ATLANTIC TRADE

The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more.

View an introductory video that describes the historical context and features of the timelapse.

View the movement of slaveships across the Atlantic on an interactive map.

Benefits and Contributions

A Retrospective and What’s Next

This database compiles information about more than 36,000 voyages that forcibly transported enslaved Africans across the Atlantic between 1514 and 1866. Search and analyze the database for information on the broad origins of enslaved people, the tortuous Middle Passage, and the destinations of Africans in the Americas.

This database contains information on more than 11,000 maritime voyages trafficking enslaved people within the Americas. These slave trades operated within colonial empires, across imperial boundaries, and inside the borders of nations such as the United States and Brazil. Explore the forced removals, which not only dispersed African survivors of the Atlantic crossing but also displaced enslaved people born in the Americas.

People of the Atlantic Slave Trade allows users to search three distinct databases. Two document enslaved people; one concerns enslavers. The African Origins dataset includes personal details of 95,153 Africans taken from slave ships mostly captured by anti-slave trade patrols or from African trading sites between . Users can view the personal details of Africans liberated from slave vessels, hear their names pronounced, and contribute to the project by suggesting the likely language origins of the names in the records. The Oceans of Kinfolk dataset includes the personal details of 63,562 people transported to New Orleans, and in many cases records on the people who transported, bought, and sold them there. Users can analyze the name, age, gender, origin, places of embarkation and disembarkation of these individuals, and some of their linkages to enslavers. The Enslavers database lists nearly 60,000 individuals or commercial companies involved in the enslavement of Africans or people of African descent, lists the number of captives they enslaved, and provides links to the slave voyages in which they participated.