African Provenance Zones for the Transatlantic Slave Trade, c. 1520–75

David Wheat

Paper proposal for slave trade panel (AHA Denver 2017)

Title:

‘African Provenance Zones for the Transatlantic Slave Trade, c.1520-1575’

Abstract:

Very little is known of the transatlantic slave trade to the colonial Americas prior to the late sixteenth century, several decades after the trade's inception. Drawing on port entry records, legal suits, and other previously overlooked sources housed in Iberian archives — especially the Archivo General de Indias — this paper will outline the rise of an international slave trade directly linking specific African provenance zones and ports of embarkation to ports of arrival and disembarkation in the Spanish Americas. In so doing, the paper will provide an overview of the relative chronological importance of diverse Luso-African slaving hubs such as Arguim, the Cape Verde Islands, and São Tomé.