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
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At the height of the Atlantic slave trade, Africa accounted for much of the British export of gunpowder. Clifton Crais, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025 This early modern period would set the foundations of the rise of the transatlantic slave trade and a new form of slavery—hereditary racial slavery—that would be central to the creation of the racial-caste hierarchy and to the rise of Britain’s wealthy and brutal Caribbean slave empire. Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2025 The North American slave trade stripped Africans brought from their homeland of their language and culture, but their music the drumming and dancing was soul deep. Kansas City Star, 22 Oct. 2025 The population also included survivors of the African slave trade who were returned to the island and brought with them diseases, including smallpox. Ted Powers, The Conversation, 29 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for slave trade

Word History

First Known Use

1701, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of slave trade was in 1701

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Cite this Entry

“Slave trade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slave%20trade. Accessed 28 Oct. 2025.

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