The Volume and Structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Reassessment
Author(s)
Eltis, David
Abstract
Uses figures from the Du Bois Institute’s Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-ROM (1999) to reevaluate how many slaves were transported from 1519 to 1867, the main countries involved, and the major points of embarkation and debarkation. Though the database cannot be considered all-inclusive, it does cover a large majority of slave trade records. The author estimates a total of 11 million blacks were taken from Africa – mainly from West Central Africa, Benin, and other countries along the coast – and shows that the British and Portuguese participated the most among Europeans in the slave trade. As high as nine out of ten slaves were taken to the Americas, with Brazil and the British Caribbean.
