Atlantic Slave Trade

Definition

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a system where African people were captured, transported across the Atlantic Ocean, and sold as slaves in the Americas from the 16th to 19th centuries.

Related terms

Middle Passage: This refers to the part of the trade where Africans, densely packed onto ships, were transported across the Atlantic to the West Indies.

Plantation System: A form of agricultural mass production typically associated with large-scale slave labor. Key crops produced on plantations included tobacco, sugar cane and cotton.

Colonialism: The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.