Latest / The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History / The Slave Trade's Diet: What Enslaved Africans Ate on the Middle Passage
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked about the ships, the rebellions, the legal battles. But I realized we've never looked at something so basic it's almost invisible — what did the people on board actually eat? Luna: I've honestly never thought about that. Like, what did they feed hundreds of captives for weeks at sea? Lucas: Exactly. And the answer tells you a lot about how the slave trade worked as a business. First, you need to understand the sheer scale. A typical slave ship leaving Africa might carry 300 to 400 enslaved people, plus a crew of maybe 30 to 40. All of them needed to be fed for a voyage that could last two to three months. Lucas: The provisions were bought in Europe or collected along the African coast. The most common staple was horse beans. Cheap, durable, and they could be cooked into a kind of porridge. Ships would load literally tons of them. Luna: Horse beans. That's not even human food, really. Lucas: Right, they were animal feed. But they filled stomachs. Alongside beans, there was rice — often from Madagascar or the Carolinas — yams, plantains, millet, and a starchy paste called 'foo-foo' made from cassava or cocoyams. They'd also bring dried fish, sometimes salted beef or pork, and palm oil for cooking. Lucas: The goal was caloric density and shelf life. Fresh food rotted quickly in the tropical heat, so everything was dried, salted, or pickled. The crew got better rations — biscuit, cheese, beer, sometimes even spirits. The captives got the bare minimum to keep them alive. Luna: So there was a two-tier system even in the food. Lucas: Absolutely. And it gets worse when you look at how they were fed. They were brought on deck in groups, often in irons, and made to eat while squatting or lying down. The food was served in wooden bowls or on the deck itself. No utensils — they used their hands. And they had a strict time limit, maybe fifteen to twenty minutes, before being forced below again. Lucas: Olaudah Equiano, who was enslaved as a boy and later became a famous abolitionist, wrote about this. He described being taken on deck, forced to eat, and then 'sent below again with the same indifference as if we were brutes.' He also mentioned that many captives refused to eat at first, either from grief or seasickness. Luna: I remember that — the crews would use the 'speculum oris' to force their mouths open. Lucas: Yes, that horrible device. But beyond the cruelty, there's a logistical reality. The captains had to balance keeping people alive with maximizing cargo space. The famous slaver John Newton — later an abolitionist — wrote that a slave ship's success depended on 'the health of the slaves,' and that required careful provisioning. Lucas: The 1788 Dolben Act in Britain tried to regulate this. It limited the number of slaves per ship based on tonnage and required that ships carry certain provisions — like a minimum amount of water and food per person. But enforcement was spotty, and captains often skirted the rules by claiming more crew than they actually had. Luna: So even when they tried to regulate it, the system was designed to cut corners. Lucas: Exactly. And the diet itself contributed to disease. Dysentery, scurvy, and smallpox flourished in the crowded holds. The lack of fresh vegetables meant vitamin deficiencies — especially vitamin C. Some captains tried to prevent scurvy by giving limes or lemons, but those were expensive and rare. Lucas: Interestingly, African provisions like yams and palm oil actually provided more nutrition than the European beans. But they were bulky and took up space that could hold more captives. So there was a constant trade-off between volume of food and number of people. Luna: It's like the whole voyage was a calculus of profit versus humanity. Lucas: And humanity lost every time. The average mortality rate on the Middle Passage was about 12 to 15 percent, but on some voyages it soared to 30 percent or more. Malnutrition and disease were huge factors. The food was just enough to keep you alive — until it wasn't. Lucas: Now, one thing that surprised me researching this: some ships carried a surprising variety of foods. I found a manifest from a Royal African Company ship that listed beans, rice, yams, plantains, dried fish, palm oil, and even 'calico' — that's a type of cloth, but it was used as a trade good, not food. Luna: Wait, so they also brought cloth to trade? Lucas: Right, the ships were three-way traders. They brought European goods like cloth, guns, and alcohol to Africa, traded them for captives, then transported those captives to the Americas, and finally returned with sugar, tobacco, or cotton. The food for the Middle Passage was part of that initial cargo. Lucas: And speaking of that, you know, this kind of research takes time and resources. If today was actually useful to you, the way these episodes stay ad-free is listener support. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, it really helps keep the show going. And we appreciate every bit of support. Lucas: So back to the diet — one more layer. After the Middle Passage, on the plantations, the diet changed again. Enslaved people were often given a weekly ration of cornmeal, salt pork or fish, and sometimes a patch of land to grow their own vegetables. But that's a whole other story. Luna: It's amazing how much the food tells you about the system — from the ship to the field. Lucas: It does. And it's a reminder that every detail of the slave trade, even something as mundane as food, was shaped by the brutal logic of profit. Next time, we'll look at another overlooked aspect — the role of African merchants in the trade. Luna: Looking forward to it.