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 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

"For me that is such a stark illustration of the way the Church was involved in the slave trade," she says.

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

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

The tax on the slave trade was dropped altogether, as was the seventh resolution, with its vague declaration of solidarity with the benevolent goals of the Quaker petitioners.

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