Mortality and Voyage Length in the Middle Passage Revisited

Abstract

Using a newly published database on the transatlantic slave trade prepared at Harvard University's W. E. B. Du Bois Institute and a new methodology, this article reevaluates the relationship between slave mortality and the length of the middle passage on nine routes during the 18th and 19th centuries. For each route, interactive regressions are used to estimate the influence of factors such as crowding on-board, season of departure, and whether stopovers were made on a voyage. Death rates that track the average time pattern of deaths on the voyages of each route are calculated. These rates indicate whether deaths mainly occurred in the early part, middle section, or latter part of a voyage. Hence we are now closer to understanding whether deaths on individual routes largely resulted from preboarding or on-board conditions or an interaction between preboarding and on-board conditions. The relationships between mortality during three phases of the voyage, the coasting period, the middle passage, and the postarrival period, are also assessed as are the connections between slave and crew deaths.