Life on a slave ship for a captured African

      Once on these slave ships the remaining dignity that the captured may have would have been stripped from them. There were two ideologies about how to put the slaves below deck, called “loose-packer” or “tight-packer” which meant how the slave traders were going to pack the captured people below deck. A “loose-packer” held the idea that if you were to pack less people below deck, give them more room, freedom, and food the death rate would be lower and they would arrive at their destination of sale in a healthier and more profitable sale. A “tight-packer” held the idea that if you crammed as many captured people in below deck, even though the death rate was a bit higher and the captured would be in a more ill state they would be able to get more profit and the could clean up the captured before the sale. Slaves were subjected to no sanitation or bathroom facilities so chained together the captured would have to lay in theirs and others waste. Many times shackled to each other or to the ship and resting on shelves that were often less than a half meter high, so many could not sit up. Often when a captured African died they would stay shackled to a living person. Many slaves if they could escape their chains jumped overboard and plunged from the ship into the sea, choosing to either drown or be devoured by blood-thirsty sharks rather than be taken from their homeland.

        When the slave ship would reach North America. In order to strengthen them before sale, the slaves would be fed better in the days before their arrival at the selling destination in the new world,but this sadly was not the end of their suffering and pain. Before being sold the captured Africans would be oiled to make their skin shine and any imperfections in their skin as scars would be filled in with hot tar in order to make them look healthy and get the price. Most slave ships would not be allowed to dock in the ports because of their horrible stench and because the people that lived in port towns feared spread of diseases. The slave ships would dock off shore and have small boats to pick up the captured Africans and bring them to the selling point.

                      Daily Life for a captured African on the slave ship

         When the weather was good the slave traders would bring the slaves up on the deck in the morning. The male slaves were kept chained together, in fear of fighting back but the women and children where unchained and allowed to walk freely on the ship. Around 9am the slaves would be feed their first meal of the day varying in differing food such as boiled rice, millet, or cornmeal. Sometimes the slave traders would throw in pieces of meat to keep the health of their slaves at a leave they could sell them at. After their first meal of the day the slave traders would force the slaves to “Dance” This dancing would be the slaves only physical activity and the slaves that refused to dance would be whipped. If the weather was not good the slaves would be kept under the decks and would not be fed having to survive on rotten crumbs, unclean water that settled, or rats.