Length of slave middle passage journey by region 1501-1866| ��ƽ��

Average number of days taken for middle passage journeys during the transatlantic slave trade by regions of embarkation and disembarkation from 1501 to 1866

Region of embarkation	Brazil	Mainland North America	Caribbean	Spanish Mainland Americas	Average
African total	44.9	66.5	68.7	77.5	60.1
Southeast Africa and Indian Ocean islands	66.7	88.3	108.3	85.1	76.6
Gold Coast	58.8	83.9	76.3	77	74.8
Bight of Biafra and Gulf of Guinea islands	49.3	87.4	71.5	143.6	69
Bight of Benin	50.2	110	96.7	95.4	66.8
Windward Coast**	-	56.1	65.7	96	61.9
Other Africa	51.3	66.1	65	75.5	61.4
Senegambia and offshore Atlantic	46.3	52.3	44.2	72.2	52.6
West Central Africa and St. Helena	38.4	65	63	73.6	49.4
Sierra Leone	33	54.7	47.9	56.5	46.5

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Release date

January 2021

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Region

Africa, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean

Survey time period

1501 to 1866

Supplementary notes

*Also includes voyages to Europe and other parts of Africa.

**No data given for voyages to Brazil.

These figures are based on existing shipping records only, and are not estimates for the averages during the entirety of the transatlantic slave trade.

Release date is date of most recent data access.

Citation formats

The middle passage was the second leg of the triangular trade network that existed between Europe, Africa and the Americas between the 16^th and 19^th centuries. Generally speaking, the middle passage was the process of transporting African captives across the Atlantic, where they would begin their new life as a slave in the Americas. Throughout transatlantic slavery, the middle passage had a mortality rate of approximately 15 percent (up to 30 percent in early years), due to a combination of factors such as violence, disease and malnourishment. Each of these factors facilitated one another, and depleted provisions during longer journeys exacerbated this further.

Geographical influences

In general, voyages to the Spanish mainland American colonies took the longest time, due to a combination of distance and time period (these colonies were the most common destination for slave voyages in early years). For the same reasons, voyages to Brazil were generally the shortest, as these journeys had the shortest distances and were most common in the latter stages of transatlantic slavery when they benefitted from technological and navigational advancements.
Naturally, the region of origin also played just as important a role as destination in determining voyage length. For example, journeys from southeast Africa (present-day Mozambique) and the Indian Ocean islands had the longest voyage times, followed by journeys from around the Gulf of Guinea to North America; journeys from Sierra Leone and West Central Africa (particularly to Brazil) took the shortest time due to their proximity to South America. The correlation between journey length and mortality was also evident in voyages from Southeast Africa to Mainland North America, which had a mortality rate of over 50 percent, while all voyages to Brazil had a mortality rate of 8.6 percent.