John Newton a former slave ship captain describes the space provided for the enslaved people:
They lie...in two rows one above the other, on each side of the ship, close to each other, like books upon a shelf. I have known them so close that the shelf would not easily contain one more. And I have known a white man sent down among the men to lay them in rows to the greatest advantage, so that as little space as possible be lost...
And every morning perhaps more instances than one are found of the living and the dead... fastened together.
Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (1808)