Scientists at the University of Copenhagen (KU) used DNA analysis to uncover the origins of enslaved Africans who were freed by the British and later abandoned on a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. The study was published on: American Journal of Human Genetics.
Britain benefited greatly from the slave trade. Between 1562 and 1807, the country used 2.7 million enslaved Africans to develop the economy in Britain and its colonies abroad. In 1833 he announced the abolition of slavery and began the fight against the slave courts. As part of Britain’s attempt to abolish the transatlantic slave trade, an estimated 27,000 African slaves were smuggled from captured ships between 1840 and 1867 and deported to St. Petersburg. He was placed in Helena.
Africans who survived the difficult conditions of the journey arrived in St. He was quarantined at Rupert Valley in Helena. Eight thousand people survived dehydration, dysentery, smallpox and malnutrition. Some of the survivors were sent back to Africa or taken to the West Indies, while others were allowed to remain on the island.
Which parts of Africa they belonged to was still a matter of speculation. The new study compared DNA isolated from the bones of 20 people to the genomes of more than 3,000 living Africans from 90 sub-Saharan African populations.
The results were largely consistent with historical documents: 17 of the 20 were men; The abducted people belonged to different groups with different languages and traditions. They came from different populations located between northern Angola and Gabon. This is linked to the slave trade that moved north from central Angola in the 19th century.
“I think this study demonstrates how ancient genomics can be used to reconstruct long-lost aspects of the lives and experiences of enslaved and other marginalized populations whose stories are often omitted from written records or deliberately concealed,” said Hannes, assistant professor of genomics. Shredder at the University of Copenhagen.
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Source: Gazeta
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