Goree Island, Senegal: Goree Island was one of the key sites from which African slaves were shipped to the New World. Having changed hands among a number of different colonial powers, the island was captured by the French during the height of the slave trade. It was here that Africans were weighed, measured and fattened, calculatingly groomed to raise the highest price on the international slave market. The slave quarters have been designated as a UNESCO heritage sight, and tourists can visit the small, dark cells in which the incoming slave population was imprisoned. Families were separated here, and plaques indicate the special quarters for young girls, many of whom were raped and abused by the traders. Goree also features a “door of no return” through which slaves were loaded onto ships, most never to set foot on African soil again.
