ROOTS: DISCOVERING YOUR AFRICAN ORIGINS, PT. II

II. IMPORT OF AFRICAN SLAVES INTO BRITISH NORTH AMERICA / UNITED STATES, 1620-1860

Number of slaves imported during the periods specified.

1620-1700- 1,700-20,500 *
1701-1760- 188,600
1761-1770- 62,668
1771-1790- 55,750
1791-1800- 79,041
1801-1810- 114,090
1811-1870- 51,000
1761-1810- 10,200 (figures for Louisiana only, which was a French or Spanish possession for most of this period)

Total- 581,751 slaves legally imported into the United States and British North America.

Note: (Numerous slaves were illegally imported into the United States after the 1808 ban on such activity: for obvious reasons, however, no definitive statistics are available. Also, it must be remembered that the above figures include slaves imported to all British possessions in the Western Hemisphere, not merely slaves brought to the United States.)

III. MAJOR SLAVE-TRADING REGIONS OF AFRICA AND THE MODERN-DAY COUNTRIES THEY REPRESENT

Major slave-trading regions are in bold face type.

1. Angola: Angola, Zaire, Zambia
2. Bight of Benin: Benin, Togo
3. Bight of Biafra: Nigeria
4. Congo: Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo
5. Gold Coast: Burkina-Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast
6. Senegambia: The Gambia, Senegal
7. Sierra Leone: Guinea, Guineau-Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone
8. Windward Coast: Liberia

Note: "Bight" refers to a bend or curve in a shoreline.

Compiled by Thomas A. Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
http://www.slpl.org/

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