Coursera - History of the Slave South, Assignment 1

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database is a useful tool for accessing information about who enslaved people were, where they originated from and where they were sold.  We can combine these three parameters and begin to draw conclusions about how the slave trade shaped the American South.

The first table of data isolates the regions in North America where enslaved Africans were received.  At the start of the slave trade, there was a small total number of slaves and the difference between the colony with the fewest slave sales and the most is not very great. In the hundred years of the 18th century, however, the number of slaves increased dramatically, particularly in Virginia and South Carolina, which had plantations and cash crops. Slave importation for most other colonies did not increase as drastically, although a couple of colonies began importation during this time.  When compared to the total quantity of people sold into slavery during the slave trade (12 million), the North American colonies were an afterthought with a total import number of just over 366,000 people.

The second table of data isolates the regions of origin of the enslaved Africans who were transported to the North American colonies. Please note: this export figure of 242,000 is 1/3 less than the import figure discussed above. While locations of origin were spread along the coast, at the beginning of the slave trade the regions of the Bight of Biafra and West Central Africa were the first large scale exporters to the colonies. As the demand for slaves increased in the 18th century the areas of Sierra Leone, Windward Coast and Gold Coast jumped far ahead of the others in both percentage increase and overall number of slaves sent abroad. Interestingly, West Central Africa continued to export large numbers of people throughout this time and even into the 19th century when supply from the other regions either tapered off or was dramatically reduced.

The third table of data combines the information we have already reviewed and shows which specific areas enslaved people were taken from and where they were bought in the colonies. While most colonies (northerly and southerly) had slaves originating from all regions, primarily the plantation economy colonies had slaves who originated in West Central Africa or the Bight of Biafra. 

These charts are a useful resource for looking at the data of the slave trade.  The specificity of the information begins to rehumanize the very idea of a "slave trade"; knowing that people were taken, sold and transported between specific ports brings them closer to us. Unfortunately, the tables do not tell the whole story.  The reasons why the southern colonies received large numbers of people from these regions is not revealed by the tables; could it have been price, supply,  cultural attitude (temperament) or a combination of all these?  We are given points of disembarkation, but as so many enslaved people were captured & sold by rivals, enemies or human traffickers, where did they actually live before their journey began? Working with raw data and tables like these, while interesting, is just the start of the story of the slave trade and its shaping of the American South.