How Many Enslaved People Were Taken from Africa?

How Many Enslaved People Were Taken from Africa?

Information about how many enslaved people were stolen from Africa and shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas during the sixteenth century can only be estimated as few records exist for this period. However, from the seventeenth century onward, increasingly accurate records, such as ship manifests, are available.

The First Trans-Atlantic Trade of Enslaved People

At the beginning of the 1600s, enslaved people for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were captured in Senegambia and the Windward Coast. This region had had a long history of providing enslaved people for the Islamic trans-Saharan trade. Around 1650 the Kingdom of the Kongo, which the Portuguese had ties with, started exporting enslaved people. The focus of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade moved to here and neighboring northern Angola. Kongo and Angola would continue to be substantial exporters of enslaved people until the nineteenth century. Senegambia would provide a steady trickle of enslaved people through the centuries, but never on the same scale as the other regions of Africa.

Rapid Expansion

From the 1670s the “Slave Coast” (Bight of Benin) underwent a rapid expansion of trade in enslaved people which continued until the nineteenth century. Gold Coast export of enslaved people rose sharply in the eighteenth century but dropped markedly when Britain abolished slavery in 1808 and commenced anti-slavery patrols along the coast.

The Bight of Biafra, centered on the Niger Delta and the Cross River, became a significant exporter of enslaved people from the 1740s and, and along with its neighbor the Bight of Benin, dominated the Trans-Atlantic slave trade until its effective end in the mid-nineteenth century. These two regions alone account for two-thirds of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the first half of the 1800s.

The Slave Trade Declines

The scale of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade declined during the Napoleonic wars in Europe (1799 to 1815) but quickly rebounded once peace returned. Britain abolished slavery in 1808 and British patrols effectively ended the trade in enslaved peoples along the Gold Coast and up to Senegambia. When the port of Lagos was taken by the British in 1840, the trade of enslaved people from the Bight of Benin also collapsed.

The trade of enslaved people from the Bight of Biafra gradually declined in the nineteenth century, partially as a result of British patrols and a reduction in demand for enslaved people from America, but also because of local shortages of enslaved people. To fulfill the demand, the significant tribes in the region (such and the Luba, Lunda, and Kazanje) turned on each other using the Cokwe (hunters from further inland) as mercenaries. People were captured and enslaved as a result of raids. The Cokwe, however, became dependent on this new form of employment and turned on their employers when the coastal trade of enslaved people evaporated.

The increased activities of British anti-slavery patrols along the west-African coast resulted in a brief upturn in trade from west-central and south-east Africa as increasingly desperate Trans-Atlantic slave ships visited ports under Portuguese protection. The authorities there were inclined to look the other way.

With a general abolition of slavery in effect by the end of the nineteenth century, Africa started to be seen as a different resource: instead of enslaved people, the continent was being eyed for its land and minerals. The scramble for Africa was on, and its people would be coerced into ’employment’ in mines and on plantations.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Data

The greatest raw-data resource for those investigating the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is the WEB du Bois database. However, its scope is restricted to trade destined for the Americas and does not include those sent to African plantation islands and Europe.

How Many Africans Were Really Taken to the U.S During the Slave Trade?

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By Henry Louis Gates Jr., TheRoot.com

Perhaps you, like me, were raised essentially to think of the slave experience primarily in terms of our black ancestors here in the United States. In other words, slavery was primarily about us, right, from Crispus Attucks and Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker and Richard Allen, all the way to Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. Think of this as an instance of what we might think of as African-American exceptionalism. (In other words, if it’s in “the black Experience,” it’s got to be about black Americans.) Well, think again.

The most comprehensive analysis of shipping records over the course of the slave trade is the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, edited by professors David Eltis and David Richardson. (. . .)Between 1525 and 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America.

And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000. That’s right: a tiny percentage. In fact, the overwhelming percentage of the African slaves were shipped directly to the Caribbean and South America; Brazil received 4.86 million Africans alone! Some scholars estimate that another 60,000 to 70,000 Africans ended up in the United States after touching down in the Caribbean first, so that would bring the total to approximately 450,000 Africans who arrived in the United States over the course of the slave trade.

