With Olga's comment about 10-25 million slaves dead on the passage from
Africa to the Americas, my evidence radar sent a warning. So, after a 10
minute googling session I culled the following
"Data points", if you will (I hesitate to call them facts...) Would anyone
like to ofer a counterpoint?
AL Villalobos
This is a nice summary of the slave trade
http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_299.htm
This is a scholary paper based on newly organized slave statistics on CR-ROM
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/58.1/eltis.html
The Volume and Structure of the Transatlantic SlaveTrade: A Reassessment
David Eltis
"Overall, 550 Caribbean-based voyages are estimated for 1714-1807,
Carrying 59,400 slaves from Africa (and disembarking 51,300).24"
Thats an average of only 87/year. (yes, I understand that's only a fraction
of the total trade, see below)
The below tables are from the University of Houston (Texas, USA)
http://www.hfac.uh.edu/gl/us3.htm
scroll to the bottom
Slave Imports into the Americas, 1500-1870
Area Number Proportion
Proportion of
black population
of imports
in the Americas in
1825
British North America 523,000 6 percent
25 percent
Spanish America 1,687,000
British Caribbean 2,443,000 17 percent
10 percent
French Caribbean 1,655,000
Dutch Caribbean 500,000
Danish Caribbean 50,000
Brazil 4,190,000
Old World 297,000
Total 11,345,000
Slave Mortality during the Middle Passage
Years Slave Trading Total Number
Mortality Rate
Nation of Slave Deaths
1680-1688 English 60,783
23.6
1715-1775 French 35,927
14.9
1795-1811 Portuguese 162,225 9.3
-----Original Message-----
From: Mitchell, Jerry (3337) [mailto:Jerry.Mitchell@esavio.com]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 10:24 AM
To: 'extropians@extropy.org'
Subject: Re: Reparations
Olga wrote:
Ten million to twenty-five million (estimates vary) Africans dead on slave
ships before arriving to our shores for the privilege of being sold; 246
years of slavery (something not experienced by any other
ethnic/racial group) (rape, murder, torture, and lynching of slaves legal);
100 more years of de jure segregation (rape, murder, torture and lynching of
black American citizens tolerated); still ongoing de facto segregation after
all those hundreds of years of mean yesterdays; a broken underclass - like
no other underclass in the United States - today.
(end)
10 to 25 MILLION?! I had to run some numbers on those....
Being conservative, I took the 10 million figure. Divide that by how many
were on the boat, I went for possible an extreme number of 1000 slaves on a
boat (Unless they were driving oil tankers). This would still take 10000
trips. Did they REALLY have that many boats, or were they shipping people
from like 5000 B.C. forward? These ships took weeks/months to traverse the
Atlantic.
Jerry Mitchell
P.S. I don't feel sympathetic to any cultures. I never met a culture, only
individuals. Sorry, I dont think group speak, youll have to rephrase the
argument without using masses of faceless people you never met and certainly
cant speak for.
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