To get a sense of what it was like to travel on a slave ship, I resort to a Wikipedia post:
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of taking slaves, especially newly captured African slaves to the Americas. Living conditions for slaves on these ships was inhuman. Men, women and children were crowded into every possible space leaving no room to move or even breathe. There was little food and the smell could not be described. Between 1526 and 1867 about 12.5 million slaves were sent by slave ships from Africa to the Americas. But only about 10.7 million slaves actually arrived. Of all human migrations it was the most costly in terms of human lives lost. The average time to sail across the Atlantic took from 60 to 90 days. Sometimes the trips took up to four months.
Here are some charts showing the way people were crammed into the vessels:
Now for the shocking visualization.
The video below shows the movement of slaves in over 15,000 journeys. Every one of the moving dots on this graphic is a journey of a ship holding hundreds of victims, for 3 or 4 months, in these conditions, against their will.
More than 10 million human beings were displaced in this fashion.
The scale of the slave trade and its injustice comes to life this video.
Shipping slaves to the Americas was horrible to say the least. The unspeakable atrocities colonizers perpetrated against Africans in their own countries may have been in some ways worse. If the companies and governments and individuals involved in the slave trade and colonization had taken time to list their “core values,” morality would probably have been at the top of the list.
Would not be surprised see it happening in reverse by Trump Administration to get rid of immigrants.