New genetic data bear witness to transatlantic ties severed by slavery and triangular trade. Scientists from the Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse (CNRS/Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier/Paris Descartes University) and Ecological Anthropology and Ethnobiology (CNRS/MNHN) research units have shown that members of Maroon communities in South America – formed over four centuries ago by Africans who escaped slavery – have remarkably preserved their African genetic heritage (98%). In contrast, the same cannot be said for African-descendants from Brazil and Colombia. The researchers’ findings are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.