ESTA Database: Historical Slave Trade Locations in Asia

ESTA Database Locations standardizes projected coordinates for slave trade movements in the Indian Ocean and East Asia from the 16th to 19th centuries. The dataset includes locations classified into four region categories, from continents to subregions, with coordinates assigned varying degrees of probability and accuracy. It was created by Pascal Konings and updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Mapping historical slave trade routes based on the described maritime movement data.
• Analyzing regional patterns of the slave trade using the four standardized region categories.
• Assessing the certainty of historical locations based on the described probability and accuracy annotations.
• Cross-referencing historical claims using the included source citations and personal comments.

Strengths

• Covers a significant temporal range from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
• Locations are standardized and classified into four region categories.
• Coordinates include annotations for probability and geographical accuracy, supported by specific sources and comments.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data freshness should be verified as the last update reflects metadata, not necessarily the underlying data.

Provenance

Source

Exploring Slave Trade in Asia (ESTA) project.

Collection Method

Historical research and data standardization.

Time Range

Sixteenth to nineteenth century.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-01 06:10:45.

Geography

Indian Ocean basin and East Asia.