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

Indeed, Britain’s encouragement of the slave trade was one of the offenses he cited in his first draft of the Declaration.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 26, 2026

Thousands of people were trafficked from Africa to Dutch colonies in the Caribbean and South America - amounting to about 5% of the entire transatlantic slave trade - before the practice was banned in 1863.

From BBC • Jun. 21, 2026

African and Caribbean countries have called for a formal apology and reparations from countries that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade.

From BBC • Jun. 20, 2026

While non-binding, the resolution -- pushed for by Ghanaian President John Mahama -- goes beyond simple acknowledgement and asks nations involved in the slave trade to engage in "restitution" and "compensation".

From Barron's • Jun. 18, 2026

Just as Jackson had warned, opposition to the slave trade was now being linked to ending slavery altogether.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis