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The Voyages website
provides the most comprehensive source of data currently available on
the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Forming its core is the Voyages
Database, originally published as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A
Database on CD-ROM by Cambridge University Press (1999), and this
data-file is provided here in an expanded and continually growing form.
The Voyages Database
contains records of nearly 35,000 separate slaving
voyages between 1514 and 1866, gleaned from original
documents and historical publications located in
archives, libraries, and other institutions throughout
the world. Data from these historical records were
collected over many decades and will continue to be
updated as new documents are discovered. Individuals
will be able to contribute their own research to this
collaborative resource.
Each record in the
Voyages Database offers information on a single
slaving voyage; some of the details include the country
of origin, the individual(s) who sponsored it, the
voyage itself (its itinerary, dates of travel, and
outcome), captains and crew members, slaves transported,
and the sources providing this voyage information.
Ancillary databases complement or supplement the data
in the Voyages Database, providing a deeper
understanding of the extent and the reality of this
worldwide phenomenon. For example, the Estimates
database uses data from the Voyages Database
and other sources to fill in gaps in the historical
record and project the actual volume of the slave trade
– in short, how many Africans were displaced from the
trade’s beginnings in the 16th century to its end in the
19th century. The images database
allows users to search or link to digitized images of
historical artifacts (documents, maps, paintings,
engravings, and the like), which provide a view into the
day-to-day life of the people, places, and objects that
made up the slave trade.
Information on over 67,000 Africans listed in the
African names database offers a
personalized glimpse of the people forced to migrate
across the Atlantic and some indication of their ethnic
origins. Variables for these data, collected from
registers of Africans liberated from slaving vessels
between 1819 and 1845, include the Anglicized spelling
of each individual’s name; age, sex, and height;
descriptions of any bodily markings; the vessel that was
transporting the individual and its corresponding
VoyageID in the Voyages Database; place of embarkation;
date and place of the individual’s disembarkation; and
the individual’s country of origin.
For more information on the Voyages website, see the
Voyages Guide (PDF).
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