MDS Plot
Most of Caribbean islands (red) clustered with the West African populations from Sierra Leone (in purple), Senegambia (black), Gold Coast (yellow), the Bight of Benin (green) and Bight of Biafra (blue). Dominica was the only island to appear outside of this central cluster (red circle seen on the right of the plot).
Census data of Caribbean populations from the early 19th century generally support these findings. Many of the African-born slaves within the Caribbean reported birthplaces within these regions, most notable within the Bight of Biafra (Higman, 1984).
Database Comparisons
After making comparisons to various databases and compiling the results, biogeographical ancestry assessed from mtDNA data indicated that the locations of origin tended to fall along the northern regions of West Africa. The locations of origin based on Y chromosome data tended to lie along the southern regions of West Africa, in addition to Mozambique (see map below). Differences in the geographical distribution of origins based on genetic system could have arisen as a result of European preferences in male and female slaves. Specifically, this could have occurred if there was some trend where females from the northern regions of West Africa were favored and males from the southern regions of West Africa were preferred. Furthermore, different historical and cultural factors within African ethnic groups in who was most likely to become a slave could have also influenced the constitution of African populations in the Americas.
