The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Visualization is a series of heat maps developed by Georgetown University Professor Adam Rothman and an undergraduate computer science student, Matthew Burdumy.

The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Visualization depicts three patterns. Those patterns are the cumulative frequency of slave voyage port of departure, the cumulative frequency of principal port of slave purchase, and the cumulative frequency of principal port of slave sale. When you press the “animate” button on the maps you will see the increasing frequency of each pattern represented by expanding and darkening color blotches on the maps.

Applications for Education
The data used in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Visualization came from the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database. On the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database you can find a series of lesson plans in which students have to draw conclusions from data about the Trans Atlantic slave trade. This first lesson plan in the series, The 1808 Slave Trade Abolition Deadline is a good match for the third map in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Visualization series. That map is a heat map of the cumulative frequency of principal port of slave sale.

H/T to Maps Mania.