The Welsh and American Slavery

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• The Slave Trade
  • Whose ships were Used?
  • Who bought Slaves?
  • Captain Thomas Phillips
  • The Pwllheli Ship
  • The Second Middle Passage
  • The Slaves
  • Slave Owners
  • Abolitionists
  • Places to visit

The Slave Trade

Whose ships were they?

	Number of sea journeys	Number of slaves transported
Portugal (including Brazil)	30,000	4,650,000
Spain (including Cuba)	4,000	1,600,000
France	4,200	1,250,000
The Netherlands	2,000	500,000
Britain	12,000	2,600,000
Denmark	250	50,000

Portugal in 1444 was the first country to transport slaves out of West Africa, and then Spain, but they were at first sold in Europe. With the growth of their possessions in the Caribbean and on the American mainland, there came an increasing demand for slave labour.

The Netherlands had small colonies in the Americas from the beginning of the 16th century. The original name of New York was New Amsterdam, and it is likely that the ship's captain who sold the first slaves at Jamestown was a Dutchman.

Until the 1730s, the Portuguese were leaders of the slave trade, but then the ships of Britain came to dominate it.

Denmark entered the slave trade relatively late in 1651; they were also the first country to abolish it in 1792

It is estimated that other European countries, such as Lithuania, Sweden and Italy also sent approximately 50 thousand African slaves across the Atlantic, between them.