The project will be set up to test either mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to child, and the Y chromosome , which is handed down from father to son. In subsequent editions, it is hoped to include up to 80 percent of all voyages. It is likely that records on the remaining 20 percent have been lost , according to scholars. The information on each voyage is organized into 266 separate areas, including the ship's name , its owners , where it acquired slaves, and where they were taken. The records are surprisingly detailed because, after all, slaves were considered valuable property and investors wanted an accounting of their money.
Interesting patterns emerge from all the figures.
On the other hand, slaves from Senegambia , today the nations of Senegal and Gambia, were more prominent in the Carolinas. This is probably because Carolina rice planters favored slaves already familiar with rice, which was commonly grown in Senegambia. Barbados and Cuba received the most varied African populations, with slaves coming from most of the continent. Central America's slave population was heavily drawn from the Gold Coast , what is now Benin, Togo, and parts of Ghana. Only five percent of the 12 million African men, women, and children were brought to the U.S., while 40 percent went to Brazil.