How many people died during slavery?

Answer 1

Your question is not too clear. Obviously, EVERYONE who lived during slavery and died before it was eliminated, also died during slavery. If you mean how many slaves died BECAUSE of slavery, the answer would be very few once they reached America. There are varying estimates of how many died on the slave ships, and there were probably a lot. But just think about it for a little and you will realize that the slaves on those ships represented a lot of cash for the captain and his sponsors. A slave who did not survive the voyage was a direct loss, so a certain amount of care was taken to assure their safe transit. Once they were sold, the plantation owner depended on them as his labor force and would try to keep them alive and healthy. There were even laws that required a slave owner to provide for their "retirement years" and he could not just discard them when they could no longer work. I am not defending slavery, but too many people still believe only the most extreme examples presented by the abolitionists in the 1860s and use those examples to promote a current political agenda.

Answer 2

Yes, during the capture process, in the holding pens and in the long transit to the Americas.