Incredibly, most of the 42 million members of the African-American community descend from this tiny group of less than half a million Africans. (. . .)

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71 Comments

Is it costly to verify this information? Was the transatlantic the only route? If it’s roughly 42 million AA now does this make them the most incestual group to reproduce being such a small number and separated easily? Just wondering since I was a little girl but are the only professors to do research on black history and have us understand and accept it are white men? I use to love History but now it’s just confusing, especially the whole race thing and Columbus..

Doing original historical research is indeed a very time-consuming and sometimes, therefore, a costly process. Luckily there are many scholars – Black, White and of many other racial/ethnic groups – doing excellent research by locating original documents (like slave ship manifests) and artifacts (like gravesites where enslaved people were buried), from which much information can be derived. As to the Transatlantic Slave Trade, you read Dr. Gates’ article above carefully and note the map, you’ll see that the Atlantic was not the only trade route but was definitely the one through which the most enslaved people were transported from their homes to enslavement in far away countries. And as one of the other commenters on this article reminds us, many enslaved women were raped and impregnated by their enslavers and other white men. Also that populations of captives from different tribes and nations were thrown together on the ships and in the plantations, so their children were not the products of incest.

Just wanted to say that there was only men that were brought over during the slave trade most African-Americans don’t even know that the majority of their DNA was already in America before the slave trade even happen. Stay woke!! Ask Dan Calloway

SOOOOOOOOOOO… If only MEN were brought over from Africa, how exactly did we reproduce and create families?

We must not forget that some Native Americans where reclassified as slave…

Indigenous Americans also owned many black slaves. In fact after emancipation the Cherokees made their black slaves tribal members then when they opened their casinos not so long ago they tried to kick them out so they didn’t have to share profits with them.

I like this article, I think it cuts through the victimhood narrative: Power hungry blacks and whites and politicians dwell in the past and persuade people they are victims, This mindset can become an excuse, and when one have excuses then it will prevent one from becoming self-reliant and prosperous. At this point; people will begin to seek out a savior/solution; however, these “saviors” solution are contrary and duplicitous because it goes against their personal goals. Hence why Democrats; run on platform of change and help for blacks and accomplish very very little.
A sad but true fact…….

Also, did you know there are more slaves in Africa today 2021, around 750,000 or more captive by black Africans?

Ha! If I were a black American I’d be looking for reparations myself.

Its pretty insensitive of you to come up with the victim crap!!The last part of your comment tells me you’re justifying what happened hundreds of yrs ago!!Slavery was and still is an evil
practice!! Africa would probably be in alot better shape today had Europeans kept their asses away!!millions of innocent ppl were ripped away from their families and never to be seen again!!You don’t see anything wrong with that??

Roni,Columbus never touch North Americas land, also he didn’t have nothing to do with the slave trade Most of the slaves trade in the 13 south colonies were during British Royal rules
Nothing is confusing if you read the right books an if you look at dates

True enough. In 1715 the Virginia Assembly, albeit they did not vote to end slavery, they did vote to end the importation of new slaves. The British Crown over ruled the vote claiming they need the revenue that the slave trade generated.

The reason why there are so many Black Americans now compared to other nations in the Americas is due to the fact that Cuba, Brazil, and all other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America allowed and even encouraged racial mixing post slavery. Those countries had thousands more African slaves than the USA and Brazil had MILLIONS; over the years, racial mixing caused the population of people of mostly African ancestry to decrease.

In the USA a smaller amount of slaves were brought than the countries listed but the African American population grew due to the fact that racial mixing was illegal for 100 years after slavery and something that is relatively new to the society. Had the USA allowed or encouraged racial mixing like other nations in the America’s did, then the Black population here would be a lot smaller today and the demographics of our country would be similar to those of let’s say Cuba, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. We would be a racially mixed bag of people.

