slave trade

noun

: trafficking of enslaved people

especially, in U.S. history : the business or practice of capturing, transporting, selling, and buying enslaved African people for profit prior to the American Civil War

Examples of slave trade in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Nadege Anelka, a travel agent from the French overseas territory of Martinique in the Caribbean, moved to Benin and became a citizen under a 2024 law granting citizenship to those who can trace their lineage to the slave trade. —ABC News, 26 Mar. 2026

However, these systems and traditions were disrupted by the slave trade. —Noo Saro-Wiwa, The Dial, 24 Mar. 2026

Those same merchants and planters were also heavily involved in the first Portuguese incursions into mainland Central Africa, which resulted in the establishment of the colony of Angola in 1575—a key lever for the slave trade’s growth. —Literary Hub, 19 Mar. 2026

Recovered in 2015, the ship was identified and studied through the Slave Wrecks Project, an international network of institutions that confirmed it was associated with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. —Arkansas Online, 13 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1701, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for slave trade

• accolade
• ambuscade
• antegrade
• balustrade
• barricade
• cannonade
• cavalcade
• centigrade
• chambermaid
• colonnade
• countertrade
• disobeyed