For 350 years, ships brought 12 million Africans to be enslaved in what is now the United States. Millions of others didn’t survive the trip.
Saint Augustine and Amelia Island were among the 50 ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the slaves were sold.
Now the Middle Passage and Port Markers Project aims to place memorials at each of the ports.
Thursday on WJCT’s First Coast Connect, project leader Ann Chinn said many people don’t know this history, including that about a quarter of slaves were children taken from their parents.
“I think it’s important that as we deal with our present issues with immigration and removal of children from their families that we understand this has been a practice in this society and this culture from the beginning,” she said.
The Middle Passage Project has had makers placed all along the coast and also has markers and other memorials along the African Coast where the slave ships docked.
