Geographic Origins of Enslaved Africans in British America

New England. Scholars estimate that just over 9,000 slaves were disembarked in New England. Fewer than 4,000 were shipped from the Caribbean, and the origins of these captives remains unknown. Of the more than 5,000 brought directly from Africa, the region from which they came is known for 2,025, or 40 percent. Thus, when the two sources for New England slaves are combined, geographic origins are available for less than a quarter. The majority (just over 1,000 or 55 percent) came from the Gold Coast (present day Ghana). The other main regions were the more northerly slave-exporting areas of West Africa. Between 200 and 300 individuals came from each of three areas: Senegambia (present day Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea Bissau), Sierra Leone, and the Windward Coast (present day Liberia and Ivory Coast). No slave trading voyages are known to have brought captives from more southerly slave-exporting regions of West Africa, including the Bight of Benin (present day Togo, Benin, and western Nigeria), the Bight of Biafra (present day eastern Nigeria and Cameroon), or West Central Africa (present day Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Congo, Democratic Republic Congo and Angola).

The Middle Colonies. Information on the regions in Africa from which the more than 18,000 slaves imported into the Middle Colonies came is limited. Just over 8,500 were shipped from the Caribbean, the origins of whom have not been identified. Of the more than 9,500 brought directly from Africa, the region from which they came is known for 4,105 or 42 percent. One-quarter (1,006) were transported from distant Madagascar. Another quarter (998) were brought from West Central Africa (present day Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Congo, Democratic Republic Congo and Angola), many of them carried in by Dutch captains in the 1650s and 1660s when New Netherland was a Dutch colony. A third quarter (1,033) were brought from Senegambia (present day Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea Bissau), most arriving after 1750. Smaller numbers were brought from the Gold Coast (present day Ghana) and from Sierra Leone in the later eighteenth century. No slaving voyages are known to have brought captives from the Bight of Benin (present day Togo, Benin, and western Nigeria) or from the Bight of Biafra (present day eastern Nigeria and Cameroon).

Maryland. The geographic origins of enslaved Africans are available for just over half (11,800) of the enslaved Africans carried into Maryland. Most numerous were captives from the region of Senegambia. They were followed closely by people from West Central Africa. In marked contrast to neighboring Virginia, in Maryland slaves from the Bight of Biafra were relatively few (12 percent versus 43 percent), but captives from Senegambia twice as prevalent.

Virginia. The geographic origins of enslaved Africans are available for two-thirds (53,092) of the approximately 85,834 carried into Virginia. Most numerous were captives from the Bight of Biafra. They were especially dominant in the first half of the century. Thus Igbo, who were the majority of peoples living inland from the slave trading ports of Old and New Calabar and Bonny, along with coastal Ibibio, Efik, and Moko peoples from the Niger River Delta area of present-day Nigeria or adjacent Cameroon made continuous and substantial contributions to evolving African American culture in Virginia. By the late 1720s, slaving voyages from the regions of Senegambia and West Central Africa (then usually called Angola) became more common. Between 3,000 and 5,000 individuals from each of these two regions arrived in Virginia between 1725 and 1749 and between 1750 and 1774. After 1750, as the transatlantic trade was winding down and Liverpool traders became the dominant shippers, for the first time captives from other West African regions began to be marketed in Virginia. This led to more ethnic diversity among the last Africans transported involuntarily into the colony.

The Lower South. Scholars estimate that nearly 199,000 slaves were disembarked in the Lower South, most of them entering through the port of Charleston, South Carolina. About 28,500 were shipped from the Caribbean, the origins of whom have not been identified. Of the more than 170,000 brought directly from Africa, the region from which they came is known for 144,812 or 85 percent. When the two sources for Lower South slaves are combined, geographic origins are available for 73%. About 40 percent (61,481) came from the regions of Senegambia and Upper Guinea, which included areas where rice was grown. Nearly one-third (45,638 or 32 percent) were transported from West Central Africa (present day Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Congo, Democratic Republic Congo and Angola). About 15 percent originated in the Gold Coast (present day Ghana).