According to Olaudah Equiano, the captives suffered severe physical hardships during their passage across the Atlantic Ocean, known as the Middle Passage. These hardships included:
- Extreme overcrowding and confinement : Captives were tightly chained together and packed below decks in very cramped spaces with low ceilings, which prevented movement and fresh air
- Foul and suffocating conditions : The air below decks was filled with a "loathsome stench" from bodily fluids, excrement, and human waste, making the environment unbearable and causing many to become sick and lose appetite
- Malnutrition and dehydration : The captives were given very little food and water, leading to severe malnutrition and dehydration
- Disease outbreaks : Unsanitary conditions led to contagious sicknesses such as dysentery ("bloody flux") and other illnesses that killed many captives or left them in a wretched state
- Physical abuse and punishment : Captives were frequently beaten, flogged, and subjected to harsh punishments, especially if they refused to eat or attempted to escape or revolt
- Psychological torment : The captives experienced despair and terror, with some wishing for death as a release from their suffering
Additionally, some captives tried to escape their misery by attempting suicide (jumping overboard), starving themselves, or revolting against the crew, though such rebellions were usually brutally suppressed
. Equiano’s account vividly portrays the Middle Passage as a horrific ordeal marked by imprisonment, abuse, disease, and death for the enslaved Africans transported across the Atlantic
