Black health treatment, or lack thereof, often began in slave dungeons (also known as slave forts, castles and trading posts) built by Europeans traders on the Western coast of Africa. These facilities served to warehouse Africans captured from across the continent while they awaited transport as growing demand for human labor in the New World soared.
In these dungeons, individuals were crammed inside of tiny spaces for as long as a year, often without water or ventilation, where they ate, slept (often standing), vomited, menstruated, urinated, and defecated. Conditions within the dungeons were so dangerous that cleaning them was discouraged due to risk of smallpox and intestinal infections.
