T
HE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE brought the
first Africans to Virginia in 1619, but their
final destination was supposed to be in
Veracruz in New Spain. The Spanish and
Portuguese began bringing enslaved Africans to the
Americas in the early 16th century, and their colonies
quickly grew dependent on forced labor. Enslaved
Africans were forced to do a wide array of jobs: clear-
ing fields, mining for precious metals, farming the
land, and building the churches and homes for their
captors. Many of the enslaved Africans were highly
skilled artisans, farmers, and warriors. Some were
even royalty.
BY 1620, more than a half million Africans had been
sold into chattel slavery by several European nations,
with Spain and Portugal responsible for the majority.
The 1619 shipment of people from Ndongo was
redirected by two English privateers, who brought
approximately 50 people to Virginia. Their arrival
marked the expansion of the transatlantic slave
trade into North America. British colonies there
would also grow dependent on enslaved labor
and encouraged the development of the so-called
“Triangle Trade,” as raw goods were created in the
Americas to be consumed by Europeans, who then
used the proceeds to procure more slaves for the
colonies. By the time the slave trade ended in 1865,
approximately 12.5 million people had been shipped
to the New World, with slightly more than 10 million
surviving the Middle Passage. Most Africans were
headed to the Caribbean, Central America, and
South America: Historians estimate that only about
388,000 went directly to North America.
ALBUM.NG^MAPS/ROSEMARY^ WARDLEY^