Google Earth Image

This image is a view of the North Atlantic ocean from the perspective of the Europeans. This is the sort of mindset that they had when they were colonizing the Americas. Looking at the map it is

interesting to see that the first land mass that the venturing Europeans would have encountered is northern Canada and then what would becom New England. This echoes the settlement of the North American continent. If you look a bit further south you will see the African continent where the slave trade began. The sheer distance between the African continent and the North American Continent makes it seem unreal that the giant slave ships would risk the difficult passage across the Atlantic ocean. It is amazing what a new perspective can bring. Some of the hardships of the voyages are made more clear now that I look at the world from a different point of view.