Tight Pack 111other captives. Conditions in the holds of slave vessels were
appalling. Th e crew of slave vessels forced the captives to lay
prone in a space about the size of a coffi n. In fact, for many
captives, this space came to be their fi nal “resting” place on
this earth.
On many vessels, owners of the ships built an addi-
tional shelf to cram even more slave cargo onboard. A few
European societies grew increasingly uncomfortable with
the slave trade. Great Britain attempted to limit the extent
of slaves by regulating so many captives per tonnage of ves-
sels. Th ese regulations did not deter enterprising slave traf-
fi ckers from illegally maximizing the captives destined for
Middle Passage.
Th e evident human cruelty led John Newton, a slave
ship captain, to resign from participation in the Atlantic
slave trade and become a minister. Newton wrote the fa-
mous hymn “Amazing Grace.” African slaves destined for
the New World via slave vessels suff ered the highest mortal-
ity rate of any group, civilian or military, traveling the At-
lantic Ocean. During the course of the Atlantic slave trade,
well in excess of 10 percent of human beings shackled in the
holds of slave ships did not survive Middle Passage.
Th e grotesque aspects of the Atlantic slave trade in-
fl uenced the English Parliament to enact laws to regulate
English slave vessels. Members of the Parliament argued
that overcrowding contributed to excessive mortality
of African captives. Parliament in the late 18th century
passed two acts in an eff ort to improve living conditions
during Middle Passage. Nevertheless, the English Parlia-
ment expressed no interest in abolishing English participa-
tion in the Atlantic slave trade. Parliament primarily acted
out of concern for public relations rather than human
compassion.
Th e Dolben Act of 1788 championed by Sir William
Dolben was the fi rst of two Parliamentary measures de-
signed to give the appearance of improving conditions
during Middle Passage aboard English-fl ag vessels. Th e
Dolben Act restricted the number of slaves-per-ton in the
expectation that mortality rates of slave and crew would
be substantially reduced during Middle Passage. Parlia-
ment in 1799 enacted a law that decreased the legal limits
of slave cargo by measuring permissible space belowdecks.
Parliament sought to abandon the use of mere ship tonnage
and concentrated instead on usable space. Th e net eff ect of
these two reforms did decrease the slaves-per-ton ratio
from 2.6 to 1 slave per ton.believed it gave slaves the morale to work extra hard on
their masters’ plantation knowing they could work at their
own plots of land.
Some scholars have felt that it was a system that was
more benevolent to the slave as opposed to the gang system.
While it is true that once slaves completed their task, they
could do whatever they pleased, sometimes the plantation
owners deliberately increased the task size so that slaves
would not have any time of their own. Th is turned out to be
a major source of exploitation for many slaves.
See also: Carolinas; Gang System; Gullah; Rice Cultivation
Karen W. NgonyaBibliography
Littlefi eld, Daniel C. Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade
in Colonial South Carolina. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1981.
Morgan, Philip D. “Task and Gang Systems: Th e Organization
of Labor on New World Plantations.” In Work and Labor in
Early America, edited by Stephen Innes, 189–220. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Morgan, Philip D. “Work and Culture: Th e Task System and the
World of Low Country Blacks, 1700 to 1800.” William and
Mary Quarterly 39 (October 1982):564–99.
Philips, Ulrich Bonnell. American Negro Slavery: A Survey of
the Supply, Employment and Control of Negro Labor as De-
termined by the Plantation Regime. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State University Press, 1966.
Tight Pack
Th roughout the Atlantic slave trade a debate raged over the
merits of loose pack and tight pack in storing African slaves
aboard slave vessels during Middle Passage. Advocates of
tight pack argued that wholesale loss of life was inevitable.
Th erefore, storing as many Africans on vessels as possible
paid a better profi t than loose pack. Supporters of tight pack
were not convinced that better nutrition, sanitation, and
space for slaves guaranteed a greater return of profi t. Con-
temporaries of the Atlantic slave trade and scholars who
studied the era concluded that aft er 1750, the overwhelm-
ing majority of captains of slave vessels were practitioners of
tight pack. Some captains even devised charts for their ves-
sels to maximize the slaves they stored. Without question,
practitioners of tight pack operated a macabre business.
Slaves held on tight pack slave vessels typically found
themselves in the bottom of the hold with hundreds of