This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Ships This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ships, a project to improve all Ship-related articles. If you would like to help improve this and other articles, please join the project, or contribute to the project discussion. All interested editors are welcome. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.ShipsWikipedia:WikiProject ShipsTemplate:WikiProject ShipsShips African diaspora Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject African diaspora, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of African diaspora on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.African diasporaWikipedia:WikiProject African diasporaTemplate:WikiProject African diasporaAfrican diaspora Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Sociology Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Sociology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of sociology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SociologyWikipedia:WikiProject SociologyTemplate:WikiProject Sociologysociology Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. Discrimination Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Discrimination, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Discrimination on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.DiscriminationWikipedia:WikiProject DiscriminationTemplate:WikiProject DiscriminationDiscrimination Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale. Human rights Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Human rights, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Human rights on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Human rightsWikipedia:WikiProject Human rightsTemplate:WikiProject Human rightsHuman rights Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. International relations: United Nations / Law Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject International relations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of International relations on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.International relationsWikipedia:WikiProject International relationsTemplate:WikiProject International relationsInternational relations Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by WikiProject United Nations. This article is supported by WikiProject International law.

Archives

1

See the remarkable history of the slave revolt on the Meermin: http://www.rebirth.co.za/slaves_a_failed_bid_for_freedom.htm

Also the amazing escape of the slaves on board L'Utile is documented in the French Wikipedia along with information about conditions on board French slave ships. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Qetzel (talk • contribs) 21:13, 17 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have the severest misgivings about the design of these slave ships. As several contributors have stated, slaves were valuable goods and profits only made on the landing of a healthy slave. These various ship plans all seem to date to the period of when the slave trade was increasingly likely to be abolished and it was necessary to present the wost possible overcrowding scenario to support that same impending abolition.AT Kunene (talk) 13:26, 1 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I strongly suggest that we refer to slaves as the Human Beings that they were. To continue to use the word 'Slave' is to undermine the human tragedy that was caused by the need to profit on the backs of others. Those ‘Slaves’ were people who had lives, who were treated with such horrors that nobody today could ever imagine. Articles like these continue to dismiss the degradation imposed on them and treat the evil atrocities inflicted on nearly twenty million people as nothing! ~~Rubychung 17th of October, 2012~~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rubychung58 (talk • contribs) 22:11, 17 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

You're overreacting. Nobody's dehumanizing anyone, saying slavery was a good thing, or acting like it was "nothing". The article's quite clear that the conditions they were transported in were poor. What viable alternative even exists? Things can be given fair treatment without prostrating ourselves in collective guilt. The article can use more details and sources, but there's nothing glaringly wrong like you're suggesting. --Xanzzibar (talk) 23:12, 17 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This article ONLY covers the Atlantic Slave Trade ships. They may be, to us, the most infamous and well documented but the slave trade must be at least three millennia or older and there must have been many other slave ships before hand. For example the Roman empire must have transported most of its slaves by sea and the muslim world must have transported some of its large slave population by sea. Shouldn't someone expand this article to cover these ships as well, with what we know of them? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.143.200.91 (talk) 17:41, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2018 and 8 December 2018. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Cechil, Paisley.hays58, Emmasmith9185.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:28, 17 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Slaves were getting whipped and other slave die from being whipped 41.113.186.196 (talk) 18:35, 20 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

This page can use a section on the diet of slaves and how exacly they were able to survives voyages. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Houston515 (talk • contribs) 18:21, 22 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

It is worth expressly stating that the death rate amongst ships' crews was three times higher than that of slaves.

"Annual death rates in this activity were 230 per thousand [23%] among the crew and 83 per thousand [8.3%] among slaves."

https://www.nber.org/papers/w1540 81.6.213.185 (talk) 16:05, 12 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Sailors and Crew section already gives a death rate of about 20% for crew. I suspect that is on par for all kinds of long voyages, and that there is nothing unusual about the death rates of crew on slave ships. I'm frankly surprised that the paper claims a much lower death rate for slaves. There certainly is anecdotal evidence of very high death rates on some voyages of slave ships. This chart indicates that the death rate in the Atlantic slave trade rarely dropped below 10% on an annual basis, and then only for short periods between about 1775 and 1830. I haven't vetted that source, but it does look like the question of mortality statistics in the slave trade is complicated. Donald Albury 22:04, 12 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

"I suspect that is on par for all kinds of long voyages" Not necessarily. Since many of the deaths were caused by dysentery, the survival of both the crew and the cargo would depend on having access to uncontaminated food and water, trying to maintain basic sanitation, and taking precautions such as hand washing. Where they stopped for supplies would be an important factor. Dimadick (talk) 15:38, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Riley, James C. (1981). "Mortality on Long-Distance Voyages in the Eighteenth Century". The Journal of Economic History. 41 (3): 651–656. ISSN 0022-0507. is another source that shows that shipboard mortality was dependent on the length of the voyage and destination and on the time period. In particular, sailing to the West Indies or to or around Africa was hazardous. Table 3 in Riley gives figures for French slave ships sailing out of Nantes from 1717 to 1758. It shows a death rate for slaves of about 14%, assuming an average middle passage of 81 days, but an average of 180 days total on the ships to cover the time the ships spent working along the coast acquiring slaves. Crew on those ships had a death rate of about 13% for an average 243 days spent boarding slaves and then sailing to America. In comparison, Europeans traveling to the Cape of Good Hope in the 1730s had a death rate of about 11.5% for a five month voyage, and convicts sent to Australia late in the 18th century had a death rate of about 10.5% for a six month voyage. Riley notes that slave ship crew spent more time aboard ship in tropical waters than most slaves did, and when death rates are calculated based on the time aboard, slaves had a higher death rate than crew. Like I said above, it appears to be complicated. - Donald Albury 18:23, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 26 August 2025 and 4 December 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): HistoricalMen (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Mark Aritaville.

— Assignment last updated by Villasienna (talk) 09:41, 19 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]