The correct answer to this open question is the following.
On the basis of Equiano’s accounts, the measures that the crews of slaves ships took to ensure maximum profits from their business of transporting human cargoes were basically the following.
Having in mind that the travel conditions were complicated and the cargo ships were packed with African slaves, the crew realized that sick slaves or weak slaves could not be sold at a good price, so they looked for trying to get food to the slaves. We all know that slaves traveled to the Americas under the most unhealthy conditions, so many Africans tried to commit s*icide. So to prevent human losses that at the end would be monetary losses for the slave traders, the crew decide to prevent s*icide to put more guards in the upper deck of the ship.
Olaudah Equiano(1745-1797) was an African slave from Nigeria who wrote the book "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," in 1789, once he got his liberty and became an abolitionist.
