“It is estimated that during the 4 1/2 centuries of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Portugal was responsible for transporting over 4.5 million Africans (roughly 40% of the total). During the eighteenth century however, when the slave trade accounted for the transport of a staggering 6 million Africans, Britain was the worst transgressor - responsible for almost 2.5 million. (A fact often forgotten by those who regularly cite Britain’s prime role in the abolition of the slave trade.)”
“Slaves were introduced to new diseases and suffered from malnutrition long before they reached the new world. It is suggested that the majority of deaths on the voyage across the Atlantic - the middle passage - occurred during the first couple of weeks and were a result of malnutrition and disease encountered during the forced marches and subsequent interment at slave camps on the coast.”
TheStateOf. . .The Numbers. Most analysts suggest that 11 million persons were abducted from Africa throughout the 450-year slave trade. That’s an amazing number of people, over 22 generations. Slaves were not only taken from the coastal areas, but marched from deep inland areas that are now known as the Central African Republic, Chad and the Congo. Hugh Thomas’ The Slave Trade and Spelman professor Anne C. Bailey’s African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade are good books on the subject.
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