Kean Collection / Archive Photos / Getty ImagesNineteenth-century illustration of a British slave shipKean Collection / Archive Photos / Getty Images
Archaeologists from the Bahamas, in the Caribbean, identified the wrecks of 14 ships that carried enslaved people from Africa to the Americas and sank between 1767 and 1860, according to a report released by the Bahamas Maritime Museum. Each ship carried between 15 and 400 people, according to historical records, and most were American-flagged. Another 39 sunken ships identified in the report were carrying items related to the sugar trade. The study was carried out by researchers from the museum, which was founded by Allen Exploration, an archaeological initiative started by American entrepreneur Carl Allen. More than 90% of the current population of the Bahamas is descended from Africans, who began being taken there in 1721. Most of the ships appear to have sunk while sailing south toward the sugarcane fields of Cuba. The wreckage locations indicate that the Bahamas was an important crossroads between Africa, the American Southeast, Cuba, and the Gulf of Mexico. The next step is for divers to examine the archaeological evidence still held in the shipwrecks (Live Science, February 29).
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