Titre
The ancestry and geographical origins of St Helena's liberated Africans.
Type
article
Institution
UNIL/CHUV/Unisanté + institutions partenaires
Périodique
Auteur(s)
Sandoval-Velasco, M.
Auteure/Auteur
Jagadeesan, A.
Auteure/Auteur
Ramos-Madrigal, J.
Auteure/Auteur
Ávila-Arcos, M.C.
Auteure/Auteur
Fortes-Lima, C.A.
Auteure/Auteur
Watson, J.
Auteure/Auteur
Johannesdóttir, E.
Auteure/Auteur
Cruz-Dávalos, D.I.
Auteure/Auteur
Gopalakrishnan, S.
Auteure/Auteur
Moreno-Mayar, J.V.
Auteure/Auteur
Niemann, J.
Auteure/Auteur
Renaud, G.
Auteure/Auteur
Robson Brown, K.A.
Auteure/Auteur
Bennett, H.
Auteure/Auteur
Pearson, A.
Auteure/Auteur
Helgason, A.
Auteure/Auteur
Gilbert, MTP
Auteure/Auteur
Schroeder, H.
Auteure/Auteur
Liens vers les personnes
Liens vers les unités
ISSN
1537-6605
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2023-09-07
Volume
110
Numéro
9
Première page
1590
Dernière page/numéro d’article
1599
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Langue
anglais
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Publication Status: ppublish
Résumé
The island of St Helena played a crucial role in the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade. Strategically located in the middle of the South Atlantic, it served as a staging post for the Royal Navy and reception point for enslaved Africans who had been "liberated" from slave ships intercepted by the British. In total, St Helena received approximately 27,000 liberated Africans between 1840 and 1867. Written sources suggest that the majority of these individuals came from West Central Africa, but their precise origins are unknown. Here, we report the results of ancient DNA analyses that we conducted as part of a wider effort to commemorate St Helena's liberated Africans and to restore knowledge of their lives and experiences. We generated partial genomes (0.1-0.5×) for 20 individuals whose remains had been recovered during archaeological excavations on the island. We compared their genomes with genotype data for over 3,000 present-day individuals from 90 populations across sub-Saharan Africa and conclude that the individuals most likely originated from different source populations within the general area between northern Angola and Gabon. We also find that the majority (17/20) of the individuals were male, supporting a well-documented sex bias in the latter phase of the transatlantic slave trade. The study expands our understanding of St Helena's liberated African community and illustrates how ancient DNA analyses can be used to investigate the origins and identities of individuals whose lives were bound up in the story of slavery and its abolition.
PID Serval
serval:BIB_474D89291681
PMID
Open Access
Oui
Date de création
2023-09-25T13:57:38.836Z
Date de création dans IRIS
2025-05-20T13:42:02Z
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Nom
37683613_BIB_474D89291681.pdf
Version du manuscrit
published
Licence
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Taille
1.19 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
PID Serval
serval:BIB_474D89291681.P001
URN
urn:nbn:ch:serval-BIB_474D892916817
Somme de contrôle
(MD5):c9ad8d1db6c209248479ec95b191f330