This is of course nothing to be proud of, because it involves the United States' history of slavery. Showing that only a small percentage of the slave trade from Africa landed in the U.S. gives us no moral superiority; even one boatload carries the full impact of the crime against humanity that it was.
Nevertheless, in reading a review of Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade by David Eltis and David Richardson (The Nation, Feb 7, 2011), I was quite surprised to learn the destinations of the 10 million African slaves brought to the new world between 1501 and 1867:
. 400,000 to the United States
3,500,000 to the Caribbean (Barbados, Cuba, Haiti, and others)
4,900,000 to Brazil
Again, this is no credit to us. Just a different perspective for me (not a great student of history, obviously).
Ralph
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