Badagry, also spelled Badagri, is a town in the Lagos state in Nigeria, West Africa.D, and is located one hour from Lagos and also half an hour from the Republic of Benin. It is the second largest commercial town in Lagos state, Nigeria with the population of 380,420 people. .
Badagry was the main slave route in West Africa. In the early 1500s, slaves were taken from West Africa to the Americas through Badagry and around 550,000 African slaves were exported to the Americas during the American Independence period in the year l787. Slaves were also exported to Europe, South America and the Caribbean. The slaves were mainly from some West African countries. The slave trade became the major source of income for the Europeans that resided in Badagry. The Badagry town is bordered by the Gulf of Guinea on the South and also surrounded by creeks, islands and a lake. Then, Badagry served mainly the Oyo Empire, which comprised of the Yoruba people and the Ogu people. A man named Reverend Bernard Freeman in the year 1842 first preached Christianity in the town of Badagry. Badagry is the first town where Rev. Bernard Freeman also built the first multiple-story building in Nigeria in the year 1842. The first translation of the Bible into Yoruba also occurred in Badagry. The first primary school in Nigeria named St. Thomas Primary School was built in Badagry in 1845 and one hundred years later (1955), the first secondary school was built in Badagry, named Badagry Grammar School. Badagry was annexed by Great Britain in 1863, but became part of Nigeria again in 1901.
Slavery inspired the immigration of Africans to the Americas. The African slave trade had been in existence for some centuries, even before America got involved and still exists today in some parts of Africa. In the eighteenth century, the African slave trade was in two West African countries, Ghana and Nigeria, and the economy of these two countries greatly depended on the selling of hand labor to neighboring estates.