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Sunken Slave Ship Artifacts
Sunken Slave Ship Artifacts
The transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation of between 10 million and 12 million captive Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database documents more than 35,000 voyages of slave ships during this period. At least 1,000 of those vessels were shipwrecked. Only a handful have been positively identified. Those that have been found and identified have yielded a surprising number of artifacts that have informed our understanding of the slave trade.
Grades
5 - 12+
Subjects
Anthropology, Archaeology, Social Studies, U.S. History, World History, Storytelling
Contents
6 Images
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Into the Depths
Black scuba divers across the world search for buried shipwrecks from the transatlantic slave trade, when millions of enslaved Africans were trafficked to the Americas during the 15th to the 19th centuries. A six-part podcast series, Into the Depths, follows National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts as she sets off on the journey of a lifetime to meet the divers and marine archeologists, descendants of those brought over on ships, and historians investigating the lost stories of the slave trade—both to expand the historical record and to honor the estimated 1.8 million souls who perished during the Middle Passage.
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Searching for a Slave Ship
Join Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists, and Jay V. Haigler, retired electrical engineer, founding board member and lead instructor at Diving With a Purpose, as they go in search of the sunken Spanish slave ship, the Guerrero.
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Finding the Last Slave Ship
The descendants of Africans on the last known American slave ship, Clotilda, describe what it would mean to discover and document the scene of the crime. Their enslaved ancestors were smuggled into Alabama in 1860, long after the United States had banned the importation of slaves. The smugglers burned the ship to hide their crime, and until recently the ship's remains lay on the bottom of the Mobile River.
-
Into the Depths
Black scuba divers across the world search for buried shipwrecks from the transatlantic slave trade, when millions of enslaved Africans were trafficked to the Americas during the 15th to the 19th centuries. A six-part podcast series, Into the Depths, follows National Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts as she sets off on the journey of a lifetime to meet the divers and marine archeologists, descendants of those brought over on ships, and historians investigating the lost stories of the slave trade—both to expand the historical record and to honor the estimated 1.8 million souls who perished during the Middle Passage.
-
Searching for a Slave Ship
Join Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen, co-founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists, and Jay V. Haigler, retired electrical engineer, founding board member and lead instructor at Diving With a Purpose, as they go in search of the sunken Spanish slave ship, the Guerrero.
-
Finding the Last Slave Ship
The descendants of Africans on the last known American slave ship, Clotilda, describe what it would mean to discover and document the scene of the crime. Their enslaved ancestors were smuggled into Alabama in 1860, long after the United States had banned the importation of slaves. The smugglers burned the ship to hide their crime, and until recently the ship's remains lay on the bottom of the Mobile River.