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Question: The Slave Trade: How long would the journey have been from Africa to America!?
How long would have taken to take the slaves from Africa to America in boats!?
And also, what were the living conditions like and how where they treated!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
http://www!.essortment!.com/all/historyofs!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

in the early years in the 16th century it could have taken several months, by the end of the slave trade in the 19th C about 6 weeks

Conditions were bad and slaves were treated badlyWww@QuestionHome@Com

Ship Life

I!. Conditions and Treatment

Once the slaves were taken to the ship, the were shackled in pairs and packed into the small amount of room available on the ship!. Although the conditions were extremely harsh, the captains of slave ships tried to deliver as many healthy slaves for as little cost as possible!. Some captains used a system called loose packing to deliver slaves!. Under that system, captains transported fewer slaves than their ships could carry in the hope of reducing sickness and death among them!. Other captains preferred tight packing!. They believed that many blacks would die on the voyages anyway and so they carried as many slaves as their ships could hold!. As time passed tight packing began to dominate slave trading!. As soon as slaves were taken aboard, the men were shackled two by two, the right wrist and ankle of one to left wrist and ankle of another!. They were then sent to a hold that the sailors had built on deck!.

Slaves forcefully pushed together, back to face, lay cramped and helpless on the boat!. Their sweating bodies were so close to each other that it was not unlikely to feel the hot breath of another slave stinging the back of one’s neck!. Extra shelves were attached to many vessels, limiting the minute amount of space the slaves had in the first place!. Their only escape from these cramped positions were monitored feedings on the deck- even these only occurred when the weather was good!. When they were allowed to go on deck, they were carefully and suspiciously monitored!. The sailors who weren’t feeding the slaves lined up along the deck with loaded guns in case of slave revolts!. Despite the sailors’ passionate enmity of the slaves, they were not inhibited to call women to the deck and use them to pacify their burning desires!.

While some of the sailors were supervising on deck, others went below to the slave quarters to wash them and air them out!. Most regretted this task because of the horrible conditions of sanitation in the quarters!. Some captains placed small buckets in which slaves were expected to excrete their feces!. Slaves who were close to it used it but those who were farther away often tumbled and fell on others while trying to reach it!. Severely hindered by the shackles that were tightly secured around their ankles, most slaves preferred to ease themselves where they were rather than to bruise themselves in the process of trying to reach it!. Many captains just avoided the situation all together by never cleaning the quarters and leaving the slaves to spend the whole voyage in the filth!. When weather conditions were bad, the conditions of the quarters dramatically worsened!. The slaves’ holding quarters were so hot and humid that the floor of their rooms were covered with layers of dirty blood and mucus!. The stench of rotting bodies and pungent body odors contributed to the intolerable environment!.

After the sailors finished cleaning the quarters and the slaves were given their first meal of the day, the slaves were not allowed to leave the quarters until their second and last meal of the day!. As soon as they finished eating, they were sent them bask into their barracks!. The tallest men were put amidships, the widest part of the vessel, while the shorter men were placed in the stern!. After properly placing them in their quarters, the sailors closed and barred the hatchway!. When sailors tried to sleep on the deck, they often heard howling and screams of distress!. The noises heard more often, however, were those of quarreling slaves!.

Suicide attempts occurred daily and in painfully cruel ways!. Slaves tried jumping overboard and even asked others to strangle them!. One of the most common ways to avoid further punishment on the journey was to avoid eating!. Starvation suicide attempts became so common that a device was introduced to forcefully open the mouths of slaves who refused to eat!.

Slaves believed that their death would return them to their homeland and to their friends and relatives!. To prevent slaves from killing themselves, sailors began chopping the heads off of corpses, implying that when they died, they would return to their homes headless!.

Even with precautions taken to avoid suicide attempts like drowning and starvation, many healthy and well-fed slaves died from what was known as "fixed melancholy!." This occurred when the slaves simply lost the will to live!. Disease and despondency were not uncommon during the gruesome Middle Passage voyages!. To prevent both despondency and scurvy, sailors forced the slaves to be more active and participate in what they called a dance!. In this ritual, sailors snapped large whips at the naked bodies of the slaves who jumped screamed from the pain!. The shackles were left on during the whippings and often tore away at their bruised flesh!. The poor conditions, brutal treatment of slaves, and continual suicides resulted in a high mortality during the Middle Passage!.

II!. Mutinies

As a way to gainWww@QuestionHome@Com