Slave Ship Animation

Library of Congress Prints & Photographs

A lot of websites claim they'll blow my mind. I'm usually disappointed. But the slave ship animation on the site Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database got my attention.

Each dot represents a ship packed with kidnapped and tortured human beings -- mothers and daughters, sons and fathers -- leaving Africa, crossing the Atlantic to the Americas to be enslaved.

I watched from beginning to end, and I will never be able to wrap my mind around it.

Click on the "Animation" tab.