Many enslaved Sudanese died en route to the new army’s training depot.

Evidence

The first consignment of these unfortunate beings totaling 1,900 men, women and children arrived in Isna north of Aswan in August, 1821. Those who were suitable were selected for military service; the others were to be sold in slave markets in Cairo. Later these slaves were sent to Aswan where a special barracks was built specifically for the purpose of receiving them. However, a large number of the Sudanese slaves perished on the way before reaching the Aswan depot. Mehmed Bey Defterdar, Mehmed Ali’s son-in-law, who assumed control of the campaign after the death of his brother-in-law, Ismail Pasha, wrote to Mehmed Ali in Egypt telling him that the slaves could not stand the trip they had to endure from Kurdufan to Haifa to the south of Aswan and suggested that ships be built to transport the slaves down the Nile. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 441