Essay about The Atlantic Slave Trade Conditions

1117 Words Dec 7th, 2015 5 Pages
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 is called loose packing to deliver slaves. In that system, captains had to transport fewer slaves than their ships could carry; this was to reduce the disease and deaths that happened among the ships. The second system is called the tight packing and this one is the worst of both. It was based on the fact that the more slaves they had, they were able to make more profit. They carried as many slaves as their ship could carry, and even more then it could carry at times. The slaves on the ship were positioned parallel and chained ankle to wrist, with hardly any place to move around. The ships were packed so full that you only had room to lie down. There was hardly any room to roll over or even lay on your side. Below the deck where the…

Related Documents