HONG KONG: In 2010, three skeletons of African-born slaves two men and a woman were unearthed during a construction project on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean. But because of the lack of written records, the geographic origin and ethnic background of these slaves remained a mystery.
Now, thanks to a new technique developed by Prof. Carlos Bustamante, a geneticist with the Stanford University School of Medicine, the mystery of the slaves’ origins may be solved. The technique, which allows tiny bits of DNA from very contaminated and damaged samples to be extracted and analyzed, may provide a new way for scientists to better understand the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
“Through the barbarism of the middle passage, millions of people were forcibly removed from Africa and brought to the Americas,” said Bustamante in a statement . Noting that scientists have long sought to use DNA to identify slaves and where they came from, Bustamante said, “This project has taught us that we cannot only get ancient DNA from tropical samples, but that we can reliably identify their ancestry. This is incredibly exciting to us and opens the door to reclaiming history that is of such importance.”
The three skeletons were between 25 and 40 years of age when they perished sometime in the late 17th century. Their teeth had been filed in certain characteristic patterns found in some African tribes, but that was not sufficient for a precise identification.
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