37. The Cruel Math of Rationing Sustenance Aboard Slave Ships
If food and water ran low on slave ships during the Middle Passage, the ship’s crew took care of themselves first. When transatlantic sailings took longer than expected and sustenance ran low, slave ship captains often turned to cruel and cold calculations in order to salvage what they could of their human cargo.
To figure out how to stretch the remaining food and water in order to arrive at port with at least some living slaves to sell, slavers were not above turning to cold-blooded murder. Once they figured out that the remaining food and water could sustain only a certain number of slaves, the dark logic of the situation called for getting rid of the excess slaves. So they were thrown overboard, to drown or be devoured by the sharks that routinely trailed slave ships.
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