David Eltis, David Richardson: Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-C)

In December, 2010, National Public Radio featured a story on the Transatlantic Slave Trade. This is the introduction to that feature story: In the mid-15th century, the ships of the trans-Atlantic trade system went from carrying cargoes of gold to carrying cargoes of human beings. Over the next 350 years, some 12.5 million people would be shipped as slaves from Africa. Historian David Eltis has summarized that piece of history in Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, an online database that uses thousands of documents to offer a clearer picture of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He and fellow historian David Richardson have also published a book on the subject by the same name. Author, editor, and historian David Eltis is a Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History at Emory University. A few of his lectures are posted below. These are also interesting books and collections of maps: George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps, Atlas of Remote Islands.

Mapping Out the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Its 21st Century Legacy from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

The historic slave trade from Africa to the Americas was so widespread and so horrific as to remain difficult to entirely grasp. A new book, “Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade," aims to turn historic data from the period into a more coherent view, through maps and data. The book uncovers information that may soon have us all reconsidering not only America's history, but many of our own, personal stories. David Eltis, Professor of History at Emory University and co-author of the book, says that the data put forth in the atlas reveals a modern reintegration of peoples from around the world. The transatlantic slave trade marked the very beginning of that shift, which is still happening today.

View The Takeaway webpage on this story here. [Podcast will be made available after the show airs.] See also: George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps, Atlas of Remote Islands