Sunken ships transporting slaves discovered near the Bahamas
Sunken sailing ships that participated in the transatlantic slave trade between Africa and America have been discovered in the Bahamas.
Among them is the American schooner Peter Mowell, which sank off Linyard Cay near Great Abaco Island in 1860. There were about 400 enslaved Africans on board. Underwater archaeologists have also found smaller ships that delivered slaves to sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco plantations in North America and the Caribbean, Live Science reports.
Researchers have discovered three shipwrecks, but "they are all classified at the moment," said Carl Allen, CEO and founder of the underwater archaeology group Allen Exploration, in an interview.
The slave ships were identified during Allen Exploration's Lost Ships in the Bahamas project, in which scientists are inventorying all shipwrecks around the islands. So far, they have discovered 596 shipwrecks in the waters around the northern Abacos, the oldest of which dates back to 1657.
The location of the shipwrecks shows that the Bahamas served as an important point between Africa, southeast Africa, Cuba, and the Gulf of Mexico. This region is known for bad weather, but it was still the safest route.
Earlier TravelWise wrote that scientists have confirmed the age of the oldest human footprints in North America.
