively. Since they pack the captives so densely, there would have also been a large amount of human cargo on board, and since the captains are looking to make a profit, they also wouldn't have spent much money and time on preparing the adequate amounts of food and water for the captives to keep the cost of maintaining them as low as possible, so as to make a bigger profit. The captains attempted to mitigate the death toll by providing them food and water, but not enough food and water, and got rid of the corpses as well as tried to keep them from suicide by jumping off ship through the use of nets, and they did take the captives out of the hold at times to move them around a little and give them a short break from their time cramped in the hold. Other than that, the captains did not so much to keep their cargo healthy, but they did try to mitigate the death toll using these methods and packed the captives the way they did, with the purpose of making profit.
ReplyDeleteThe packing of human cargo during the Middle Passage resulted in many deadly problems. The most prominent problem being the spread of disease. With a lack of sanitation and no place to go to the bathroom, diseases could spread easily and quickly. One disease that was fairly common was smallpox and at times, smallpox actually caused an epidemic aboard the ship. One way the captain might have attempted to mitigate the death toll was to abandon the people who had contracted the disease. Or, the captain could simply have given the slaves better living conditions but I am pretty sure that they didn't care as long as they made a profit.
ReplyDeleteA often-overlooked but no less important aspect of the slave trade is the effect the conditions of the slave ships had on the slaves' mentality. The close-packed and unsanitary conditions often lead to depression and suicide attempts, both by refusing to eat and by attempting to leap overboard. Such close proximity to other people also undoubtedly resulted in quarrels when space was invaded or over the meager food and water rations. Exacerbating the problem were the crew and captain, who would often beat or humiliate the slaves to force obedience, sometimes going so far as to remove a limb from a particularly rebellious slave. These acts created a natural mistrust of the slavers which led to stress and paranoia among the slaves. The captains often did little to help the slaves mentally, at most feeding them and allowing them some time above deck to ease the desperation and intense misery that the slave ship fostered. The mental damage suffered by the slaves often lasted even after the torturous journey ended.
ReplyDelete"Slave Ships." Spartacus Educational. Ed. Peter McMillan. Spartacus Educational Publishers, Ltd., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2013.
There were numerous problems that resulted from the confined spaces of a slave ship that seriously endangered the health of the slaves, but the most obvious and dangerous pertained to human waste. Lacking any space to dispose of it, waste was just left lying on the cargo hold’s floor, and over the weeks of travel between Africa and the Americas, this would continue to build up along with sweat and blood. As a result, slaves suffered from extreme health issues like disease and infection, which spread like wildfire through the ship. Epidemics of smallpox, measles, and yellow fever were common, while others like the “flux” contributed to the growing waste. Slavers tried to prevent these things from occurring by letting slaves out periodically for fresh air and placing tubs in the cargo hold, but this did little to ease the misery as it was almost impossible for them to walk over each other in the cramped space. Overall, the transport of slaves over the Atlantic Ocean, the “Middle Passage”, was the most deadly part of the slave trade; millions contracted horrible diseases while thousands died before the journey was even over.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
DeleteFaragher, John Mack, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print.
A problem that resulted from the dense packing of the slaves was the development of injuries and infections that resulted from slaves rolling over and into one another and other shipboard objects during the violent tossing of the ship. Many scrapes, bruises, and broken bones were accrued this way. Because of the lack of medical treatment the slaves had access to, many of these injuries could have proved fatal. Additionally, poor sanitary conditions and the constant bodily contact between slaves made the acquisition and spread of infections common. These infections would have crippled the slaves, deteriorated their mental condition, and in some cases, caused death. Some captains attempted to solve this problem by adopting a system called loose packing. This involved taking less slaves on a ship, in order to try to reduce the deaths of the slaves. However, most captains still densely packed their slaves aboard their ships, not caring about the welfare of the slaves and just trying to increase profit.
ReplyDeleteOne of the worst problems for the slaves in terms of death was starvation. Some captains attempted to mitigate this by buying and taking a sufficient amount of food on the voyage to feed all the slaves, as well, or course, as the crew and any officials. This philosophy was that, while the cost of food would be more, the amount of live and sellable slaves would also be more and therefore a greater profit would be gained. Although, most captains decided that the best way to transport slaves was to bring only sufficient food for everyone excluding the slaves, and while many starved, there was much less food cost, and this allowed some captains to gain a greater profit margin. Both methods worked and were used, but the cruel method ultimately was the predominantly used one, because of the obvious ideology of the slaves were inferior to white men.
ReplyDeleteWorks Cited
http://4thebest4e.tripod.com/id15.html
(I couldn't find any author or date, so I thought the URL was the best way to cite the source).
The biggest problem of the dense packing of human cargo on the slave ships was the tolerance the slaves had for their harsh conditions. Due to the crammed space, harsh ship movement, chained arms, and a bed of feces, many slaves' breaking points were pushed. Due to this, a large amount of slaves attempted to commit suicide, and in the most common case of starving themselves. This attempt of slaves to end their lives in their own starvation proved to be the biggest problem for the captains, due to their want for the most amount of slaves shipped as possible. These captains attempted to handle these starvation suicide attempts by forcing slaves' mouths open and shoving in food. When such attempts failed, captains would then chop off the slaves' heads to prevent them for killing themselves.
