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The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes
Slate ^ | 25 June 2015 | Andrew Kahn and Jamelle Bouie

Posted on 06/29/2015 11:47:48 AM PDT by Lorianne

Usually, when we say “American slavery” or the “American slave trade,” we mean the American colonies or, later, the United States. But as we discussed in Episode 2 of Slate’s History of American Slavery Academy, relative to the entire slave trade, North America was a bit player. From the trade’s beginning in the 16th century to its conclusion in the 19th, slave merchants brought the vast majority of enslaved Africans to two places: the Caribbean and Brazil. Of the more than 10 million enslaved Africans to eventually reach the Western Hemisphere, just 388,747—less than 4 percent of the total—came to North America. This was dwarfed by the 1.3 million brought to Spanish Central America, the 4 million brought to British, French, Dutch, and Danish holdings in the Caribbean, and the 4.8 million brought to Brazil.

This interactive, designed and built by Slate’s Andrew Kahn, gives you a sense of the scale of the trans-Atlantic slave trade across time, as well as the flow of transport and eventual destinations. The dots—which represent individual slave ships—also correspond to the size of each voyage. The larger the dot, the more enslaved people on board. And if you pause the map and click on a dot, you’ll learn about the ship’s flag—was it British? Portuguese? French?—its origin point, its destination, and its history in the slave trade. The interactive animates more than 20,000 voyages cataloged in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. (We excluded voyages for which there is incomplete or vague information in the database.) The graph at the bottom accumulates statistics based on the raw data used in the interactive and, again, only represents a portion of the actual slave trade—about one-half of the number of enslaved Africans who actually were transported away from the continent.

(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: slavery
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Interactive map at source.
1 posted on 06/29/2015 11:47:48 AM PDT by Lorianne
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To: Lorianne

And never forget that it was mainly blacks who captured them sold them into slavery.


2 posted on 06/29/2015 11:50:47 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (A free society cannot let the parameters of its speech be set by murderous Islamists.)
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To: Lorianne

It was mostly a Catholic thing.


3 posted on 06/29/2015 11:53:18 AM PDT by ansel12 (libertarians have always been for gay marriage and polygamy, gay Scout leaders, gay military.)
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To: Lorianne

So the slave trade to the American south was just a bit more than 8% of the total slave trade to the New World, but we - apparently - are to blame for 100% of it.


4 posted on 06/29/2015 11:54:17 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: ansel12

It was mostly a muslim thing. Slavery still is.


5 posted on 06/29/2015 11:55:20 AM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

As I traveled through villages in west Africa, my interpreter would explain to me that those people had been his ancestors slaves.


6 posted on 06/29/2015 11:56:02 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: Steely Tom

There were plenty of slaves in the North, too.

You just don’t hear that much about them because it messes up the narrative.


7 posted on 06/29/2015 12:04:47 PM PDT by Arm_Bears (Biology is biology. Everything else is imagination.)
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To: Lorianne
Only about 5% of slaves came to the U.S.


8 posted on 06/29/2015 12:07:20 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie ( A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers)
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To: Arm_Bears

What narrative?


9 posted on 06/29/2015 12:07:29 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: rockrr

Southerners are evil, Northerners are virtuous.


10 posted on 06/29/2015 12:11:16 PM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: PeterPrinciple

Wow, isn’t that interesting.


11 posted on 06/29/2015 12:13:51 PM PDT by donna (Polls are mob rule . . . faked.)
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To: null and void

I don’t see anyone pushing that narrative.


12 posted on 06/29/2015 12:15:01 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: donna

Yeah. Brazil got TEN TIMES as many slaves as the US yet they don’t have a permanent race problem.

Why is that do you suppose?

*cough* democrats *cough*


13 posted on 06/29/2015 12:16:35 PM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: rockrr

Racist, sexist, bigoted, homophobic, ignorant, incestuous, xenophobic White Southerners with poor dental hygiene and personal habits who cling to God and their guns.

That narrative.


14 posted on 06/29/2015 12:16:54 PM PDT by Arm_Bears (Biology is biology. Everything else is imagination.)
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To: rockrr

Really??? Remarkable!

Go buy a Confederate battle flag and get back to me, m’kay?


15 posted on 06/29/2015 12:17:39 PM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

Slavery also didn’t end in Brazil until the 1880s.

And yet the Brazilian flag isnt banned and the Olympics are going to be held there too!


16 posted on 06/29/2015 12:18:38 PM PDT by VanDeKoik
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To: Arm_Bears

And the Confederate flag—They cling to that, too.


17 posted on 06/29/2015 12:19:09 PM PDT by Arm_Bears (Biology is biology. Everything else is imagination.)
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To: Arm_Bears

That seems like a silly narrative to me - I wouldn’t push it if I were you.


18 posted on 06/29/2015 12:19:49 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: rockrr

The DemocRAT Party and the media are, and have been, pushing that narrative.

Or were you asleep all of last week?


19 posted on 06/29/2015 12:21:05 PM PDT by Arm_Bears (Biology is biology. Everything else is imagination.)
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To: rockrr

Do you mean ‘I wouldn’t notice it if I were you’?

Have you ever lived in the south?


20 posted on 06/29/2015 12:23:00 PM PDT by null and void (I wish we lived in less interesting times, but at least we have front-row seats.)
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