What were the common causes of death among slaves aboard ships?
Captive Africans suffered from diseases such as dysentery and smallpox, depression and outright despair, the cruelty of captain and crew, and sexual exploitation. As a result, mortality rates averaged above 20 percent for captive Africans in the first decades of the slave trade and about 10 percent by 1800.
What were the conditions like on ships that brought slaves to the Americas?
Unhygienic conditions, dehydration, dysentery and scurvy led to a high mortality rate, on average 15% and up to a third of captives. Often the ships carried hundreds of slaves, who were chained tightly to plank beds.
What were the conditions like for slaves on a boat?
The terrible conditions for those captive aboard slave vessels on the infamous Middle Passage across the Atlantic meant dysentery, fever, small-pox and eye diseases were common, compounded by over-crowding and poor ventilation below deck.
What disease did the slaves contract on the ships?
Many slaves suffered from dysentery, dropsy, fevers, and digestive and nervous diseases. Yaws, a non-venereal form of syphilis, was common, and there were regular epidemics, such as a cholera epidemic in Grenada in 1830.
What did slaves do to get punished?
Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, rape, and imprisonment. Punishment was often meted out in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was performed to re-assert the dominance of the master (or overseer) over the slave.
Why did many slaves died during the Middle Passage?
Most contemporary historians estimate that between 9.4 and 12.6 million Africans embarked for the New World. Disease and starvation due to the length of the passage were the main contributors to the death toll with amoebic dysentery and scurvy causing the majority of deaths.
Which of the following best describes how enslaved people were treated on ships during the Middle Passage?
Which of the following best describes how enslaved people were treated on ships during the Middle Passage? They were chained together and unable to move.
What impact did housing nutrition and disease have on the lives of slaves between 1820 and 1860?
Unsanitary conditions, inadequate nutrition and unrelenting hard labor made slaves highly susceptible to disease. Illnesses were generally not treated adequately, and slaves were often forced to work even when sick. The rice plantations were the most deadly.
How many slaves could fit on a ship?
Ships carried anything from 250 to 600 slaves. They were generally very overcrowded. In many ships they were packed like spoons, with no room even to turn, although in some ships a slave could have a space about five feet three inches high and four feet four inches wide.
How were African slaves captured and sold?
The capture and sale of enslaved Africans Most of the Africans who were enslaved were captured in battles or were kidnapped, though some were sold into slavery for debt or as punishment. The captives were marched to the coast, often enduring long journeys of weeks or even months, shackled to one another.