During the period of transatlantic slave trade, approximately ten to fifteen million African people were forcibly transported across the Atlantic to the Americas. An estimated fifteen to thirty percent of captive people died while still in Africa, and another ten to fifteen percent died from malnutrition, disease, suicide, and rebellion during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean. Staggering statistics show that for every one hundred enslaved people who reached the New World alive, approximately forty had perished. A prominent flag on the stern of Thornton Dial's ship indicates that this symbolic ship of state represents the United States. Although the work's title references "Negroes coming and going," at first glance no people are visible. A closer look, however, reveals a small figure in the water beneath the ship. This figure may represent the dead enslaved people who were thrown overboard during the Middle Passage from Africa to America, or it may symbolize the African Americans who helped to build the "big ship" of the United States, but were abandoned its wake when it came to equal rights and opportunities.