If we are to study how 500,000 Africans became 42,000,000 African Americans in the United States that research would show that American slave owners treated slaves as their most valuable, renewable resource. They impregnated girls as early as possible and as often as possible. At the time of the emancipation proclamation ( by no means the end of bondage) Africans made up exactly the same percentage of the U S population that we do today 13%.

In 1860 the US population was approx 31,000,000. That would make the slave population approximately 1-2%

500K (or less) is the estimate of how many Africa slaves landed in North America. This is not the same as the population of African slaves by 1860.

I have often wondered if not for slavery.. African Americans would today be living in some 3rd world Country and would probably have never even made it to America.

Wait you think Africans didn’t know how to navigate the seas?

If Africans don’t end up in America there would be no African Americans. As far as Africa living standards or quality of life is subjective.

I find it sad that so many white Americans claim to value their freedom above everything else in life, but the freedom of a person of color means absolutely nothing to them. The old ‘slaves were better off as slaves’ nonsense is a bigot’s most lame argument. As far as African countries being third world countries, it is because Europeans invaded and raped the entire continent for centuries, not because African people are incapable of success. If they had all the resources back taken from racist warmongers, Africa would contain some of the wealthiest nations on Earth. Likewise, if African-Americans had their fair share of the US resources after their ancestors provided most of the labor and much of the ingenuity to build this nation. the average black family would have more than one tenth the wealth of the average white family in America today.
I hope you actually realize how ridiculous your speculation really is. All humans came from Africa at some point in history. For millennium, many African civilizations were more technologically advanced than any people in Europe. By your logic, Africans should have enslaved the native Europeans and stolen their resources so today they could ponder about how much better off Europeans are because Africans decimated their population and stole all their stuff for centuries.

Sorry. my first reply was meant for Micah.

Amazed that’s what your brain said you should write down as a thought. You don’t think 400 years and over 12 million people/families being torn apart from one country would affect quality of life down the road for that country. That has to be the main reason it’s a 3rd world country now – what the slave trade did to it.

Contact with people of color was in progress by the Portuguese & Spanish due to a thousand years of incursions by the Moors & later seafaring explorations by Vasco de Gama & Henry the Navigator along the African coast line. As a result, they became more familiar & accepting of people of color. New England was later colonized by the English & Dutch who had less contact with darker skinned people until the 16th century.

Finally! Someone that brings logic and facts into the conversation. Rob, your comment is appreciated. Too bad it slaughters the narrative. During an episode on my podcast I note when the “woke” talk about America becoming wealthy on the backs of Blacks and slave ownership, why isn’t Brazil wealthy as they brought 10X the number there . That same illogical argument can be easily refuted in Caribbean countries as well. It wasn’t as if the African men were taken in the dead of night from their high rise condo and then were sold to traders. Many of them actually had a better, albeit rough, life in America than in their home country. And why such little mention of the !1+ million Africans that have emigrated WILLINGLY to the USA since 1070? Were they so stupid to intentionally come on their own accord to a racist country? And yes, over the course of the history of the USA descendants and America born blacks made a significant contribution to what America became. And for that they should be rightfully acknowledged. The entire matter is one of not rising above the line and most of that was by design of the liberal left. From the get go Democrats of all stripes were the driving force behind segregation and exclusion, yet it is they who are the loudest complainers. go figure.

How slaves were sold by other Africans compared how many were captured by white slave traders

I think dudes got it wrong it’s my opinion but I believe alot of the black slaves were originally native Americans me reading that small of a number was shipped from Africa they had to get the rest from somewhere

I lost at least 10 IQ points after reading Corey’s thoughts.

“….alot of black staves were originally native Americans” Although the Spanish made attempts to enslave the indigenous people of the “New World” they came into contact with, most rebelled. There was ingemination with escaped Black slaves & Indian tribes, but that came much later. (ie: Cherokee Creek, Choctaw, et al) & many Native Americans held slaves well into the 19th century, blacks & other tribes. Genetic analyses seems to show the Native Americans came out of Siberia or east Asia. at least ten thousand years ago.

