SlaveVoyages.org, Timeline: Number of Captives Embarked and Disembarked per Year, 1501-1866

This interactive graph by SlaveVoyages.org shows the number of people taken as captives from Africa and shipped through the Transatlantic Slave Trade to be sold into slavery from the years 1501 to 1866. The graph allows viewers to compare the number of people who embarked and disembarked per year and to adjust which disembarkation regions they are specifically examining. By focusing on the data from North America, viewers can observe a clear spike in 1806 and 1807, followed by a sharp decline in 1808. This drop was due to the “Act of Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves,” which took effect in the United States in 1808. The act banned the foreign importation of enslaved people to the United States, driving the trade underground. Ships caught illegally trading were brought into the United States, and their passengers were sold into slavery. Although this act abolished the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the United States, interstate sales of enslaved people remained legal, leading to the rapid expansion of the domestic slave trade.