By Luana M. Graves Sellars
Song Bird By Sonja Griffin Evans
During the 18th century five ports along the eastern seaboard were the most active in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. The ports were: NYC, Richmond, Port Royal, SC, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.
The Port of Charleston was the most active slave auction site in the United States.
In the short span of the 25 years between 1783 and 1808, some 100,000 slaves, arriving from the West Coast of Africa, were transported through Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, as well as other South Carolina ports, and sold to the 13 colonies.
5,500
Enslaved Africans were brought to the Lowcountry by 1725
117,500
Enslaved Africans were brought to the Lowcountry by 1775
As a result, close to 80% of American Blacks who are descendants of slaves can trace their lineage back to the Gullah Geechee Corridor with the majority of them coming from South Carolina.
Gadsden Wharf, in Charleston, South Carolina was the largest slave port and auction site in the US, which eventually docked around 200 ships filled with close to 50% of the enslaved Africans whose first steps was on American soil.
At one point, the majority of South Carolina’s population consisted mostly of African slaves, with the highest concentrations in the plantation areas of the Lowcountry. By the 1860 census, the population was 703,620, with roughly 57% or 402,000 classified as slaves.
By Sonja Griffin Evans
The number of free blacks in South Carolina was less than 10,000.
Savannah was the third largest slave port with a 4,479 slave ship manifests documented over a period of 116 years.
By 1850, there were 3,204,313 slaves in the United States.
Every year during slavery, about 50,000 enslaved people attempted to escape from the northern edge of the South, however, the number of those who actually made it to freedom is only a few thousand.
Today, more than 500,000 Gullah Geechee people who live within the 500 mile stretch of land between Jacksonville, North Carolina and Jacksonville, Florida, which makes up the federally designated Gullah Geechee Corridor.
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