This is Karen Hunter and welcome to the hub. 7 out of 10 that's the number I want you to process so I'm in Africa, Ghana of course and I went to Elmina castle and we taught, or at least I studied, about the transatlantic

slave trade and how many bodies were lost in the ocean on the trip from Africa to the new world.

You know, some put that number as high as maybe 40 to 400 million,

which is a lot, right?

But we're talking about a 400-year institution, right? 400-year institution that literally seated and was the foundation of

wealth for so many nations from England to France to of course the United States

of America and as I'm going through this tour at the Almeena Castle, which I'm going to give the history and break down in a second, the Portuguese established that here on what they call, then the Gold Coast, again a European term for a town, a village, a community

that already existed.

The Portuguese established it for trade, mostly of gold, which was found here that didn't belong to them.

I'll get to that in a second as well.

But this was the birthplace of the transatlantic slave trade as it relates to Ghana.

The Amina Castle was the port from which human beings

were shipped to the new world.

On this tour, which I think everyone should go on if you come here.

And many people have gone online,

you've seen everyone from Steve Harvey to, you name it.

Everyone comes through this castle and they mostly have a very emotional experience, you know, because if you're black American, if you're a black American, your connection to the continent may be close, may be very distant.

For many of us, we don't know where we come from.

We don't know our names.

We don't know what tribe we come from.

We don't know what language was spoken.

So to come to a place and to imagine your ancestors being held in these rooms.

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