• The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration in history.

• Between 1500 and 1800, around 12-15 million people - some historians suggest the figure may have been higher - were taken by force from Africa to be used as enslaved labour in the Caribbean, North, Central and South America.

• It is estimated that over 2 million Africans died on the journey to the Americas, in a journey known as the Middle Passage.

• As a result of the transatlantic slave trade, millions of people of African descent live across the world. This is known as the African Diaspora.

Video about the transatlantic slave trade

02:03

The transatlantic slave trade as told through the eyes of an enslaved young woman

Video Transcript

What was the transatlantic slave trade?

The transatlantic slave trade is the name given to the forced enslavement and movement of people from Africa to the Americas. Approximately 12-15 million people were forcibly transported from their homelands in Africa to European colonies and plantations between 1500 and 1870. Some historians suggest the number of people transported may have been higher.

The labour of enslaved people was used in the Americas to produce goods such as tobacco, cotton, sugar and indigo dye. The exploitation of enslaved people made many Europeans, including the British, extremely wealthy. It is estimated that British slave ships made around 10,000 voyages across the Atlantic, transporting approximately 3.4 million people, of whom only 2.6 million survived the journey. British port cities such as London, Liverpool and Bristol, rapidly expanded due to the wealth acquired by their involvement with the slave trade.

Societies such as Ancient Greece and Rome had enslaved people. The Romans and Greeks had enslaved many peoples from different regions, whereas the transatlantic slave trade involved the mass transportation of African peoples, to support economic growth in European countries.

How did the transatlantic slave trade begin?

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic on behalf of the Spanish crown and arrived in the Caribbean. This discovery made Europeans aware of the Americas for the first time, and how it could provide economic benefits. In the aftermath of this voyage, Portugal and Spain began to develop colonies. This meant that they took control of territories in the Americas in places such as Peru, Mexico and Hispaniola, imposing their own customs and beliefs. They forced indigenous people into enslavement, mining for gold and silver and producing crops. This allowed European countries to increase their power and expand their empires.

From 1500 onwards, Portuguese and Spanish traders began to take enslaved West and Central African people to the new colonies in the Americas. The transatlantic slave trade had begun and it would continue for over 300 years. According to the historian Robin Blackburn, during this time enslaved people crossing the Atlantic outnumbered free European migrants four to one.

Image caption,

This engraving from 1602 shows Spanish colonisers using the threat of violence to enslave indigenous men, women and children in Peru

How were the British involved in the slave trade?

Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake were privateers and the first English traders in enslaved people. Queen Elizabeth I's enemy was Spain, and Hawkins and Drake sailed to raid Spanish ships and colonies in the Americas on her behalf.

In the 1560s, Hawkins and Drake travelled to West Africa and in 1564, Hawkins seized 300 people from the coast of West Africa, close to modern-day Sierra Leone, and he sold his captives in Hispaniola.

Between 1564 and 1569, Hawkins was involved in four voyages to the coast of West Africa, transporting and selling around 1200 people into enslavement. The Tudor writer, Richard Hakluyt, wrote that Hawkins knew he could make money selling enslaved people to Spanish settlers in Hispaniola.

From 1607, England began developing colonies in the Americas and began to use enslaved labour within them. The English used enslaved labour in Jamestown, Virginia, Bermuda and Providence Island.

From the mid-1600s, English traders began to develop a transatlantic route, to provide the increasing English colonies with enslaved labour. In 1672, the Royal African Company was set up by Charles II and other investors to source more enslaved Africans to work on the sugar plantations of the Caribbean.

Following the 1707 Act of Union, England and Scotland united to become the Kingdom of Great Britain. British involvement in the slave trade increased in the 1700s after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) gave them the right to sell enslaved people in the Spanish Empire. By 1770, British ships were involved in the transportation of around 42,000 people a year.

What was the ‘Triangular Trade’?

From the 1500s, the ‘Triangular Trade’ is a name given to the three main voyages of the transatlantic slave trade.

1. British enslavers sailed from ports such as Glasgow, Liverpool and Bristol to West Africa. There, enslaved West African people were exchanged for trade goods such as guns, cloth, iron and beer.

2. These enslaved people were then taken across the Atlantic to be sold in the West Indies and North America. This journey is known as the Middle Passage. It is estimated that 2 million enslaved people died during this journey, due to the horrific conditions on the ships.

3. British enslavers then sold the enslaved people in the West Indies and North America. They brought a cargo of tobacco, rice and other goods back to England to sell.

The phases of the Triangular Trade in detail

Britain to West Africa

Ships were packed with cloth, guns, ironware and other goods in British ports. They would travel to Africa. On the coast of West Africa, the British would trade these goods for men, women and children.

