{"id":100,"date":"2013-01-02T21:43:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T21:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/many-rivers-to-cross\/?p=100"},"modified":"2013-09-19T21:46:54","modified_gmt":"2013-09-19T21:46:54","slug":"how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\/history\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Slaves Landed in the U.S.?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you, like me, were raised essentially to think of the slave experience primarily in terms of our black ancestors here in the United States. In other words, slavery was primarily about\u00a0us,<\/em>\u00a0right, from Crispus Attucks and Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker and Richard Allen, all the way to Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. Think of this as an instance of what we might think of as\u00a0African-American exceptionalism.<\/em>\u00a0(In other words, if it’s in “the black Experience,” it’s got to be about black Americans.) Well, think again.<\/p>\n

The most comprehensive analysis of shipping records over the course of the slave trade is the\u00a0Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database<\/a>, edited by professors David Eltis and David Richardson. (While the editors are careful to say that all of their figures are estimates, I believe that they are the best estimates that we have, the proverbial “gold standard” in the field of the study of the slave trade.) Between 1525 and 1866, in the entire history of the slave trade to the New World, according to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, 12.5\u00a0million<\/em>\u00a0Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the dreaded Middle Passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America.<\/p>\n

And how many of these 10.7 million Africans were shipped directly to North America?\u00a0Only about 388,000.\u00a0<\/em>That’s right: a tiny percentage.<\/p>\n

\"Diagram<\/a>

Diagram of a slave ship from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1790-1 (Public Domain)<\/p><\/div>\n

Fifty of the 100 Amazing Facts will be published on The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross website. Read all 100 Facts on\u00a0The Root<\/em>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps you, like me, were raised essentially to think of the slave experience primarily in terms of our black ancestors here in the United States. In other words, slavery was primarily about us, right, from Crispus Attucks and Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker and Richard Allen, all the way to Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass. Think of this as an instance of what we might think of as African-American exceptionalism. (In other words, if it’s in “the black Experience,” it’s got to be about black Americans.) Well, think again. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,13],"tags":[69,44,62],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-100-amazing-facts","category-history","category-slavery","tag-j-a-rogers","tag-slavery-2","tag-w-e-b-dubois"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Many Slaves Landed in the U.S.? | The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Only a tiny percentage of the 12.5 million Africans shipped to the New World landed in North America.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\/history\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Many Slaves Landed in the U.S.? | The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Only a tiny percentage of the 12.5 million Africans shipped to the New World landed in North America.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\/history\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-02T21:43:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-09-19T21:46:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\/files\/2013\/01\/100facts_slaveslanded_lg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"fultonk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"fultonk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\\\/history\\\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\\\/history\\\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"fultonk\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e47a826472f18bd8ad319cbda80debea\"},\"headline\":\"How Many Slaves Landed in the U.S.?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-01-02T21:43:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-19T21:46:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\\\/history\\\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":275,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\\\/history\\\/how-many-slaves-landed-in-the-us\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.pbs.org\\\/wnet\\\/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross\\\/files\\\/2013\\\/01\\\/100facts_slaveslanded_lg.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"J.A. 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