What Percentage of the Atlantic Slave Trade Slaves Went to the US?

 Executive Summary

  • It is often presented that the US was the predominant slave nation in history.
  • How many total slaves were sent to the US?

*I seem to get this question around once per week; therefore, I will answer it here. The 3% of slaves transported from Africa to the US came from the West Coast of Africa, which is modern-day Senegal, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and Equatorial Guinea. The reason for this was the slave traders were looking for the shortest route from Africa to the US.

Our References

See our references for this article and other related articles at this link.

Introduction

This article will track where African slaves were sent from the beginnings of African slavery outside of sub-Saharan African slavery.

From the source Slavery Site, the best online records I could find, I have created the following table, which shows where African slaves were sent.

Where Did Slaves Go To?

Where were the slaves sent?
Area SentNumber of SlavesPercentage
Totals12,500,000
Died on Route1,800,00014.4%
Africa155,5691.24%
Brazil4,864,37438.9%
Spanish Americas1,292,91210.3%
Danish West Indies 108,999.0087
Dutch Americas (Dutch East Indies)444,7273.5%
French Caribbean1,120,2158.9%
British Caribbean2,318,25118.5%
Mainland North America388,7473.1%
Europe8,860.0007

Total Number of Slaves

What was the total number of slaves taken and transported by Arabs and Europeans?
SlaversEstimated Total NumberDeath Rate During TransportationSurviving Slaves
Arab80,000,00085%12,000,000
European12,500,00014.4%10,700,000
Total92,500,00022,700,000

*This 80 Million figure from Atlanta Black Star (this number is also contested. Previously the site reported a significantly higher figure, but the site that supplied that figure is no longer active. At 1200 years of active slave trading, 80 million only comes to 66,666 slaves taken per year. And recall that with such a high loss rate, 66,666 slaves transported would have only delivered around 10,000 slaves. For an activity to go on for 1200 years and only deliver 10,000 slaves, it seems quite low. Arab sources do not estimate the number of slaves, and European sources are so politically correct that they understate the number of slaves. Some estimates are at around 20,000,000. But this would only have delivered 2,500 slaves per year (following the math from above). 

Conclusion

  • The US received roughly 3% of all slaves from the Atlantic Slave Trade, which was the entirety of the US involvement in slavery.
  • While the US received .002% of all of the recorded slaves transported from Africa.
  • If slavery was not the stereotype of whites enslaving blacks that it is not considered noteworthy.
  • Any group can enslave another group, but it will not be noteworthy unless the group holding the slaves is white.

Focusing Primarily on a Small Category of Slavery from Over 100 Years Ago

Finally, this focus on the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the fetishization of white on black slavery blinds us to the fact that slavery is still with us. According to the Global Slavery Index, there are 46 million slaves in the world presently.

This is the GSI’s index of slavery. The strongest regions of slavery are not those countries that were part of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. However, slavery is still a massive problem in Africa and the Middle East and in India. But the slavery that is a focus is the slavery of several hundred years ago, and the least consequential slavery (numerically at least), which is whites owning blacks. Unless the slave owner is white — no one seems to particularly care if there are still slaves. 

The Reality of Slavery

People that like to use slavery as a backstop for anti-white arguments do not want you to watch this video. 

The Response from Some Blacks to the Article

We received feedback from some blacks that they did not like this article because of two reasons.

Reason #1: Africans Were Part of the Slave Trade

This article proposed that Africans were part of slavery — and they would like it if the focus of slavery is where it belongs, which is only on white participation. According to this line of reasoning, when blacks or Africans are involved in slavery it is politically incorrect to cover this fact. And we have been asked to not write about this.

Reason #2: Non Whites Owned Slaves

This article proposed that only a small fraction of slaves from the Transatlantic Slave Trade were sent to the US. We have been told that focusing on the other 97% of slaves sent to South America and Brazil diminishes the slaves that were sent to the US. Secondly, the greatest slave owners of blacks in history were Arabs. Furthermore, it does not help the cause for “racial justice” because it means that non-whites were involved in slavery. The only BLM approved messaging is that 100% of slave owners were white, and that also whites were never slaves. This means of course censoring the history of Greece and Romans and an enormous amount of history.

Overall the interest in the topic of slavery by blacks tends to only extend to data points that can be used to create a fantasy land view of slavery that allows them to state that only whites have ever owned slaves, that nearly 100% of whites historically owned slaves and that the only slaves that matter are black slaves that were sent to white countries.

We cover this in the article How Making False and Selective Claims is Part of a Scam by Black Americans.