The area that is now Guinea was part of one of the major departure zones in the transatlantic slave trade, though it is usually discussed as part of a broader region rather than as “Guinea” alone in historical records.

Historians typically divide West African embarkation points into large coastal regions, and the coast that includes modern-day Guinea was part of what is often called the Upper Guinea Coast. This region was one of several key supplier zones for enslaved Africans from roughly the 16th to the 19th centuries.

The Upper Guinea Coast, which generally included present-day Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, was especially significant during the early phases of the transatlantic slave trade (16th–17th centuries).

Over time, most enslaved people increasingly came from different regions, especially the Bight of Benin (now Benin and nearby areas), the Bight of Biafra (modern southeastern Nigeria), and the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana). Principal embarkation sites include the Boffa Slave Coast and the Dubréka Slave Routes.