The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of slaves transported to the New World according to written history were NOT NATIVE AFRICANS  from Central and Western and Eastern parts of the continent, in fact these people have been historically proven to be descendants of  EARLY HEBREWS THAT HAD MIGRATED FROM ARABIA AND EGYPT, ISRAEL AND ETHIOPIA into West Africa.  These people were attacked and sold by NATIVE AFRICAN TRIBES and Muslims to European slave traders who then transported them to North and South and Central America