Yoruba Diaspora

Parliamentary Papers, Accounts and Papers, "Return of the Number of SLAVE VESSELS arrived in the TRANSATLANTIC STATES since 1814...," vol. 49 (1845), 593-633.

This ship list contains a total of 2,313 transatlantic slave voyages leaving from all parts of Africa and arriving to many places in the Americas. The long title of the document conveys fourteen columns of information : "Number of SLAVE VESSELS arrived in the TRANSATLANTIC STATES since 1814; their Names; Description as Brig, Schooner, Ship, &c.; Master's Names; Tonnage; Armament; Number of Crew; National Flag; whether Empty or with Slaves (whose Numbers are to be stated); the Loss by Death on the Voyage; from what Part of Africa arrived; the Length of Passage; and Date of Arrival; so far as these Particulars are known to Her Majesty's Government." Unfortunately, this resource does not contain much information about the individuals on board. From this record, ports of departure for Yoruba speakers were reflected in the column called "From What Part of Africa," which contains spelling variations for the ports of Lagos (Onim, Lagos, Rio Lagos), Ouidah (Ajuda, Ajudah, Ayuda), Little Popo (Popoe), or sometimes more broadly as "Coast of Mina." Yoruba speakers were also among those people grouped into categories such as "Chiefly from Onim, Bonny and New Calabar," which indicate a mixture of ports in the bights of Benin and Biafra.

Verger, Pierre, Trade Relations Between the Bight of Benin and Bahia, 17th to 19th Century (Ibadan: University of Ibadan Press, 1976), 421-423, 568-575.

This ship list derives from Pierre Fatumbi Verger's footnotes on slave voyages leaving the Bight of Benin for Bahia. Verger (4 November 1902, in Paris – 11 February 1996, in Salvador, Brazil) was a photographer, self-taught ethnographer, and babalawo (Yoruba priest of Ifà) who devoted most of his life to the study of the African diaspora — the slave trade, the African-based religions of the new world, and the resulting cultural and economical flows from and to Africa. Verger continued to study and document his chosen subject right until his death in Salvador, at the age of 93. He was a professor at the Federal University of Bahia since 1973. He was responsible for the establishment of the African-Brazilian Museum in Salvador; and served as visiting professor at the University of Ifé in Nigeria, too. The non-profit Pierre Verger Foundation in Salvador, which he established to continue his work, holds more than 63,000 photos and negatives, as well as his papers and correspondence. For more information see Fundação Pierre Verger http://www.pierreverger.org/en/homepageen-2.html.

Arquivo Público do Estado da Bahia (APEB), Maço 456, “Alvarás de navegação (registros),” 1789-1822, f. 288-308v.

The available metadata on this archival resource includes: type of vessel, date and place of departure from Bahia, and names of the captain and owner (if known). However, there is much missing data since the record refers to outbound vessels and not inbound arrivals; hence, totals for number of enslaved people on board is absent. The Voyages database provides estimates for these ship totals based on the type of vessel, which denotes tonnage and ship capacity. This record contains sparse details about Yoruba speakers beyond usages of "Costa da Mina," which is an ambiguous geographic slave trading term for the Gold Coast and Bight of Benin.