1498–1525 : African captives potentially arrived in the Americas as early as 1498 during Christopher Columbus’s third voyage, marking an extremely early pres…

1498–1525 : African captives potentially arrived in the Americas as early as 1498 during Christopher Columbus’s third voyage, marking an extremely early presence. For the first quarter-century of the trade, transatlantic slaves typically arrived by way of Europe rather than directly from the African coast. Direct shipments from Africa did not become the standard until approximately 1525. Over the subsequent three and a half centuries, an estimated 10.7 million captives arrived in the Americas. This forced migration meant that before the mass European migrations of the nineteenth century, the Americas functioned largely as a demographic extension of Africa.