Slave Trade | Definition, History, & Facts - Encyclopedia Britannica

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External Websites

• University of Michigan - The Impact of the Slave Trade on African Economies
• Royal Museums Greenwich - How did the slave trade end in Britain?
• Pressbooks Create - A Brief History of the World Since 1500 - Making Connections Between Ideas and Events: The Slave Trade
• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History - Historical Context: Facts about the Slave Trade and Slavery
• The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia - Slavery and the Slave Trade
• Statistics LibreTexts - Britain and the Slave Trade
• JewishEncyclopedia.com - Slave Trade
• Brown University - Brazil: Five Centuries of Change - The African Slave Trade and Slave Life
• Bill of Rights Institute - Origins of the Slave Trade
• University of Miami Libraries Digital Collections - The Slave Trade

slave trade Ask Anything Homework Help Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Feb. 6, 2026 •History Britannica AI Ask Anything Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything

slave trade, the capturing, selling, and buying of enslaved persons. Slavery has existed throughout the world since ancient times, and trading in slaves has been equally universal. Enslaved persons were taken from the Slavs and Iranians from antiquity to the 19th century, from the sub-Saharan Africans from the 1st century ce to the mid-20th century, and from the Germanic, Celtic, and Romance peoples during the Viking era. Elaborate trade networks developed: for example, in the 9th and 10th centuries, Vikings might sell East Slavic slaves to Arab and Jewish traders, who would take them to Verdun and Leon, whence they might be sold throughout Moorish Spain and North Africa. The transatlantic slave trade is perhaps the best known. In Africa, women and children but not men were wanted as slaves for labour and for lineage incorporation; from circa 1500, captive men were taken to the coast and sold to Europeans. They were then transported to the Caribbean or Brazil, where they were sold at auction and taken throughout the New World. In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved African persons were traded in the Caribbean for molasses, which was made into rum in the American colonies and traded back to Africa for more slaves. The practice of slavery continued in many countries (illegally) into the 21st century. Indeed, the not-for-profit abolitionist organization American Anti-Slavery Group claims that more than 40 million people are enslaved around the world. Sex slavery, in which women and children are forced into prostitution—sometimes by their own family members—is a growing practice throughout the world.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Jeff Wallenfeldt.