**Alt text:** A cracked rectangular basalt slab lies on a weathered blue-gray surface, divided into two equal halves. On one side are pale ivory beads, on the other, indigo blue beads—symbolizing loss and imbalance. A frayed hemp rope with a rusted lead weight rests across the foreground, suggesting a broken measuring line. The background fades into a hazy horizon of sea and sky, where blue and gray dissolve together.

Of 12.5M Africans shipped, only 390K came to the U.S.—3%. Brazil got 4.8M. Yet U.S. slavery dominates the story. The archive remembers the few; the ocean holds the rest. #MiddlePassage #BeyondThe13Colonies