Most of the slaves were captured through war and slave raids while others were given up to slavery as repayment of debt. According to John Hall, a British Captain, the appearance of a slave ship on the shore was the signal for Africans to go upstream in their canoes, returning two or three weeks later with their canoes full of slaves. Slave Raiders such as Barkatue constantly terrorised the Northern part of Ghana and was a major slave originating source. The slaves were mostly sent to markets and sold to southern slave merchants who subsequenly transported them to the coast and sold to European traders for export. The slave route used to transport the slaves has been identified at Salaga, where the trans-Saharan caravans paused in Salaga market. Leg pegs are still visible in the market. On these routes are important sites, relics and ancestry of the slave trade. Slave holding and camp sites, water troughs, river where captured slaves were allowed to drink from and bath in, walled villages, caves for protection, are all included in the slave route.
