Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, General Research and Reference Division

Élisée Reclus, The Earth and Its Inhabitants, Africa, vol. III (New York: D. Appleton, 1890–1893)

Old Calabar, located in the Bight of Biafra, Nigeria, was a major port of the slave trade. Records show that during the peak years of the slave trade-from the late seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries-699 identified ships left Old Calabar loaded with 205,600 Africans. The port's traffic represented more than 28 percent of the Africans deported from the Bight of Biafra. But Bonny was the leading port, with 1,048 identified ships carrying 384,000 Africans.