What you have been conditioned to believe about the "Transatlantic Slave Trade" is nothing more than a romanticized tragedy of what happened to countless Europeans who sought a sense of freedom and ownership in North America. Millions of "West Africans" were NOT forced or sold as "slaves" to fair-skin European merchants as simple business transactions. Millions of "West Africans" were NOT tortured by the same fair-skin European merchants on these boats. Millions of "African slaves" did not die on the voyage under the hands of fair-skin European merchants. Millions of "African slaves" could NOT have been transported by a few thousand fair-skin European merchants for 200+ consecutive years.
The number of "African slaves" that were allegedly transported to North, Central, and South America are exaggerated, misleading and inconsistent to say the least. For this post, we'll focus on North America and the European groups that were also migrating to North America during the same time period. Scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and David Eltis have published extensive works on the "Transatlantic Slave Trade" narrative. With the support of Emory University, the aforementioned scholars and particularly Gates claim that only "92,000 Africans were forced to make the voyage". This number is starkly smaller than the generally accepted numbers of 300-400,000 "African slaves" allegedly transported to North America.
Millions of Europeans fled from places like England, France, Germany, London, Scotland, Ireland, Finland, and Norway (to name a few). These migrations went on for more than 200 consecutive years, and during the same time period that the alleged 92,000 "African slaves" were also transported to North America. Greedy European merchants were involved in the practice of manipulating men, and women while spiriting or kidnapping children from various towns, cities and villages throughout the aforementioned countries, but primarily in London. Political prisoners also made the voyage. Not to mention the countless indentured servants that also migrated to North America.
I genuinely wonder... How, and who would travel thousands of miles to West/Central Africa, then thousands of additional miles to North America? Who were the "West and Central Africans" that were also transported by European merchants during the same time period these same European merchants were transporting countless groups of Europeans (i.e. Puritans, Separatists, Pilgrims, Germans, Scots, French-Huguenots, Quakers and Englishmen)? Seriously, if "African slaves" were crammed like sardines for thousands of miles, were they crammed like sardines next to the hundreds of Europeans in these same sea vessels/boats?
For more on the European experience please see the following:
They Were White and They Were Slaves by Michael A. Hoffman II
White Cargo by Don Jordan and Micheal Walsh
White Trash: The 400-year untold history of class in America by Nancy Isenberg
Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters by Robert C. Davis