None So Fine

Most of the people who came to Jamaica before 1807 travelled through sea ports on the coast of West Africa and Central West Africa. They had been sold into slavery by people who captured or exploited them.

This map shows the origins of all the currently known voyages to the Americas, not just the ships going to Jamaica. Although African Jamaicans arrived from all of these locations, the majority came from West Africa (the Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, and Bight of Biafra) or from West Central Africa.

Africans who disembarked in Jamaica boarded from these regions in 50 year periodsSenegambia and off-shore AtlanticSierra LeoneWindward CoastGold CoastBight of BeninBight of BiafraWest Central Africa (Angola) and St. HelenaSouth-east Africa and Indian ocean islandsTotals
1651-170078509650105053403331508253058905119071
1701-175014703673446111436217125668422793152269390931
1751-180010207303254166118165253327220060846190621851
1801-1850716163626171605436513679916008077481
Totals334763966048889351832162267356789205247111741209334
 
 regions with the highest total #
 regions with the second highest #
 totals in
50 – year intervals
source: “Voyages” Slave Trade Database
consulted 2022.09.19
http://www.slavevoyages.org/estimates/NvcQArAF

Place of origin of Africans disembarked in Jamaica

In Jamaica, no single African linguistic or cultural group predominated. The composition of the African population in Jamaica was largely mixed, albeit from a few primary regions, including Lower Guinea in West Africa and Central West Africa. Continuous inflows of new arrivals meant that African traditions persisted. The diverse backgrounds of the émigrés shaped aspect of Afro-Jamaican culture even as some groups remained numerically dominant.