Millions of Africans have immigrated here since slavery ended.

There’s evidence of the Americas being inhabited far before that. In fact some good evidence going back 130,000 years from a mammoth butchering site in California. Recently fossilized human footprints dated to 23,000 years ago in the heartland. As time progresses we find older evidence.

“Incestual”? So let me understand what you are saying. You are under the impression that all of the enslaved Africans were closely related on the plantations and slave ships and willingly mated with their relatives and committed the sin of incest. Of course you must know that most African captives on the slave ships and many on each plantation were not related? Also It never dawned on you that Enslaved African women were being raped and impregnated by white slavemasters and their relatives for three centuries? In the Information Age how can someone be this clueless if they are truly seeking the truth?

The person was asking a question, legitimately trying to expand their knowledge and satiate a curiosity they had. Responses like yours are the reason people are afraid to ask questions. As a result, their understanding remains unfulfilled. What purpose does it serve to belittle them? Maybe, next time you can give them information in a polite way so knowledge is exchanged, not anger.

Nice reply Patrick.
Verbal bullying is more powerful that physically bullying long term.

But the US itself never had three hundred years of raping black women or any kind of mistreatment, as a matter of fact. The US did not legally exist or have any legal power until the US won the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 and even then the Revolutionary War wasn’t officially ended until the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States. But remember, from the very first there was bitter division in this country about slavery and most of the Northern states were enacting abolitionist laws even before the US was officially a county in 1783. The US, in fact, is the least spiritually, morally, ethically, legally and financially guilty of all the countries involved with slavery. And if black people want reparations, since most of them were kidnapped by other countries than the US, they should start there first. It was a fight here from the very beginning, but it was like the abortion issue today. Yesterday’s Dred Scott decision is today’s Wade vs Roe decision. Somebody or some group is always just a 5/6 human to somebody else or some other group. Yesterday is today and the same type of people are involved. So whatta ya going to do?

Too bad aborted babies can’t ask for reparations…

“In the Information Age how can someone be this clueless if they are truly seeking the truth?”
Every journey of enlightenment and understanding begins with a foundation of ignorance, which, for the most part, continues until our final breath.
As in every meaningful endeavor, it’s all about the journey, not the final destination.
Unless you were born with the ability to read and speak and write and analyze information, you had to go through a (sometimes painful) learning process; a process which, by definition, is not “natural.”
An engineer or scientist might scoff, “how do you not understand physics, chemistry, thermodynamics?”
A lawyer might demand to know “how are you so clueless about court procedures and basic common law?”
A banker might question “why don’t you understand compound interest and amortization tables?”
The English teacher may exclaim “how can you not conjugate a verb?”
I began my own journey into my family history half a century ago; a fairly “simple” matter of combing through birth and death records, searching cemeteries for dates on tombstones, court records, census records, family Bibles. .. and comparing them with historical accounts in newspapers, magazines, obscure history dissertations.
We all have different levels of education and experience, we all hone our skills to provide for ourselves and our families first. Sometimes the understanding of our cultural history is a luxury we can’t yet afford; abusing those who are not as far along their path of discovery as we is less than helpful.

I really don’t know why we can’t talk without getting mean to each other. We all want to live together or we wouldn’t be here. My ancestor came from England and it doesn’t bother me. My family never had slaves. We grew up poor. Most of the low class people still live in poverty white or black. We can’t help what our forefathers did. We can only be glad we are more educated. Jesus was hung on a stake. Does that mean the Jews blame you and I? Let’s all try to forget what a few ignorant men did to make money. They are still selling human beings only now they don’t care what color they are. Put the past behind us. Just get along live for the future.

Desr Mrs/Sir,
How many Africans were transported from Africa to USA during the periode of Colonialisme.
Armand Zunder.

Approximately half a million Africans were brought to the area that would become the USA, according to Professor Gates (see above).

