This is where the slave trade part came in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_down_game
Quote:
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Students at Durham University in Northeast England received criticism for a July 2007 re-creation of the image of the 1788 Brookes abolitionist poster, in a manner reminiscent of the lying down game.[19][20] Such displays have prompted comparisons between the game itself, and the slave trade-era practice and manner of stowing African slaves upon the planks of a slave ship's lower hold.[21][22]
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This was one group who purposely made a comparison. The origins were however, not to imitate slave planking. Apparently England forgets its culpability in the slave trade.