The mortality rate among these new slaves ran very high. It is
estimated that some five percent died in Africa on the way to the
coast, another thirteen percent in transit to the West Indies,
and still another thirty percent during the three-month seasoning
period in the West Indies. This meant that about fifty percent
of those originally captured in Africa died either in transit or
while being prepared for servitude.
Even this statistic, harsh as it is, does not tell the whole
story of the human cost involved in the slave trade. Most slaves
were captured in the course of warfare, and many more Africans
were killed in the course of this combat. The total number of
deaths, then, ran much higher than those killed en route. Many
Africans became casualty statistics, directly or indirectly,
because of the slave trade. Beyond this, there was the untold
human sorrow and misery borne by the friends and relatives of
those Africans who were torn away from home and loved ones and
were never seen again.
Statistics concerning profits in the slave trade are also
difficult to obtain.
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