During the transatlantic slave trade, more than 90% of enslaved Africans were brought to be sold, live, and work in Brazil and the Caribbean. The Caribbean and South American colonies had massive sugar plantations with high labor demands, so there was a large market for the purchase of captured Africans in these regions. 

Only about 6% of enslaved Africans were brought to North America and the British colonies, and those who were primarily lived in the Southern Colonies working on cotton, tobacco, sugar, or indigo plantations. The Southern Colonies of Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina held the most slaves. By far, Virginia held the largest number of enslaved Africans during the period before Emancipation- almost 500,000 in the year 1860! Jamestown, Virginia was where the Colonial slave trade began and remained a common port for the sale of captured Africans into slavery.