FORCED MIGRATION:

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Roderick A. McDonaldONMAP

February 27, 2008

Figures based on Philip Curtin, The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census (Madison, 1969), 268.

Slave Trade Distribution____________________________Destination Slave Imports % of Trade____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Brazil 4,000,000 35%

British Caribbean 2,000,000 18%

British North America 500,000 4%

Danish Caribbean 28,000 under 1%

Dutch Caribbean 500,000 4%

Europe 175,000 2%

French Caribbean 1,600,000 14%

Spanish America 2,500,000 22%

TOTAL 11,328,000 100%

Nationality of Ships Engaged in the Slave Trade, 1700-1801

Carrier Captives Per Cent

British 2,468,000 40.5

Portuguese 1,888,000 31.0

French 1,104,000 18.1

Dutch 349,000 5.7

North American 206,000 3.4

Danish 66,000 1.0

Other

(Swedish, German, et. al).

10,000 0.2

TOTAL 6,091,000

Source: Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge, 2000)

Source: Kongo's King Alvaro receiving Dutch emissaries in 1642. Olfert Dapper, Description de l'Afrique, 1686.

& van Someren, 1686)

“When I looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate and quite overpowered with sorrow and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. . . . I asked if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, red faces and long hair?"

"The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died." 

(A) pair of handcuffs for men (right wrist of one person was padlocked to left wrist of another)

(B) leg shackles for men (right ankle of one is fastened to left ankle of another)

( C,D,E,) the thumbscrew used for punishing slaves

(F,G,H) speculum orum or mouth opener (used by surgeons aboard slave ships for force feeding, in cases of "locked jaw" or on persons who "for one reason or another refused to eat or could not eat").

Legal End of Atlantic Slave Trade____________________________Denmark 1792 (1802)Britain 1807 (1808)United States 1807 (1808)Holland 1814France 1818Spain 1817/1820Portugal 1818/1839Brazil 1826/1845

Dates of Emancipation____________________________Haiti 1804

British West Indies 1833 (begins); 1838

French West Indies 1848

Danish West Indies 1848

Dutch West Indies 1863

United States 1865

Cuba 1886

Brazil 1888

FORCED MIGRATION:

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Roderick A. McDonaldONMAP

February 27, 2008