Middle Passage: Documented Conditions, Mortality, and Resistance at Sea

Ship records from the late 17th century document the systematic violence of the Middle Passage. Enslaved people were packed in holds with roughly 18 inches of headroom, chained together in pairs. Mortality rates on Royal African Company ships averaged 20–24%. Dysentery ('the flux'), smallpox, and dehydration were leading causes of death. Ship logs record numerous instances of enslaved people dying by jumping overboard — an act of final resistance. Slave ship captains recorded 'melancholy' and starvation among captives who refused to eat. The Hannibal (1693) lost 320 of 700 captives to disease during passage.