From what African countries were slaves mostly obtained?

Question

Most African Americans who are interested in finding their roots in Africa, tend to look more in the direction of countries like South Africa and Ghana. Ghana sounds logical because of all the memorabilia but did the slave havesters really go as far as South Africa? How were the slaves transported to their shipment ports like Ghana and Senegal?

Answer 1

I was in Ghana last December. During the days of the slave trade, there were 60 European forts/trading posts along what is now the Ghanaian coast. Some of them are within sight of each other. I assume that the situation was similar along much of the west coast of Africa.

It worked like this: European and Yankee (i.e, New England) ships transported manufactured goods from Europe to the west coast of Africa. In Africa, they traded manufactured goods for slaves, which they transported to the Americas. In the Americas, they traded slaves for raw materials. They transported the raw materials from the Americas to Europe, where they traded them for manufactured goods and started over.

The Ghanaians told me that the slaves were not from the tribes in what is now Ghana. They were from tribes much farther into the interior of Africa. Tribes like the Ashanti captured them from other tribes, tied or chained them together, and then marched them for about two months to get to the coast, where they were traded to the Europeans. The Europeans held them in cells or dungeons in the forts until a ship came. If a ship was there, but there weren't enough slaves to fill it, the ship waited (and the slaves stayed in the dungeon).

I doubt if any slave ships traveled all the way to South Africa. It was a much shorter route (and therefore more economical) going to West Africa.

Answer 2

I have always learned that the area between Senegal and Ghana was where most of the slaves came from. It was closer than the rest of Africa, but I think some slaves were from other areas of Africa too.

Answer 3

Slaves for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were initially sourced in Senegambia and the Windward Coast. Around 1650 the trade moved to west-central Africa (the Kingdom of the Kongo and neighboring Angola). The transport of slaves from Africa to the Americas forms the middle passage of the triangular trade. Several distinct regions can be identified along the west African coast, these are distinguished by the particular European countries who visited the slave ports, the peoples who were enslaved, and the dominant African society(s) who provided the slaves.

Answer 4

The website is much better than this but this is a sample of its information:

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: Origins of Slaves

Details of where slaves were taken from Africa and how many.

Slaves for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade were initially sourced in Senegambia and the Windward Coast. Around 1650 the trade moved to west-central Africa (the Kingdom of the Kongo and neighbouring Angola). For more details on this, read How Many Slaves Were Taken From Africa?

Map showing where slaves were sourced in Africa for the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.







Table giving the numbers of slaves exported from various regions in Africa.

Trans-Atlantic Slave exports, 1650-1900
Region 1650
to
1700 1700
to
1750 1750
to
1800 1800
to
1850 1850
to
1900 Total

Sene-
gambia 51,100 109,800 205,100 113,900 - 479,900
Upper
Guinea 4,100 20,000 210,900 160,100 16,100 411,200
Wind-
ward
Coast 800 18,500 124,700 38,600 600 183,200
Gold
Coast 85,800 374,100 507,100 68,600 - 1,035,600
Bight
of
Benin 246,800 708,200 515,000 520,300 25,900 2,016,200
Bight
of
Biafra 108,900 205,200 695,900 446,400 7,300 1,463,700
West
Central ? 806,400 1,525,400 1,458,200 155,000 3,945,000
South
East ? 19,400 44,000 380,700 26,800 470,900

Total 497,500 2,261,600 3,828,100 3,186,800 231,700 10,005,700

Source: Transformations in Slavery by Paul E. Lovejoy
Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-521-78430-1
Derived from tables: 4.1, 3.4, and 7.4

Answer 5

Many of the slaves were taken from Western Africa, many of which were in tribes such as the tribe of Okonkwo, portrayed( In a very anthropological sense) by Chinua Achebe, in "Things Fall Apart". The primary reason for this, is due to the fact that the slavers were coming from Europe and sailing down the western coast of Africa. The closest proximity tribes were the ones close to the coast. The majority of the slaves were not "captured", but were sold by their respective tribes for trade goods. Some of the slaves were deemed unworthy of tribal inheritance (initially), then as slavery continued, tribes sold members of the tribe into slavery for the goods, regardless of moral/tribal character. The slaves were transported (in most cases) by simply walking them to the coast. People were not inclined to run because there really wasn't a great fear until the tribal people reached the ports, where they saw atrocious treatment and "white beasts".

Answer 6

Most slave are believed to have originated in the Niger Congo area. This includes present day Niger, Nigeria, Liberia, sierra Leon, Congo and The Sudan -- Basically slaves sold to the united states came from west sub- Saharan Africa. However, It is not unbelievable that due to war, famine or other incidents which displaced large numbers of people individuals from as far south as south African and east as Somalia were captured and sold.

Most African Americans, I believe, tend to look for their ancestors in the Niger Congo area.

There is a story passed down in my family concerning one of our ancestors which seems to suggest he came from Kenya. We don't have proof of this but there is a lot of reason to believe that it's true.



