Quote from mike oxbig:
Anytime African slavery is mentioned, the focus is always on America. Let's shed a little historical light on the situation. The Arabs began the African slave trade in East Africa hundreds of years before the Europeans began the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Estimates are that Arab slave traders shipped and sold 10 to 18 million Africans in middle eastern and North African markets. By comparison, it is estimated that 12 million African slaves crossed the Atlantic. The Atlantic slave traders, ordered by trade volume, were: the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the Americans. Only 3.25% of African slaves ended up in North American English colonies. The vast majority ended up on sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, East and West Indies, etc.). The remainder were imported into other South American countries by the Spanish and French.