ABSTRACT
Despite a major research effort in the last few decades, less is known about the movement of African peoples to the New World than the much smaller movement of their European counterparts before the mid-nineteenth century. Given that the record keepers were Europeans who regarded Africans as outsiders, it is likely that we shall never have as much information on the personal lives of individual Africans making the Atlantic crossing as we do of Europeans. But on the identities of large groups entering the African stream as well as the size and demographic characteristics of these groups, the picture is much less discouraging. Indeed, in a few years it may well be the case that in these areas, and in the early modern period at least, we will actually know more about these aspects of African than of European transatlantic migration. As knowledge of the patterns of the trade is basic to evaluations of the cultural implications of long-distance movements of people, this is an exciting prospect. One of the developments that has made it possible is, of course, the computer revolution and the related, but ultimately more important, explosion in archival research that has occurred since the late 1960s.
