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

"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

The insect’s first trips west came soon after, as the transatlantic slave trade brought ships packed with enslaved Africans to the New World.

From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026

Ghana has been spearheading a global campaign for institutions and nations across the world that benefitted from the slave trade to pay reparations.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

The Archbishop of Canterbury has renewed her commitment to a controversial £100m fund over the Church of England's role in the transatlantic slave trade.

From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026

By the time the Haitian plantation owners and overseers reached New Orleans, abolitionists were pressing to end the African slave trade.

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