Journal Article

The U.S. Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1644–1867: An Assessment

Eltis, David

2008

Overview

[...] whatever definition is employed, it is rather startling to consider that half a century after the first awakening of scholarly interest in slavery and the slave trade in the United States, which has generated many thousands of monographs and articles, there is still no book on the U.S. transatlantic slave trade, however defined.2 It scarcely seems possible that what is offered here is, in fact, not so much a reassessment as a first assessment. [...] part of the large jump in arrivals in the demographic series late in the period may stem from differences in how the first and second U.S. censuses were conducted (1790 and 1800) relative to their colonial predecessors, rather than the reality of immigration.3 The second kind of assessment of the number of captives arriving in North America stems from shipping data.\\n But for the period after 1835, when so many flags of convenience were in use (or no flags at all), we have taken the drastic step of overriding the historical data and making the assumption that all voyages bringing slaves into Cuba were Spanish- or Cuban-owned and all voyages going to Brazil were Portugueseor Brazilian-owned.

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press,Kent State University Press
• Subject: Archives & records / Business growth / Definitions / Government regulation / Slave trade / Spanish language