n Alexander Falconbridge’s book, ‘An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa,’ he described how the slaves were treated when they were first on board the ship. Falconbridge explained that they are “fed only twice a day,” but in most ships they were only fed with their own food once a day. They are also only allowed half a pint each at every meal. That is barely enough food and water for each person to survive; the Europeans barely kept them alive. They cannot even rebel by not eating their food because then they will have hot coals placed near their lips to burn them. There has been an account of one of the captains in the slave-trade to have “poured melted lead” on a person who refused their food.

The fact that these slaves would try to starve themselves by refusing food and that they would try to jump off the ship when they were taken above deck explains that their life on the slave ships were unbearable. They were kept in a ship with barely any freedom, stuck in their designated rooms where they had to share tubs to get rid of waste. The slaves were also more prone to seasickness so many people died from just being sick. The ships in the slave trade only had about five airports on each side of the ship that were about five inches in length, so there was not a lot of fresh air to go around for everyone. Since there were little fresh air, the rooms were extremely hot and unbearable. On top of the rooms being extremely hot, the floor of their rooms were “covered with the blood and mucus which had proceeded from them in consequence of the flux, that it resembled a slaughterhouse,” as described in Alexander Falconbridge’s book, ‘An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.”

In the excerpt from ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” he described his experience firsthand as a slave on the slave trade. He was sent down to the decks with the other slaves and he did not have the appetite to eat due to the stench from the blood, mucus, and heat. The Europeans offered Equiano food to eat, but he declined and so they flogged, or beat him with a whip or stick severely. He was treated so badly that he wished for death to relieve him of his pain and suffering.

One day, the Europeans caught more fish than they could eat. The slaves thought they were going to be given the extra fish they caught, but they tossed the fish into the sea again. Olaudah Equiano also witnessed a white man brutally beating another white man with a large rope that he died because of it. That made Equiano fear the Europeans even more because they are capable of doing such cruel things to their