Although the Atlantic slave trade officially ended in the United States in 1808, slaves from Africa and the West Indies still found their way to southern auction blocks as late as 1860. Some slaves were brought directly from West Africa to southern ports; others were brought from the Caribbean. Although it was illegal to do so, many slave owners readily bought slaves from smugglers for use on their cotton plantations. Slave smuggling had two profound impacts on blacks in the South.

First, it contributed to the increase in the black population in the lower South. Second, it helped to maintain African culture in places like the Gullah Sea Islands in South Caro1ina and coastal Georgia, and in New Orleans, Louisiana. Because smuggling continued until the start of the Civil War, Africans fresh from West Africa and the West Indies came into close contact with American blacks in these areas. As a result. today in these places, many of the blacks still practice some of the religions. music. and speech patterns, that are West African in origin.