Average time taken for slave middle passage journey by region 1501-1866

The middle passage was the second leg of the triangular trade network that existed between Europe, Africa and the Americas between the 16^th and 19^th centuries. Generally speaking, the middle passage was the process of transporting African captives across the Atlantic, where they would begin their new life as a slave in the Americas. Throughout transatlantic slavery, the middle passage had a mortality rate of approximately 15 percent (up to 30 percent in early years), due to a combination of factors such as violence, disease and malnourishment. Each of these factors facilitated one another, and depleted provisions during longer journeys exacerbated this further.

Geographical influences

In general, voyages to the Spanish mainland American colonies took the longest time, due to a combination of distance and time period (these colonies were the most common destination for slave voyages in early years). For the same reasons, voyages to Brazil were generally the shortest, as these journeys had the shortest distances and were most common in the latter stages of transatlantic slavery when they benefitted from technological and navigational advancements.
Naturally, the region of origin also played just as important a role as destination in determining voyage length. For example, journeys from southeast Africa (present-day Mozambique) and the Indian Ocean islands had the longest voyage times, followed by journeys from around the Gulf of Guinea to North America; journeys from Sierra Leone and West Central Africa (particularly to Brazil) took the shortest time due to their proximity to South America. The correlation between journey length and mortality was also evident in voyages from Southeast Africa to Mainland North America, which had a mortality rate of over 50 percent, while all voyages to Brazil had a mortality rate of 8.6 percent.