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., I always appreciate your contributions to the African-American experience.

Black Americans have been here longer than the majority of white Americans; Isn’t time to drop the African. its been 200+ years.

We all have different levels of education but education and all your learned knowledge never passes up or is needed to understand all that exists because unconditional love and the answers to all earths questions are already within you but God requires us to be pure and he is in control of all good n all evil.

Did a vast white army invade Africa and capture blacks or were they sold by warring tribes as spoils of war and sold to white slave traders. I’m curious as to whether blacks themselves are owning up to some responsibility in the first place.

Chris, The sellers were North Africans the middlemen were Jewish and the buyers were Rich people from around the known world with probably about the same amount of white people as black people sold. Some of your possible ancestry was castrated and forced to serve some master if you are of European decent.

Music Man, can you point me to the sources of the information in your comment? I’m curious about several aspects of your reply to Chris that don’t ring true. For example, I’m curious as to how Chris could be descended from slaves who were castrated, as that generally make reproduction impossible.

A white army did invade Africa. Long before the slave trade.. And some black tribes did sale captured blacks from other tribes to slavers. However, they were wrong for that. All of them.

The answer is mostly from warring tribes, however tribal warfare has always existed and even in other regions like North America no? You were correct and saying warring tribes but do you understand it? If one tribe captures/or kindnaps another distinct group is that the same group selling themselves? So how can “blacks” own up if you used the word tribes which means you know they existed as separate entities. People like you try to group “blacks” as one race to justify chattel slavery which is different from slavery in West Africa, basically your saying since a dark skin person initially slaved their ancestor first Americans are not to blame for bringing people thousands of miles from their homeland(different from Africa) and an continued practice of racism and injustice towards specific people. Whats your excuse for Native Americans atrocities? They should own up too, for standing in your way of manifest destiny? That’s your logic.

There is no argument, justification for slavery of any human being. The atrocities, whether it was African slaves, Native Americans or Jewish people is just a disgusting evil.
I try to educate myself, to ferret out the truth. It is sickening research. I become ill by the information, it is a truly a small discomfort compared to the conditions slave families had to endure. If they survived.
Census rolls with a 10 year old child listed as property and no name.
Now think of your child on that list.
I

I would like to know the answer to Chris’ question

There is a good article on the evolution of slave trade in Republic of Benin which, as I understand it, was the major deportation port of enslaved Africans. That article can be found at: https://medium.com/from-traditional-to-contemporary-aesthetic/the-slaving-port-of-ouidah-and-monumental-discourse-around-the-atlantic-perimeter-a41968341a57
The Washington Post also has this article that might help understand that black Africans captured other black Africans and sold them to a powerful Brazilian family: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/an-african-country-reckons-with-its-history-of-selling-slaves/2018/01/29/5234f5aa-ff9a-11e7-86b9-8908743c79dd_story.html

I offer the suggestion that this conversation will be enriched by reading a book, BEFORE THE MAYFLOWER, by Lerone Bennett Jr. ..

I’ve studied in America and abroad. Until about 10 years ago I never heard of any war fought that would have led to 12 million people being sold in Africa. Imagine the wealth that would’ve been created. What happened to that wealth? Why have no nation requested reparations for losing so many people? African tribes sued for reparations from Germany for crimes hidden long before slavery, yet no claim for the black people in America. That doesn’t sound logical. Neither does hundreds of people traveling for months at a time stacked on top of each other with no food or fresh water all while urinating and defecating on each other, yet marched to an auction block upon arrival. My 2 yo grandchild sits on my lap for 5 minutes and my legs feels numb. The atlantic slave trade narrative is less probable than mission impossible. My question to you is what could black people possibly take responsibility for? There is not one record stating who their descendants are or where they came from. It’s all speculation.