Capture and enslavement in West Africa

African men, women and children were kidnapped from countries including modern-day Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were captured in raids by slave traders, or sold by African leaders following local conflicts.

There is evidence of this from texts written by people who were enslaved. In his autobiography, Olaudah Equiano wrote that he was violently captured from his village, along with his sister, in the Kingdom of Benin. Another writer, Ottobah Cugoano, described being attacked and threatened by men with guns.

Enslaved people were chained together in groups, and taken by boat along West Africa’s waterways to the coast. Here, traders would wait to sell enslaved people to European traders.

The Middle Passage

Many enslaved people had to wait months in dark cellars and dungeons of European-built castles and forts on the coast. Elmina Castle in modern-day Ghana, pictured here, and Bunce Island off the coast of modern-day Sierra Leone were used to imprison people before transportation to the Americas. Enslaved people were kept until ships had arrived to take them across the Atlantic. The gates of the castles and forts were known as points of no return. From here, enslaved people would be forced onto ships to endure the Middle Passage. The journey could take up to 12 weeks in horrific conditions.

The journey to the Americas

Men were packed together below the decks in cramped conditions, chained to one another by the legs. From the writings of survivors, it is known that the air was putrid and hot, and that illness was rife. Women and children might be kept on the open upper decks, but were often subjected to abuse from the crew. Poor food, lack of sanitation and violent punishments given by the crew meant many died during the journey.

Arrival in the Americas

On arrival in the Americas, enslaved people were subjected to humiliating checks. They had their mouths opened to look at their teeth, and sometimes had oils put on their skin to make them look healthier after their difficult journey. Enslaved people were treated as objects and sold at auctions. They were sold to the highest bidder, and belonged to them for life. Following the auction, enslaved people were transported throughout the Americas. Two-thirds of enslaved people were sent to plantations in the Caribbean.

What is chattel slavery?

Chattel slavery is when enslaved people legally become the property of their owners, and any children born to the enslaved people are automatically enslaved too.

By 1625, the English had colonised the island of Barbados. They invaded the island of Jamaica in 1655, which had previously been captured by the Spanish, who had transported hundreds of enslaved West Africans to the island. After England defeated the Spanish, Jamaica, along with many other islands, became English colonies. Sugar crops were grown on these islands, using enslaved labour to work the land.

Initially most people that worked on the island of Barbados were ‘indentured servants’. These were often poor people or prisoners from England and Europe who were forced into work for periods of around 5 to 7 years. They were often treated badly, however, unlike the enslaved population, after their period of work was finished they became free.

Over time, the enslaved population grew, and the government was concerned about rebellions. In 1661, the most powerful slave owners imposed the first slave code, called chattel slavery. It aimed to control and further dehumanise the enslaved people in the colonies. The code described the enslaved population as ‘an uncertain dangerous pride of people,’ and interactions between white and Black enslaved populations was strictly controlled. These codes became the basis of similar laws on the island of Jamaica, and were enforced across the colonies.

Who was Anthony Johnson and what does his story show about the development of slavery in the English colonies?

Show more

Who benefitted as a result of the slave trade?

The slave trade made many people very rich but ruined the lives of enslaved people. Millions of men, women and children were forcibly removed from their African communities which had a devastating social, political and economic effect, as these communities were without people who were needed to help their communities to thrive.

British enslavers profited from the buying and selling of enslaved Africans to work on plantations. It is estimated that British ships transported 3.4 million people from Africa, of whom 2.6 million survived the journey and were enslaved.

Plantation owners bought enslaved people to work on their land for free. This meant plantation owners were able to make huge profits from the goods that were produced. When they retired, many plantation owners moved to England. They used their wealth to obtain political power or invest in factories, funding the industrial revolution. George Hibbert, a British plantation owner and politician, was pro-slavery and fought against William Wilberforce’s abolition campaign. He believed it would be costly to the British Empire.

Factory owners built their mills and factories using money made from the slave trade. The availability of cheap cotton produced from enslaved labour meant that Britain’s textile industry grew significantly, contributing to Britain’s industrial revolution. These factories provided many jobs for ordinary people, and though they may not have been directly involved, they too benefitted from the effects of the slave trade.

Many West African leaders were active participants in the slave trade, capturing people and selling them to Europeans. African slave sellers grew wealthy by selling captured people to European traders on the coast. During the 18th century, Asante, which covered most of present day Ghana, supplied gold and enslaved people to European traders. In exchange they received firearms, which allowed the kingdom to expand their territory.