A popular literature has portrayed this part of the slave experience as uniquely evil and inherently more inhuman than any other horrors of slave life (Klein 130). Slaves were taken from their homes and were forcibly sold. One cannot, of course, mention the Middle Passage without evoking the horrors of men, women and children tightly bound together, to prevent them from rebelling or choosing the suicidal fate of jumping. overboard. Captive mortality in Africa, therefore, included not only losses among those bound for export to the Atlantic coast, but also additional losses among those bound for export to the East among those captured and transported to serve African masters (Engerman and Inkori 117). The death suffered by the slaves during the expedition was crucial and foolish. It shows how the Middle Passage was the most terrifying journey for slaves. The terror of the slaves in how they were transported and the mortality they suffered, demonstrates how ruthlessly slaves were treated during the Middle Passage. Klein indicates that slavers transported 1.6 slaves per ton of registered vessel, ranging from 5 to 7 square feet. of deck area allocated to each slave. Most ships were equipped with partial decks and platforms in the space below, on the main deck and above the second or between decks (Klein 132). The ships had different lengths and could only support a certain weight. The Brooks weighed 300 tons and contained approximately 609 slaves. This arrangement gives an estimate of the deck at over 3,000 square feet, which provided an average of just under 7 square feet per slave. The LaVigilante weighs 240 tons with 347 slaves and probably marks the lowest estimate with a deck area that works out to 5.6 square feet per slave (Klein 133). Most slaves were packed into spaces designed like loaves of bread on a shelf, averaging six or seven feet square and rarely more than two or three feet of headroom (Postma 23). Many slaves who, in their nakedness, squatted on their lower backs. Male slaves were generally chained two by two, making movement extremely difficult, and small groups were tied together by longer chains to bring them to the upper deck for meals and fresh air. Women and children were generally confined to a separate space on deck or in cabins and allowed greater mobility (Postma 23).