Editing Atlantic slave trade (section)

===African kingdoms of the era===
There were over 173 city-states and kingdoms in the African regions affected by the slave trade between 1502 and 1853, when Brazil became the last Atlantic import nation to outlaw the slave trade. Of those 173, no fewer than 68 could be deemed nation-states with political and military infrastructures that enabled them to dominate their neighbours. Nearly every present-day nation had a pre-colonial predecessor, sometimes an [[African empires|African empire]] with which European traders had to barter.

====Ethnic groups====
The different ethnic groups brought to the Americas closely correspond to the regions of heaviest activity in the slave trade. Over 45 distinct ethnic groups were taken to the Americas during the trade. Of the 45, the ten most prominent, according to slave documentation of the era and modern genealogical studies are listed below.<ref name="Hall">{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Gwendolyn Midlo |author1-link=Gwendolyn Midlo Hall |title=Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas |url=http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=742 |access-date=24 January 2011 |year=2007 |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |isbn=978-0-8078-5862-2 |page={{page needed|date=January 2011}} |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118132059/http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=742}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zakharia |first1=Fouad |last2=Basu |first2=Analabha |last3=Absher |first3=Devin |last4=Assimes |first4=Themistocles L. |last5=Go |first5=Alan S. |last6=Hlatky |first6=Mark A. |last7=Iribarren |first7=Carlos |last8=Knowles |first8=Joshua W. |last9=Li |first9=Jun |last10=Narasimhan |first10=Balasubramanian |last11=Sidney |first11=Steven |last12=Southwick |first12=Audrey |last13=Myers |first13=Richard M. |last14=Quertermous |first14=Thomas |last15=Risch |first15=Neil |date=22 December 2009 |title=Characterizing the admixed African ancestry of African Americans |journal=[[Genome Biology]] |volume=10 |issue=12 |pages=R141 |doi=10.1186/gb-2009-10-12-r141 |issn=1474-760X |pmc=2812948 |pmid=20025784 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Veeramah |first1=Krishna R. |last2=Connell |first2=Bruce A. |last3=Pour |first3=Naser Ansari |last4=Powell |first4=Adam |last5=Plaster |first5=Christopher A. |last6=Zeitlyn |first6=David |last7=Mendell |first7=Nancy R. |last8=Weale |first8=Michael E. |last9=Bradman |first9=Neil |last10=Thomas |first10=Mark G. |date=31 March 2010 |title=Little genetic differentiation as assessed by uniparental markers in the presence of substantial language variation in peoples of the Cross River region of Nigeria |journal=[[BMC Evolutionary Biology]] |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=92 |doi=10.1186/1471-2148-10-92 |issn=1471-2148 |pmc=2867817 |pmid=20356404 |bibcode=2010BMCEE..10...92V |doi-access=free}}</ref>
# The [[Kongo people|BaKongo]] of the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]], the [[Republic of the Congo]] and [[Angola]]
# The [[Mandé peoples|Mandé]] of Upper [[Guinea]]
# The [[Gbe languages|Gbe]] speakers of [[Togo]], [[Ghana]], and [[Benin]] ([[Fon people|Fon]], [[Ewe people|Ewe]], [[Adja people|Adja]], Mina)
# The [[Akan people|Akan]] of Ghana and [[Ivory Coast]]
# The [[Wolof people|Wolof]] of [[Senegal]] and [[the Gambia]]
# The [[The Igbo in the Atlantic slave trade|Igbo]] of southeastern [[Nigeria]]
# The [[Ambundu]] of [[Angola]]
# The [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]] of southwestern [[Nigeria]] and [[Benin]]
# The [[Tikar people|Tikar]] and [[Bamileke people|Bamileke]] of [[Cameroon]]
# The [[Makua people|Makua]] of [[Mozambique]]