Goree Island House of Slaves

 

Goree Island House of Slaves

Goree Island was used as a slave trading post by the Portuguese from as early as 1536. The island is tiny and lies three kilometers south of the Senegalese coast. Its tiny size of about eighteen hectares and deep costal water made it easy for merchants to control their captured slaves. There are many estimates as to the amount of slaves that passed through Goree, probably twenty six thousand, even more than a million. The Africans passed through a single door to board slave ships destined for the Caribbean and the Americas.

The French called the island Goree which meant “good harbor” but the name was a far cry from what took place on this tiny island, between the sixteenth and nineteenth century. Many wooden ships sailed from this island with a cargo of human beings chained in their holds. This was the House of Slaves as Goree Island was also called.