The African Slave Trade started in the 1400’s when Portuguese sailors kidnapped and/or traded for African villagers, which would be transported around the world and sold as slaves. This turned out to be a very lucrative business for the Europeans, so the transportation of Africans by Europeans lasted late into the 19^th century. The majority of slaves were captured along the western coast of Africa, with some slave trading taking place along the northern and southern coasts as well.

Africa natives were taken away from their villages by people called slave traders. These traders forced the captured slaves to march to the coast were they waited in slave camps until a ship came which would take them away from their homeland. Slave ships were filled over capacity and the slaves were made to endure long journeys under unbelievably horrible conditions. Just as it is unknown exactly how many Africans were taken into slavery, it is also unknown how many of these people died on the march to the coast and on the voyage in the slave ships. It is almost certain though that the numbers for both of these categories are well into the millions.