ReplyDeleteOn the densely packed slave ships, miserable situations easily led to desperate measures. Conditions on the lower level were an intolerable mess of suffocating heat, uncleaned human waste matter, and sickness that could ravage entire cargo populations. Poor conditions and harsh treatment from the crew resulted in deeply decreasing morale and a decline of mental health amongst the African slaves. Desperation led to numerous suicide attempts, primarily done by slaves jumping overboard and drowning themselves(Faragher, 99) Although nets hung on the sides of the ships lowered the number of suicides, the idea of desperate and reckless measures still remained amongst the captives. Despite the language barrier that sometimes existed between the slaves on the ship, revolt against the crew and captain could be easy to stir up amongst the population- especially in the early stages of the voyage when the African coast was still in view (Faragher, 99). In most cases, rebellion resulted in quick supression and then harsh punishment by the crew, including death as an example. While ship captains realized the correlation between the treatment of the slaves and the aggression levels on the ship, suppression of the slaves' freedom was valued higher, and revolts were believed to be easily crushed (which in most cases, ran true).
ReplyDelete(Also interesting to consider is the conflicts the conditions of the slaves caused amongst the crew members on the ships. The stench, sight, and moral conflicts also led to problems with the ship's crew internally.)
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[small]"4.4 Resistance to Slavery, the Anti-Slavery Movement, and Abolition." University of Calgary. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Aug. 2013.
Faragher, John Mack. "The Middle Passage." Out of Many: A History of the American People. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. 98-100. Print.
The main problem that caused illness and death was clearly the lack of cleanliness in the area that the slaves where saying in. With anywhere from two to five hundred people crammed in the tight little space, there was barely enough room to breathe, let alone space for them to expel waste. With an average trip of around a week, the sewage filled up and rotted quickly. This sewage alone brought many diseases and killed a large amount of the Europeans cargo. The captains tried very hard to keep their cargo alive, but this may have been the only problem that they may have not fixed.
ReplyDeleteThe main issues of this arrangement would have been a lack of hygiene, a lack of space, and a lack of community. The lack of hygiene caused by slaves being unable to reach “the proper tubes” would have caused human waste to be all over. These unsanitary conditions would have led to disease on board. Since more slaves meant more cash this would have been an issue to the captain. Sailors were unwilling to clean out the hold, which meant that the only way to decrees this problem would have been to take fewer slaves. Captains still made more if they overcrowded the ships then if they did not. Space would have been an issue because of how cramped it was. The slaves could not move around enough to get exercise. Captains wanted to sell slaves for the highest price possible and the healthier slaves who looked like they could work more were worth more. The Capitan’s had slaves go up on deck and exercise. The other problem for slaves would be the lack of community. They were usually mixed up with people from the same tribe being separated. Even if you had two people on either side the inability to speak the same language would have made social interaction difficult. This helped the captain since it made the slaves less likely to rebel.
ReplyDeleteThe captains would give the slaves some time out of their holds to get fresh air although not much time. They would also feed them enough to stay alive but not enough to be properly nourished. Before going to auction many captains would clean and work out their slaves so they looked better to the buyers.
ReplyDeleteSome of the main issues caused by this arrangement of slaves, one that was very popular at the time, was the lack of sanitation and the lack of proper care for the slaves. Because the slaves were packed so tightly, it was very difficult for them to reach bathroom facilities. In most all of the ships, the "bathroom" was a bucket of the floor. This meant that slaves spent weeks sitting in their own waste. Diseases were rampant, and killed many slaves. Almost all the crews refused to clean up the waste. The slaves were also fed minimal amounts of food. Some crews only fed the healthy looking slaves, leaving the others for death. Finally, the slaves atrophied because there was no room to get any exercise.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest problems caused by the arrangement of slaves was depression. The poor living conditions, and the low sanitation levels and space for the slaves was terrible. The lower decks contained a foul stench and each slave only had a 6X2X2.5 foot compartment to live in for up to six weeks. The were also poorly fed and mistreated greatly, while rarely getting to see the sun. These living conditions led to major depression among the slaves, causing a high suicide rate and low work ethic once of the boat.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem with having so many slaves in such a close proximity is the ability and tendency of diseases to spread as a result of poor sanitary conditions caused primarily by the human waste left to fester, sickening the captives. These conditions obviously were not very uplifting, and the moral was such that many captives probably lost their will to live due to the overwhelming nature of the horrible experience forced upon them. The combination of sickness and low moral as a result of the cramped living conditions on slave ships were the primary cause of death for people forced to endure it.
ReplyDeleteIllness was a huge cause for slave deaths during the transfer over seas. Tightly packed into the underside of ships. No room to breath, covered in feces, yourselfs and others. One could get small poxs and it would spread to the rest. Ship captain tried their best to find the sick ones and kill them. Throwing them off the ship and into the sea. It was hard but they also tried to keep the defication to a minimum. The ship was compact and hard to keep clean which cause illness to spread. You couldnt get rid of it but you could try and lessen it.
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