Matt -- Achebe is Igbo from Nigeria particularly Igbo land or the Bafria which is where the majority of Nigeria's oil is located. The fictional character Okonkwo is also Igbo and from Nigeria. One of the first slave narratives was written by a slave brought from Nigeria who was an Igbo -- Oulaudo Equiano. his narrative is titled "the interesting life of Gustavas Vassey or Oulaudo Equiano the African" In slave narratives such as Equiano's they state that they were captured by enemies not sold by relatives

Answer 7

Look at the Eastern coast of Africa, usually the north eastern coast. Captured and transported via horse and cart, later rail.

Answer 8

It's a long responce, but you may find it interesting. I will repeat the article in it's entirety:

Canada's Head of State is Her Excellency Michelle Jean, she is a decendent of slaves herself. She came to Canada as a refugee as a child. She recently visited different countries in Africa. What follows is an account of her visit to Ghana on the west coast of Africa. I consider it a major step in the right direction,
Africa must ‘learn from the lessons’ of slavery

By ALEXANDER PANETTA
ACCRA, Ghana — Michaelle Jean told an African audience Tuesday that the continent must recognize its own role in the slave trade to help turn the page on a shameful chapter in history.
The Governor General used a state dinner to congratulate Ghana’s government for offering such an apology and suggested other African countries should do the same.
She made the remarks on the eve of an emotional pilgrimage to a seaside fortress where thousands of slaves were shipped to the Americas.
"The time has come to recapture that moment of African history in order to move ahead together," Jean said in a speech.
"As it looks to the future, Ghana has shown that it is willing to confront the past.
"I am impressed by your government’s decision to apologize for what was done hundreds of years ago by the people of this region involved in the slave trade."
More than 15 million men, women and children were captured and sold to Europeans during the colonial age and crammed onto wooden ships bound for the Americas.
Ghana was a major hub of the international slave trade concentrated in West Africa, and the national government has recognized the role Africans here played.
"As a descendent of slaves, that touched me very much. I know that we cannot go back and solve past injustices. All we can do is learn from the lessons of the past, even the painful lessons, and use that knowledge to build a better future."
Jean will visit Elmina Castle today and step up to its so-called Door of No Return, the infamous final spot where the captured natives were taken from African soil.
Jean said she planned to gaze at the ocean and reflect on what happened there.
"I will think of the millions of people packed tightly in rickety ships bound for unknown lands. Faraway lands where they were deprived of their memories, of their languages, of their heritage, of their dignity and, most of all, of their freedom," she said.
"I will stand and pray for those who never completed the journey and whose bodies were thrown out to the ocean."
"As I will stand there and reconnect with the land of my ancestors, I will salute your openness and I will accept your apology."
Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor gave an extremely detailed account of the history of slavery to an international conference in July, where he drew attention to historical facts that many Africans would rather forget.
He described how Phoenicians and Greco-Romans had been enslaving Africans thousands of years ago and how Africans themselves profited from the trade with Europeans.

As a Canadian of English/Irish decent, I can honestly tell you I'm very proud of her and the fact she represents Canada at the highest level.I've decided to finish this with a part of the account following her visit. Sorry it's so long, but I feel it's important.

The Governor General triggered a chain reaction of tears from her entourage as she broke into sobs while touching the rusty iron gate of the so-called the Door of No Return.
For more than three centuries, the chains of African captives scraped the rugged stone floor as they were shoved onto ships waiting below to carry them into slavery.
Jean gently touched the gate, then grabbed onto it tightly, and knelt as she wept for several minutes while praying in silence and gazing from the dark cellar into the sunlit horizon.
She said she prayed for millions of slaves, including her own ancestors, and for the untold millions who died during the journey and whose corpses were dumped into the ocean.
"My life will never be the same again," said Jean, the Haitian-born descendant of slaves.
"I said one thing (during my prayer): we shall never be chained again. We shall never be on our knees again. We shall never be humiliated again."
Upon emerging from the castle, the Governor General shook her head and waved off staff who attempted to set up a news conference with Ghanaian and Canadian media.
A moment later she regained her composure and changed her mind.
Jean then delivered an eight-minute monologue without a single reference to the joyful irony that a slaves’ descendent would return here as vice-royalty.
Jean was asked if she had a message for Canada’s black community and declined to offer one.
Instead she spoke about what she called modern-day slavery: the children who are forced into armies around the world, or to work for little or no pay.
"This doesn’t concern just the descendants of slaves," she said when asked for a reaction. "There are still children who are enslaved. I know that slavery is still a reality today."
"We can’t say that we’re unaware this is happening . . . Indifference is guilt. Indifference is a killer ..."
"Not only would we betray the people still living in those conditions . . . we would also be betraying ourselves."
A half-hour helicopter ride from the Ghanaian capital of Accra, Elmina Castle was first established as a Portuguese trading post in 1482 to exchange European goods for African gold.
But it was soon overtaken by the slave trade and served that sole purpose under the Portuguese, Dutch and British until the practice ended in the 1830s.
It has found a new vocation as a shrine to inhumanity.

------------------------------...

Answer 9

ill buy you a one way ticket back

Answer 10

Who cares???. Besides you..