The majority of enslaved Africans went to Brazil, followed by the Caribbean.

Truth: Only a little more than 300,000 captives, or 4-6 percent, came to the United States. Myth One: The majority of African captives came to what became the United States. The history of slavery provides vital context to contemporary conversations and counters the distorted facts, internet hoaxes and poor scholarship I caution my students against. Instead, we trace the history of slavery in all its forms to make sense of the origins of wealth inequality and the roots of discrimination today. I’ve spent my career dispelling myths about “the peculiar institution.” The goal in my courses is not to victimize one group and celebrate another.

However, there are still many misconceptions about slavery, as evidenced by the conflict at the University of Tennessee. Some of these dialogues have been wrought with controversy and conflict, like the University of Tennessee student who challenged her professor’s understanding of enslaved families.Īs a scholar of slavery at the University of Texas at Austin, I welcome the public debates and connections the American people are making with history. From the discovery of the auction of 272 enslaved people that enabled Georgetown University to remain in operation to the McGraw-Hill textbook controversy over calling slaves “workers from Africa” and the slavery memorial being built at the University of Virginia, Americans are having conversations about this difficult period in American history. Slavery has been in the news a lot lately. Some argue it was all a long time ago, but it wasn’t. They claim all Southerners owned slaves, but they didn’t. They talk about 400 years of slavery, but it wasn’t. They think the majority of African slaves came to the American colonies, but they didn’t. People think they know everything about slavery in the United States, but they don’t.

An american slave