Yoruba Diaspora

Meyer-Heiselberg, Richard, Notes from Liberated African Department: Extracts from Sources on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 1808-1860 from the Archives at Fourah Bay College, The University College of Sierra Leone, Freetown, Sierra Leone (Uppsala: The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1967).

In 1966, Meyer-Heiselberg compiled a preliminary inventory of the registers’ contents, including systematic notes on the age and gender distribution of Liberated Africans. He projected that the overall total was 94,329 individuals. Of that total, just over 30,000 departed from ports in the Bight of Benin, whereby over 20,000 likely had Yoruba names documented therein. Scholars continue to work on the story of Liberated Africans, which amounts to over 225,000 worldwide and made accessible via www.LiberatedAfricans.org.