Paths of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Interactions, Identities, and ...

Introduction

Interactions,
Identities, and Images

Ana Lucia Araujo

The birth of the Atlantic world, typically associated with Western European expansion into the Americas and Africa, was closely related to the development of the Atlantic slave trade. Over the last forty years, scholars have devoted much attention to demographic data in order to determine the actual number of enslaved Africans who were sent to the Americas during the period of the Atlantic slave trade. Although demographics is a critical instrument for measuring forced African migrations to the Americas, the alternative approach in slave studies—chosen in this edited volume—contrasts the lived experiences of enslaved men and women with “numbers.” The twelve chapters in this book examine regions, groups, and individuals usually underrepresented in Atlantic scholarship in order to understand the complex and unique human, cultural, and religious exchanges that resulted from the enslavement and the trade of African men, women, and children.