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CHARACTERISTICS OF CAPTIVES LEAVING THE CAMEROONS FOR THE AMERICAS, 1822–37

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2002

G. UGO NWOKEJI
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut
DAVID ELTIS
Affiliation:
University of Connecticut

Abstract

On the basis of identifying the likely geographic origins of African names extracted from the Sierra Leone Liberated African registers, this essay estimates the provenance of the transatlantic slave trade that drew on the Cameroons estuary between 1822 and 1837. The sample, drawn from six separate vessels, is broken down by age and sex category and constitutes about 7 per cent of all Africans who left from the region in these years. It makes possible analysis of changes over time, comparisons of age and sex with distance between embarkation point and likely provenance zone, as well as interaction between Old Calabar and the Cameroons regions in the supply of slaves. The great majority of the captives originated within 200 miles of the coast and within 120 miles of the modern border with Nigeria.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The authors would like to thank Ralph Austen, Stephen Behrendt, David Northrup, David Richardson and Stanley L. Engerman for comments on earlier drafts of this paper.