Mr. Star, I can see why you might be confused if you’re thinking that the slave trade would have to be the consequence of a war and that captured Africans “traveled for months at a time… with no food or fresh water.” If you read the 2 contemporary eyewitness accounts a bit more closely, you’ll see that they do talk about “scanty food” and describe the kidnapped Africans as fighting their way to get drops of fresh water. So there was barely enough food and water to sustain life, and many died along the way from suffocation, starvation, disease, beatings, and suicides by drowning. Also of note: The Transatlantic Slave Trade lasted nearly 400 years, and there are excellent records (ships’ manifests) of the more than 12 million Africans transported to the New World during that time. You probably had not heard of all this because it has not been well-described in our history textbooks nor in popular literature. That does not mean it did not happen, but only that many historians and book publishers did not value Black lives enough to research and write about this horrific trade in human beings — or that it was simply so ugly than they did not wish for Americans to learn these shameful parts of our history. As is true for many countries, the triumphant, glorious parts of history get told and retold, and the embarrassing or horrifying parts get ignored or buried.

Why is finding who owes reparations so hard? Slavery was well documented by the owners. Ledgers with names and worths! Has anyone even tried to honestly research these documents? The information is there, maybe we need to silence our politicians and allow for some meaningful dialogue.

I would like to know the answer to the question, “How many Africans were taken to the Americas during the slave trade?”

Brianna, hopefully you found the answer to your important question within this exhibit. Another place to go for this information is https://www.slavevoyages.org/ .

Depends which part of the Americas. There are three countries that belong to the North American continent (The U.S. of America, Canada and Mexico.) Then there is Central America and South America and the Caribbean. Mexico was called New Spain from the late 1400s to the early 1800’s until the “mixed people and the Native Americans” won their independence from New Spain in 1821, then New Spain was renamed the United States of Mexico. It depends where one looks – but there are records that indicate that the Portuguese charged high prices for the slaves and the number of slaves available during the Spanish rule in North America were not sufficient to meet the needs of the colony and so records indicate that in that part of North America, under Spanish Rule, before it became Mexico and before the U.S of America invaded what had become Mexico (1846-1848) there were about 6,000 Africans in New Spain and about 3,000 African in Central America (Central Americas population and land mass is much small than Mexico). Although As it turns out according to the ABHM (America’s Black Holocaust Museum there were about 500,000 that ended up in the part of North America that was known for the 13 colonies. The U.S. had not invaded Mexico yet until 1846-1848 and Mexico didn’t purchase slaves. Slavery was illegal in Mexico. (New Spain did purchase slaves but that was before it became Mexico) – at the time- around 1480’s- the Portuguese controlled the slave trade and the numbers of Africans available were small in comparison to what came about 200 years later, when New Spain was still New Spain but now the English had also invaded North America and began to create the 13 colonies (over a span of 170 years). Don’t forget that modern Mexico today, was not Mexico until 1821- after fighting for their independence from their “Mother Country Spain”. Spain, brought slaves to North America before the English because Cortez ( ” Mexican History” Jaffary, Osowski, Porter) and other explorers sailed out before the English. But the majority of the Slaves ended up in South America, Brazil, (Brazil had over 4 million African slaves) and the Caribbean (I think it was Cuba and Puerto that held out and continued the slave trade until 1890s, with Cuba being the last to stop the import of Slavery.)

Great and informative response Min, thanks! Although counterintuitive, what countries LEFT the Spanish Empire since they founded, in 1492, the Italian Colombo, the “Christ Bringer” as he fancied himself…

(Sorry for formatting, best I could do). (Here is a visual of those countries that gained independence from the Spanish Empire — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_gained_independence_from_Spain)

The point being SPAIN NOT ENGLAND DOMINATED! Look at a map of the West and ask what countries are Spanish-speaking and Roman Catholic in the plus 95%ile for most of the last 500 years? (Throw in Brazil since, as you can see, Portugal was part of the S.E. until 1640)

Africans in Mexico.3 It is now fairly certain that in the period 1519-1650 the area received at least 120,000 slaves, or two-thirds of all the Africans imported into the Spanish possessions in America.4

As a middle aged white male mainly from the south I wondered yrs. Ago how many people were brought here to be slaves. I do know that all information I read is only as honest as the person writing it. But I was pretty shocked to read how many people today are related to the slaves yes. ago. Granted I know this is not a one stop shop for answers but this does help me with my questions and make want to ask more and learn.

