Their preparation for the journey began by selecting prisoners that are healthy enough for the long, arduous course ahead. Normally they want the healthy captives, so first they have to count. They have an instrument that they use to open their teeth, to count the number of teeth that they had.In some cases, they have to be whipped for them to jump, for them to see how strong that they are. So, that’s the first phase. Now, when they get in here, day after that has been done, they were then put in the various dungeons.

After being tested, the captives were confined to Elmina’s dungeons where conditions were shocking, even by the standards of the time. There were no toilets. There were no bathrooms. In some cases, they had straws on the floor, which they used as a mattress and so on. In all these dungeons, they were given buckets, which they were expected to ease themselves. But because of the conditions they were in, the chains they had on their feet made it almost impossible for them to get to this bucket.