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

Anyone who contributed financially to the transatlantic slave trade, or to a company enabling the trade, is listed in the database.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

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

King Tackie Teiko Tsuru II, the Ga Mantse, leader of Ghana's Ga people, recently took the step of publicly apologising for his ancestors' involvement in the slave trade.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

"The Church of England has apologised for the part that we played in the transatlantic slave trade but we've also said there needs to be action that relates to that," Archbishop Sarah said.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

These events prompted a slavery debate in Congress—and may have influenced one piece of the Compromise of 1850, which ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis