Middle Passage Mortality and Resistance

Between 1700 and 1750, mortality rates on slave ships averaged 15–20% per voyage. Enslaved Africans were chained below decks in spaces less than 18 inches high. Dysentery, smallpox, and dehydration were primary killers. Captives resisted through hunger strikes, suicide by jumping overboard, and insurrection. Ship crews were instructed to shoot those attempting suicide, revealing how common the act of self-liberation through death was.