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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Racial animosities date to the era of the Arabian slave trade. Nicolas Niarchos, New Yorker, 19 May 2025 An 8-year-old democracy, Gambia’s 2.7 million residents live on a sliver of land once used as a hub in the transatlantic slave trade. Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica, 15 May 2025 To Bamba, the public reception was all the more astounding given nearby Nantes’ history as France’s principal transatlantic slave trading port; the city had just hosted a major exhibition on the slave trade in Europe. Christopher Clark, The Dial, 13 May 2025 The bureau’s failures meant that the destruction wrought by the Confederates and the slave trade would persist well beyond the war’s conclusion. Robert Colby, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Feb. 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 1 Jul. 2025.

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