What was the range of lengths of time a captured African would spend enduring the passage, from initial capture to disembarking in the West Atlantic?

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6 March, 15:22

What was the range of lengths of time a captured African would spend enduring the passage, from initial capture to disembarking in the West Atlantic?

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Jonah Bean · Answer 1

The exact time a captured African spent from capture until disembark in the West Atlantic changed according I) to where he/she was captured and final destination and II) to when it happened. The travel from West Africa to Brazil in the XIXth century, for example, when transportation had become more efficient, took around 30 to 45 days.

At the beginning of the systematic Atlantic slave trade, in the early 1500s, the travel from West Africa to Central America lasted two to three months. In the mid-nineteenth century the travel to Bahia (Brazil) lasted 3 weeks and to Cuba lasted 5 weeks.