ABSTRACT
The transatlantic slave trade from Africa to the European settlements in the New World has been only one of many large-scale international movements of free and enslaved peoples in recorded history, but it has clearly been one of the most frequently studied and discussed. The slave trade was entered into by merchants and vessels from all the western European powers; it involved trade with most areas of the West African coast as well as some of the East African coast, and it led to sales of slaves throughout the regions of the western hemisphere. The overall slave trade persisted for more than three centuries, was quite large, involving at least 10-12 million slaves, and since the carrying capacities of slave-trading vessels was small - averaging about 300 slaves per vessel1 - the trade entailed a large number of ships and consisted of many voyages from several different nations. Because of the role of slavery in New World settlement, and given the general range of mercantilist policies by European nations, the trade and its vessels were often regulated by government policies. These policies included the granting of monopolies to slave trading companies, controls regarding provisioning of ships, and also regulations affecting the numbers of slaves to be carried on ships of different sizes and tonnages.
