slave trade

American  

noun

1. the business or process of capturing, transporting, and selling human beings into chattel slavery, especially Black Africans brought to the New World prior to the mid-19th century.

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slave trade British  

noun

1. the business of trading in slaves, esp the transportation of Black Africans to America from the 16th to 19th centuries

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slave trade Cultural  

1. The transportation of slaves from Africa to North and South America between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Congress banned the importing of slaves into the United States in 1808.

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Other Word Forms

• slave-trader
  noun
• slave-trading
  noun

Etymology

Origin of slave trade

First recorded in 1725–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

slave trade

The three-year project led by specialist historians compiles "The Register of British Slave Traders", a list that details as many as "10,500 investors" in "Britain's near-250 year transatlantic slave trade" in African people.

From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026

This year has seen a dramatic change in tone in the global conversation about the transatlantic slave trade.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

"I think that the transatlantic slave trade was the greatest crime against humanity, and ancestors also took part as players in that trade," says the king.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Many Church of England clergy independently owned slaves, and a recent report by the Church's endowment fund reported the institution made large investments in the slave trade from which it made huge sums of money.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

After all, the chaos in France made the English slave trade and sugar islands all the more profitable.

From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson