Who is Kunta Kinte?


According to kintehaley.org Kunta Kinte was an African from the Gambian town of Juferee. According to Haley he was sold into slavery in a town called "Naplis."

Through his research Haley identified a slave ship the Lord Ligonier. This ship sailed from the Gambia River, July 5, 1767. 140 captured Gambians were on this ship however, when it arrived in Annapolis, Maryland on September 29, 1767 only 98 slaves had survived the trip

Hayley believed one of those 98 survivors to be 17 year-old Kunta Kinte. Kinte, along with the other survivors were sold into slavery on October 7, according to an advertisement in the Maryland Gazette newspaper.

(image courtesy of: http://www.kintehaley.org/rootskintebio.html)

The transport of Africans from Africa to North America was known as the Atlantic Slave Trade.
During this era around twelve million Africans were transported across the Atlantic to the Western Hemisphere in the 400 years from 1450 to 1850.

 Slaves went through what was known as the horrors of the "Middle Passage" — the Atlantic crossing in which Africans were packed into the holds of ships for months, many dying along the way.