SHNTI

BOBNGI
LUND
FD
BM
BF
BEN
IN
KONGO
NDONGO
MBUNDU
O!IMBUNDU
MKU
YOFUB
LO
N
G
O
BOBANGI
GORE lsland
Ouidah
Cabinda
Luanda
Timbuktu
ZANZlBAR
Basra
Zabid
Aden SOCOTRA
Sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco
Cheap jewellery etc., weapons
Trans-Atlantic slave trade
Trans-Saharan slave trade
Trans-Saharan slave trade
European or American slave-ship port
Large slave-trade port in Africa
Sorting and distribution center
Raiding zone
Slave import zone
(Supply source of the
trans-Atlantic slave tradej
Percentage of deported slaves
Sl a.e Coas t
Marzuq
Ouargla
Tripoli
Palermo
Rome
venice
Genoa
lstanbul
Alexandria
Calabar Elmina
Mombassa
Cartagena
Nagasaki
Goa
Karachi
Malaka
Canton
Macao
Mexico
Pernambuco
Rio de Janeiro
Montevideo
Buenos Aires
valparaiso
Bahia
veracruz
Santo Domingo
Aswan
Quelimane
Tamatave
Lagos
Accra
MADAGASCAR
lsland MAURlTlUS
Cape verde
lslands
Canary lslands
Azores
lslands
Robben
lsland
RUNlON lsland
(Bourbonj
l N D l A N
O C E A N
A T L A N T l C
O C E A N

PUERTO RlCO
CUBA
JAMAlCA
Nantes
Bristol
London
Liverpool
Amsterdam
Copenhagen
Rotterdam
Bordeaux
Lisbon
Charleston
EQUATOR
THE SLAVE TRADE AND THE POPULATION
OF THE AFRICAN CONTINENT
Aggregate number of deportees
from the 8th to the middle
of the 19th century for all slave
trades: 24 m||||on at least.
Total African population
in the middle of the
19th century: 100 m||||on
Estimated total size that the African
population would have reached
in the middle of the19th century
in the absence of any slave trade:
200 m||||on
M
o
slem
T
radin
g P
osts
Seville
B
E
N
lN
G
H
A
N
A
BENlN and GHANA are current designations of areas called differently
at the time of the Slave Trade
* Historic personalities who fought against the black Slave Trade, Slaves
or descendants of Slaves (St. Benedict and Pushkinj
#
!
2)""%!.)3,!.$3
400 000
7
0
0
0
0

3%.%'!-")! Gore
Pernambuco
Bahia
5
5
0
0
0
0

100 000
100 000
3
0
0
0
0

#!2)""%!.
)3,!.$3
1 700 000
1
3
0
0
0
0
0

3%.%'!-")!
'(!.!
#/.'/
'ORE
Pernambuco
Bahia
*AMESTOWN
7
0
0
0
0
0

100 000
100 000
GOUDELOUPE
FE!OLT, 1636
7 000 00
0

vlRGlNlA
SNTO DOMINGO

Rio de Janeiro
Bahia
Gore
Buenos-Aires
Montevideo
7
0
0
0
0
0

'5).%!
!.'/,!
+/.'/
Calabar
Cabinda
Ouidah
Elmina
Zanzibar
400 000
Luanda
GOUDELOUPE

200 000 #
!2)""%!.
)3,!.$3
1 900 000
6
0
0
0
0
0

900 000
407 000
-
/
2
/
##/
#
!2)""%!.
)3,!.$3
'5).%!
!.'/,!
+/.'/
Calabar
lnhambane
Cabinda Zanzibar
Kilwa
lbo
Luanda
Ouidah
Loureno-
Marques
!"/,)4)/.
)."2!:),
BHI FE!OLTS
(1807 ND 18l3)
DENMARK 1792
HOLLAND 1815
ENGLAND 1807
FRANCE 1815
PORTUGAL 1830
1888
1807
ST. DOMINGO
Rio de Janeiro
Gore
Buenos-Aires
Montevideo
Elmina
!"/,)4)/.
).53
!"/,)4)/.
).%52/0%
1 900 000
*
Official date
of Abolition
A. DUMAS*
St-BENEDICT *
Il Moro A. S. PUSHKIN* F. DOUGLASS* W. E. DU BOIS*
TOUSSAINT
LOUVERTURE* P. ROBESON* SCHOELCHER*
18th Century

U
N
E
S
C
O

2
0
0
6
,

J
.

H
A
R
R
IS

(U
S
A
)
DEPORTATION FLOWS, 15th-16th Centuries 17th Century 19th Century
T
he slave trade represents a dramatic
encounter of history and geography. This four
century long tragedy has been one of the
greatest dehumanizing enterprises in human history.
It constitutes one of the first forms of globalization.
The resultant slavery system, an economic and
commercial type of venture organization, linked
different regions and continents: Africa, the Arab
World, Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean and
the Americas. It was based on an ideology:
a conceptual structure founded on contempt for
the black man and set up in order to justify the sale
of human beings (black Africans in this case) as a
mobile asset: For this is how they were regarded
in the black codes, which constituted the legal
framework of slavery in the Americas.
The history of this dissimulated tragedy, its
deeper causes, its modalities and consequences
have yet to be better elucidated: This is the basic
objective that the UNESCOs member states set
for the Slave Route Project. The issues at stake
are: historical truth, human rights, development,
identity and citizenship in the modern multicultural
societies. The idea of route signifies, first and
foremost, the identification of itineraries of
humanity, i.e. circuits followed by the slave trade.
In this sense, geography sheds light on history.
In fact, the slave trade map not only lends
substance to this early form of international
trade, but also, by showing the courses it took,
illuminates the impact of the system.
These slave trade maps are only a first
draft. Based on currently available historical data
gathered by Joseph Harris (USA) about the slave
trade and slavery, they should be completed to
the extent that the theme networks of researchers,
set up by UNESCO, continue to bring to light the
deeper layers of the iceberg by exploiting archives
and oral traditions. It will then be possible to
understand that the black slave trade forms the
invisible stuff of relations between Africa,
the Arab World, Europe, the Indian Ocean, Asia,
the Americas and the Caribbean.
The Coordination of the Slave Route Project
THE SLAVE
ROUTE
P
rin
te
d
in
U
N
E
S
C
O
(C
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-2
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/W
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8
// C
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4
5
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)