Back in time
Open the live mapThe transatlantic slave trade
The voyages recorded by SlaveVoyages: about 34,000 across the Atlantic from Africa to the Americas, and about 10,600 within the Americas, from 1514 to 1866.
What you see
- Each voyage is a dot at its main port of purchase, sized by the people embarked as the databases record or estimate them; where they record the ports, a line carries its route to where the people were landed.
- Where a view holds more than 2,000 voyages they gather into counted bubbles; zoom in to see each one.
- Click a voyage for the ship, its flag and captain, its route, the people embarked and landed, and how the voyage ended.
- Opened from this page, the map plays 1700 to 1866.
Where the data comes from
- SlaveVoyagesThe Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (2019): about 34,000 voyages from Africa to the Americas.
- SlaveVoyagesThe Intra-American Slave Trade Database (1.0): about 10,600 voyages between ports in the Americas.
Published databases; SlaveVoyages adds voyages as research finds them, and TAKIP takes a new release when it is imported.
Good to know
- About 7,900 voyages say only “Africa, port unspecified”: they are drawn at the one point the database gives for that, not at a real port.
- Many more name only a region, such as the Gold Coast or West Central Africa, and are drawn at its point.
- Numbers embarked are partly the databases’ estimates; their historical data is public domain, the estimates CC BY-NC 3.0.
The voyages with the most people embarked
- Slave voyage — ship name not recorded, Africa to Havana1858 · Slave voyage · People embarked 2,024
- Slave voyage — Memphis, Ambriz to Cardenas26 Feb 1859 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,970
- Slave voyage — ship name not recorded, Africa to Cardenas1859 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,889
- Slave voyage — ship name not recorded, Africa to Cardenas1859 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,889
- Slave voyage — ship name not recorded, Africa to Banes1862 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,763
- Slave voyage — ship name not recorded, Africa to Sagua1859 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,701
- Slave voyage — Providência, Ambriz to Rio de Janeiro1848 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,574
- Slave voyage — Providência, Africa to Rio de Janeiro1849 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,574
- Slave voyage — Esperança, Africa to Macaé24 Jan 1847 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,545
- Slave voyage — Caveira, Africa to Rio de Janeiro1848 · Slave voyage · People embarked 1,519
The first recorded here in each century
- Slave voyage — ship name not recorded, Congo River to Vigo1514 · Slave voyage · People embarked 224
- Slave voyage — S Antônio, Cape Verde Islands to Cartagena1600 · Slave voyage · People embarked 371
- Slave voyage — Susannah, Gambia to Newcastle (Nevis)1700 · Slave voyage · People embarked 52
- Slave voyage — NS da Conceição e Sr dos Passos, Luanda to Rio de Janeiro1800 · Slave voyage · People embarked 271
Goes well with
The world through historyAn interactive historical atlas: the world’s borders year by year from 3400 BCE, with wars, battles and other events from 7500 BCE, on a 3D globe.Border changes and territorial claimsTerritory passed between states since 1816, from the Correlates of War, and territorial claims to 2001, from ICOW, on one map, with who gained and who lost.