Atlantic Slave Trade: Slavery And Disease

During the Atlantic Slave Trade, many slaves died from sickness and disease. The slaves were not receiving the proper care and nutrition that was needed. Many of the slaves suffered from blindness; abdominal swelling; bowed legs; skin lesions; and convulsions. The slaves had many different deficiencies that many of them got the following diseases: beriberi; pellagra; tetany; rickets; and kwashiorkor. Children mostly got diarrhea, dysentery, whooping cough, and respiratory diseases, and worms. These diseases raised the infant and early childhood death rate of slaves to twice the amount of white infants and children.