Because enslaved people were treated as cargo, as property, there is an extensive record of slave ship manifests (lists of the cargo that was on each ship). There were also receipts for insurance paid to cover the loss of that human property. These and other records help historians figure out out many Africans were brought to the New World to labor for free all their lives. And it is a shocking number. In addition, there was intentional forced breeding to produce new slaves. So yes, you are correctly noticing that many many people in the US are descended from that large exploited population.

[…] difficult to calculate exact number for obvious reasons. Less than 400,000 human beings used for chattel slavery were shipped to the U.S. between 1525 and 1866, according to Henry Louis Gates, […]

[…] When the Portuguese explorers found the uninhabited Canary islands off of the coast of Africa, those who were not afraid of the diseases like Malaria and Yellow Fever began establishing cotton and indigo plantations. Then they began importing more slaves from Africa to perform the hard labor and began to sell the cloth they had licensed up and down the African coast.[106] […]

“12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage…And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America? Only about 388,000. That’s right: a tiny percentage.”

I’m an Electrical Engineer with a firm grasp of numbers and scale. I find these figures very difficult to believe and borderline ridiculous considering available data. The Transatlantic Slave Trade lasted 400 years. Given the absurdly high survival rate the article implies, that would mean that on average less than a thousand slaves a year were “imported” to the United States across the numerous slave ports from Charleston to St. Augustine FL to Louisiana receiving constant shipments of slaves. On the other hand, we have account on “small” shipments of slaves numbering 20 at a time, and of accounts of slavers capturing as many as 50,000 slaves, between the years of 1618 and 1620, long before slavery ended. With such a supposedly tiny number of slaves being imported in the United States one would have the false impression that the United States was a extremely minor player in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade, when we know that this was simply not the case given the wealth it accumulated from Slavery. Just on the available, albeit loose collection of, data, I find this article very hard to believe.

I really think that some people can’t quite wrap their minds around that fact that there were 388,000 Africans brought to America and yet we are supposed to think that this number shot up to millions upon millions because of chattel slavery. However, even if this is thought to be, how can you explain that Black Americans had a much LARGER explosion of population growth AFTER slavery when people weren’t actually forced to have babies?

The math ain’t mathing. I think the numbers are wonky because they are indeed trying to conceal that there were MANY people already right here in America who were indeed enslaved. An original 388,000 turned into an easy 7+ million at the end of slavery which then shot up to a whopping 42 million after slavery. This does not even make sense.

A lot of so-called slaves were actually POW’s in the Americas, just research the journals of the early European colonizers that describe ‘black or dark’ skinned people they met upon landing on this ‘newfound’ land. Many of these expeditions occurred before the slave trade. Many of the dark native tribes were written out of history because they were easy targets to be classified as slaves to people who needed more slaves and second Congress(victors) gets to determine which tribes were recognized as native. Lastly, the options of the Census of 1790 and forward created inconsistencies in how the black native indians(because Columbus was lost) were defined and labeled. Artwork and artifacts in all the Americas’ caves and landscape substantiate the aforementioned.

That can’t be right who was ordering 5,000 slaves a day and it take 3 months to sail to America and half of them died on the way over and where are all these ships at now haven’t been that long ago makes no sense who said these numbers

https://www.amren.com/features/2017/02/black-slavery-middle-east/ More information on this topic, touches on the growth of the African-American population, and gives information on the middle east’s slave trade during recent times. I had to stop to digest the information a few times.

The the information on the website you cite is, to my thinking, suspect and potentially flawed in its accuracy. Its authors are self-titled “race-realists” who maintain that the concept of “race” is based in biology. This centuries-old concept has been thoroughly well-debunked by modern genetics; there is no inheritable gene or set of genes that form a person’s “race” as a set of traits that include IQ or character. A person’s phenotype (how much melanin in his/her skin, hair texture, thin or full lips, etc.) has no proven relationship to his/her character traits or IQ. Therefore I’d read the above linked article with skepticism and check for a range of reliable sources on this topic.

