So fascinating. “...DNA of participants from the US showed a significant amount of Nigerian ancestry — far more than expected based on the historical records of ships carrying enslaved ppl directly to the US from Nigeria.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/science/23andme-african-ancestry.html?smid=tw-share

“Historians have estimated, for example, that 5.7 million ppl were taken from West Central Africa to the Americas. And the genetic record shows a very strong connection between people in West Central Africa and all people with African ancestry in the Americas.”

“...ppl who were taken to Latin America...were taken orig from other regions like Senegambia/Bight of Benin. New genetic evidence...showing that the descendants of enslaved ppl in Latin America generally carry genetic connections with two or three of these regions in Africa.”

“Historical evidence shows that enslaved people in the United States and the British Caribbean, by contrast, were taken from a larger number of regions of Africa. Their descendants today show a genetic connection to people in six regions in Africa, the study found.”

WOW. “...historical record shows of the 10.7 million enslaved ppl who disembarked in the Americas (after nearly 2 million others died on the journey), more than 60% were men. But the genetic record shows it was mostly enslaved women who contributed 2 the present-day gene pool.”

TW [Violence & Rape] “The asymmetry in the experience of enslaved men and women — and many groups of men/women in centuries past — is well understood. Enslaved men often died before they had a chance to have children. Enslaved women were often raped and forced to have children.”

Wow. So despite 60% of kidnapped Africans being men, most of us are descendants of BW because men often died before they had a chance to have children, vs Black girls/women who were bred from very young ages.

“...scientists calculated that enslaved wmn in the United States contributed 1.5 times more to the modern-day gene pool of ppl of African descent than enslaved men. In the Latin Caribbean, they contributed 13 times more. In Northern South America, they contributed 17 times more.”

WE BEEN KNEW “What’s more, in the United States, European men contributed three times more to the modern-day gene pool of people of African descent than European women did. In the British Caribbean, they contributed 25 times more.”

This is important historical context that many might not know. “In some regions in Latin America, the government enacted programs that brought men from Europe to father children with enslaved women in order to intentionally diminish the African gene pool.”