38. The Horrors of the Middle Passage
Depending on weather conditions and the prevailing winds, slave ships packed with chained unfortunates could take from one to six months to complete the Middle Passage journey. The slaves’ journey from Africa to the New World was often described as hellish, and for once, it was no literary hyperbole: few things were more dark and grim than the hold of a slave ship during the Middle Passage.
To save space, slaves were chained by their ankles in pairs, and shackled to a post. Some ships allowed the slaves to move about during the day, but most kept them shackled in place for the entire journey. They were fed one meal a day with water, if at all. Bodily functions were done in place, and the slaves often spent the entire journey soiled in urine, vomit, and excrement. Diseases in the slave holds were rife, and mortality rates were high. Crews avoided going into the dark and fetid slave holds, and slaves sometimes spent days shackled to rotting corpses. The stench was horrific, and sailors in other ships often described being able to smell slave ships from miles away, long before they hove into view.