The Port Marker

Glass marker standing on a granite paver pavilion looking out over a ocean waterfront.
Boston's Middle Passage Port marker is on the edge of Long Wharf and looks out over Boston Harbor.

The Boston Middle Passage Marker looks two ways: Out to Boston Harbor, where enslaved Africans and enslaved Indigenous people arrived and departed, and also inward, down State Street, where these enslaved people and their descendants lived, worked, and fought for freedom.

Visit the marker on Long Wharf, any time or day.

The text and content of the marker is still available here, for those who may need the Marker’s text read and described aloud, of for those who cannot come to the marker.

Coming From the Sea

The Middle Passage

Boston and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Map centered on the Atlantic Ocean, showing the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Red arrows depict the movement of enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas, green arrows depict the movement of raw materials from the West Indies to Europe, and blue arrows depict movement of Manufactured goods from Europe to Africa and the Americas.

In 1638, the slave ship Desire arrived in Boston from the Caribbean, carrying the first documented enslaved Africans to the Massachusetts colony. Beginning in 1645 there are nearly two hundred recorded slaving voyages from Boston. This ocean journey brought enslaved Africans through the horrific Middle Passage to the Americas as part of a “triangle
trade” route between West Africa, Europe, North and South America and the Caribbean. Long Wharf served as a disembarkation point of the slave trade in Boston, and newspapers advertised enslaved Africans for sale aboard the ships docked at the wharf.

A crop view of an old map with a clear label "Long Wharfe" and modern markers showing where the marker is located and the site of the Boston Massacre was located, directly west of the Middle Passage Marker's location.
  • Newspaper clipping reading: Just imported from Africa, and to be Sold at No. 19 on the Long Wharf, A Parcel of likely, healthy Negro Slaves.
    Boston Gazette, June 22, 1761
  • Newspaper clipping reading: A Parcel of Likely Negroes of both Sexes, just imported in the Sloop Speedwell, William Dickinson Master lying at the upper end of the Long Wharffe, also a parcel of Lisbon Salt, on board a Brigantine at Clark's Charffe, to be Sold By Charles Apthorp at his warehouse in Merchants Row.
    Boston Gazette, September 13, 1731
  • Newspaper clipping reading: To be sold by Henry Caswall at his Warehouse on the head of the Long Wharf, Scooseys, Persians, Taffities, Lemones, Ginghams, Long Cloths, Irish Linnens of all sorts, Me & womens Worsed & Silk Hose, Powder, Cordage, Duck, Nails, Sweeds & Spanish Iron, with sundry other European and East India Goods lately Imported, also Negro Boys & Girls, and Barbados Rum.
    Boston Gazette June 10, 1728
For decades, Long Wharf served not only as a site of landing for enslaved Africans, but also a site where merchants and sea captains sold them among other imports.
The UNESCO Slave Route project: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage

Launched in 1994, the international and inter-regional project ‘The Slave Route: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage’ addresses the history of the slave trade and slavery through the prism of intercultural dialogue, a culture of peace and reconciliation. It thereby endeavors to improve the understanding and transmission of this human tragedy by making better known its deep-seated causes, its consequences for societies today and the cultural interactions born of this history. The project is structured around five key fields of activity: scientific research, development of educational materials, preservation of written archives and oral traditions, promotion of living cultures and contributions by the African diaspora and, lastly, preservation of sites of memory.

The promotion of the memorial heritage related to the slave trade and slavery plays a decisive role not only in educating the general public, and young people in particular, but also in facilitating national reconciliation and social cohesion processes in societies.

It is in this perspective that ‘The Slave Route’ project has created a label to encourage the preservation of sites of memories and the establishment of itineraries that can tell this story and ensure that this heritage receives due attention at the national, regional and international levels.

This site fulfils the quality criteria set by the UNESCO Slave Route Project in conjunction with the International Network of Managers of Sites and Itineraries of Memory.