The transatlantic trade in enslaved people operates
Over roughly three and a half centuries, on the SlaveVoyages estimates, about 12.5 million people are embarked from African ports for the Americas and about 10.7 million disembark, the difference being deaths during the crossing. The great majority are landed in Brazil and the Caribbean rather than in North America. This is the mechanism behind roughly half of everything else in this Journey: the instruments, the ensemble practices and the vocal traditions of West and West-Central Africa reach the Americas because the people who held them were transported and sold.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The Middle Passage · phenomenon · Atlantic Ocean — West and West-Central Africa to the Americas · not located
- The transatlantic slave trade · phenomenon · Atlantic Ocean — West and West-Central Africa to the Americas · not located
- West Africa · region · West Africa · not located
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source.
SlaveVoyages — Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, Estimates
Roughly 12.5 million people were embarked in Africa for the Americas and about 10.7 million disembarked, across voyages conventionally dated 1501–1866. V55 verification basis: a retrieved search result attributed the figure of 12,520,000 embarked and 10.7 million disembarked explicitly to the database's own Estimates page, which is what this record cites; the database itself was not queried, and its estimates are periodically revised, so a curator should take current figures from it directly.
SlaveVoyages consortium (Rice University and partner institutions) · continuously revised; consulted August 2026 · Verified
slavevoyages.org — Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Estimates
Recorded on The Middle Passage
- The transatlantic trade in enslaved people operates
- Hans Sloane records gourd lutes in Jamaica
- Jefferson names the banjar and its origin
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.