1638 to 1775 · Datasetspan
Ships to Brazil buried fewer of their captives than ships to the islands
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Between 1638 and 1775 a captive loaded for Brazil stood a better chance of reaching land alive than one loaded for the Caribbean. Eltis and Richardson set the two systems side by side and find death rates on the Brazil run substantially lower. Inside that figure the regional pattern turns over. On Caribbean voyages a larger share of the people taken from West Africa died. On Brazilian voyages a larger share of the people taken from West Central Africa died, the country behind Luanda and the Congo mouth, even though their crossing was probably the shorter one. Part of the gap has a blunt explanation. Brazilian traders in these years bought very little in the Bight of Biafra, the stretch of coast whose voyages carried the worst shipboard mortality of any region in the trade. A market that avoided one supply zone recorded better survival without changing anything aboard its ships. These numbers describe purchasing habits as much as they describe conditions below deck.
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