Humanities Homework Help

I don’t understand this African Studies question and need help to study.

Focus your comments this week on Stephanie Smallwood’s Saltwater Slavery (you read Chapters 3 & 4) by addressing the questions below:
What did Smallwood mean by the “political economy of the slave ship” (chapter 3)? What kinds of calculations went into determining how many captives a ship could carry?
How did this quantitative view differ from the perceptions of African captives themselves? How did African captives navigate the world of the slave ship?