The landmark digital project SlaveVoyages.org, home to the world’s most comprehensive database on the trans-Atlantic slave trade, has launched a major redesigned website in 2025, marking its most significant update since 2018. The new platform enhances accessibility to records of over 36,000 trans-Atlantic voyages that forcibly transported millions of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic between 1514 and 1866, while integrating expanded data on intra-American trafficking and individual stories of enslavers and the enslaved.
The revamped site, anticipated since late 2024 announcements, introduces a streamlined user interface with a central search bar for querying voyages, people, archival documents, and essays. Users can now more easily explore interactive maps showing the volume and direction of the slave trade, including key African ports of embarkation and American destinations.
Core features include the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, detailing broad origins in Africa, the brutal Middle Passage, and disembarkation points in the Americas. Complementing this is the Intra-American Slave Trade Database, covering more than 37,000 voyages that displaced enslaved people within the Americas from 1550 to 1887. New additions highlight personal records, such as the African Origins Database with names and audio pronunciations of nearly 100,000 liberated Africans, and an Enslavers section profiling nearly 60,000 individuals and companies involved.
The update also incorporates historical documents, like manifests from the U.S. National Archives and South Sea Company papers, providing deeper insights into the operations of the trade. Educational resources, including lesson plans, 3D ship reconstructions, and timelapse animations of voyages, make the site invaluable for researchers, educators, and the public.
Hosted by Rice University and supported by an international consortium, SlaveVoyages.org continues to evolve through collaborative contributions, ensuring ongoing refinements to this digital memorial. Historians praise the redesign for broadening understanding of one of history’s largest forced migrations, estimated to have involved over 12.5 million Africans embarked, with millions perishing en route.
Visit https://www.slavevoyages.org/ to explore the updated maps, databases, and stories that map the tragic routes of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