Most slaves came from West Africa. During periods of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as many as 40% of slaves sold to the 13 colonies were brought through the ports of Charleston. What ports received the remaining 60%, and did they also come from West Africa?

Yes, the enslaved Africans in the US were brought primarily from West Africa. For information about the various ports to which they were brought for sale, please see this excellent National Geographic article.

How Many Enslaved People Were Taken from Africa?

Information about how many enslaved people were stolen from Africa and shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas during the sixteenth century can only be estimated as few records exist for this period. However, from the seventeenth century onward, increasingly accurate records, such as ship manifests, are available.

The First Trans-Atlantic Trade of Enslaved People

At the beginning of the 1600s, enslaved people for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were captured in Senegambia and the Windward Coast. This region had had a long history of providing enslaved people for the Islamic trans-Saharan trade. Around 1650 the Kingdom of the Kongo, which the Portuguese had ties with, started exporting enslaved people. The focus of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade moved to here and neighboring northern Angola. Kongo and Angola would continue to be substantial exporters of enslaved people until the nineteenth century. Senegambia would provide a steady trickle of enslaved people through the centuries, but never on the same scale as the other regions of Africa.

Rapid Expansion

From the 1670s the “Slave Coast” (Bight of Benin) underwent a rapid expansion of trade in enslaved people which continued until the nineteenth century. Gold Coast export of enslaved people rose sharply in the eighteenth century but dropped markedly when Britain abolished slavery in 1808 and commenced anti-slavery patrols along the coast.

The Bight of Biafra, centered on the Niger Delta and the Cross River, became a significant exporter of enslaved people from the 1740s and, and along with its neighbor the Bight of Benin, dominated the Trans-Atlantic slave trade until its effective end in the mid-nineteenth century. These two regions alone account for two-thirds of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the first half of the 1800s.

The Slave Trade Declines

The scale of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade declined during the Napoleonic wars in Europe (1799 to 1815) but quickly rebounded once peace returned. Britain abolished slavery in 1808 and British patrols effectively ended the trade in enslaved peoples along the Gold Coast and up to Senegambia. When the port of Lagos was taken by the British in 1840, the trade of enslaved people from the Bight of Benin also collapsed.

The trade of enslaved people from the Bight of Biafra gradually declined in the nineteenth century, partially as a result of British patrols and a reduction in demand for enslaved people from America, but also because of local shortages of enslaved people. To fulfill the demand, the significant tribes in the region (such and the Luba, Lunda, and Kazanje) turned on each other using the Cokwe (hunters from further inland) as mercenaries. People were captured and enslaved as a result of raids. The Cokwe, however, became dependent on this new form of employment and turned on their employers when the coastal trade of enslaved people evaporated.

The increased activities of British anti-slavery patrols along the west-African coast resulted in a brief upturn in trade from west-central and south-east Africa as increasingly desperate Trans-Atlantic slave ships visited ports under Portuguese protection. The authorities there were inclined to look the other way.

With a general abolition of slavery in effect by the end of the nineteenth century, Africa started to be seen as a different resource: instead of enslaved people, the continent was being eyed for its land and minerals. The scramble for Africa was on, and its people would be coerced into ’employment’ in mines and on plantations.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Data

The greatest raw-data resource for those investigating the Trans-Atlantic slave trade is the WEB du Bois database. However, its scope is restricted to trade destined for the Americas and does not include those sent to African plantation islands and Europe.

Source https://www.thoughtco.com/how-many-slaves-taken-from-africa-42999

Source https://www.abhmuseum.org/how-many-africans-were-really-taken-to-the-u-s-during-the-slave-trade/

Source https://www.thoughtco.com/how-many-slaves-taken-from-africa-42999