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

The island has a turbulent past—its indigenous population was colonized by the Spanish and then the Dutch—and its archives contain artefacts ranging from sunny vintage postcards to books about the nation’s role in the slave trade and Venuzuela’s oil boom. —Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 8 Apr. 2024

Often, Williams collects the earth from historically important sites of loss in the African diaspora: plantations of the American South, street corners where Black trans women were murdered or the banks of a river that became a thoroughfare for the domestic slave trade. —Zachary Small, New York Times, 22 Mar. 2024

The Clotilda docked in Mobile, Alabama, in July 1860, five decades after the abolition of the American slave trade. —Barbara Spindel, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Mar. 2024

The slave trade also provided a lot of information that appeared all the way up until the 18th century. —Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Feb. 2024

Britain was a prominent enslaver and many aristocratic families made their fortunes in the slave trade and the industries that used slaves. —Simon Perry, Peoplemag, 30 Oct. 2023

In the past two decades, prominent universities including Harvard, Yale, Brown and the University of Virginia have issued extensive mea culpas describing their historical involvement with the slave trade and slave owners. —Brandi Kellam, ProPublica, 14 Mar. 2024

In Sevilla, Spain, a host told me not to speak about Christopher Columbus’ contribution to the slave trade. —Ronny Maye, Essence, 24 Jan. 2024

And Sherbro Island used to historically be the point of no return in the slave trade. —Jasmine Browley, Essence, 15 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1701, in the meaning defined above