African American Genomes Yield Insight into Slavery Practices

A massive study finds that regional differences in how slaves were treated throughout the Americas are reflected in the DNA of present-day Americans of African descent.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 5 min read

slavery, human population genetics, 23andMe, genomics, African American, Black history, history

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A new study by researchers at the consumer genetics company 23andMe has paired tens of thousands of genetic profiles with detailed historical records to trace the ancestry of modern-day African Americans back through the transatlantic slave trade.

The results, published Thursday (July 23) in The American Journal of Human Genetics, confirm some of what is known about where people in Africa were taken from and where they disembarked in the Americas, but they also yield some new insights. Finding some regions overrepresented among African Americans’ ancestry sheds light on secondary slave trading, while the underrepresentation of other African groups points to regional differences in the treatment of slaves. The findings also identify a sex bias in which women contributed significantly more to the gene pool of modern-day African Americans than enslaved men did.

“For millions of people in the Americas, the story of the transatlantic slave ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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