http://i.imgur.com/BO4kgHO.jpg?1
Obviously slaves were transported in bulk and in ships, but were they really stuffed so closely together, in such a vast amount? It can't be practical, can it? Obviously it was to utilize all space to maximum productivity for a long, long voyage. But I mean, it's like 200 slaves stuffed together like this.
TL;DR: Question is: were the ships filled up to the brim like the illustration shows, or is it an illustration of how much room can be used?
The captains basically saw two ways to pack slaves. One way was to transport fewer slaves than the ship could actually carry in hopes of reducing the disease and deaths among slaves, this was called "loose packing". The other that you inquire about was the cruel way, "tight packing". This way meant that the slaves were packed very tightly in order to fill the whole ship. They were tied ankle to wrist and crammed into the smallest spaces. The idea behind this was that the more slaves a ship had, the more profit they could make. The ships's smell was appalling and in the worst case scenario the slaves were not provided with any kind of hygiene. This would lead to more deaths and actually would not work as well as they thought.
