The slave ships were used to bring slave into either the New World or the West Indies through the Middle Passage, a trade route between three countries Europe, Africa, and The New World. The slave ships carried over six to seven hundred slave which made it really hard to move around. The condition aboard the slave ships were horrible and intolerable.
The conditions aboard the slave ships were intolerable, “the men were shackled two by two, the right wrist and ankle of one to the left wrist and ankle of another”, the women were allowed to roam around the vessel and, they were portioned separate from the men. All the slaves were forced to sleep naked on the wooden floors which were constructed from unplanned boards, so when it got stormy during the passage the skin of their elbows might be scraped down the bones. The slaves were cramped so tight that it made it difficult to move around without hurting themselves or each other; Dr. Alexander Falconbridge, he had done 4 slavery voyages as a surgeon. Falconbridge had to take his shoes off to avoid crushing the slave because he had to crawl above them, and he even had marks on his legs were he had being bit and pinched by the slave.
The ships were just too intolerable to live, the slave were just like iron statues throughout the voyage, and when they were let free to walk on the deck they were watched constantly. Whenever it was raining the slave were never brought to the deck they were given their two meal a day in their hold that even the air became so thick and poisonous to breathe in that it became too hot and soon it generated fluxes and fever which was passed throughout a great numbers of slaves.