slave trade

slave trade
the business or process of procuring, transporting, and selling slaves, esp. black Africans to the New World prior to the mid-19th century.
[1725-35]

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Capturing, selling, and buying of slaves.

Slavery has existed throughout the world from ancient times, and trading in slaves has been equally universal. Slaves were taken from the Slavs and Iranians from antiquity to the 19th century, from the sub-Saharan Africans from the 1st century AD to the mid-20th century, and from the Germanic, Celtic, and Romance peoples during the Viking era. Elaborate trade networks developed: for example, in the 9th and 10th centuries, Vikings might sell East Slavic slaves to Arab and Jewish traders, who would take them to Verdun and León, whence they might be sold throughout Moorish Spain and North Africa. The transatlantic slave trade is perhaps the best-known. In Africa, women and children but not men were wanted as slaves for labour and for lineage incorporation; from с 1500, captive men were taken to the coast and sold to Europeans. They were then transported to the Caribbean or Brazil, where they were sold at auction and taken throughout the New World. In the 17th and 18th centuries, African slaves were traded in the Caribbean for molasses, which was made into rum in the American colonies and traded back to Africa for more slaves.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Slave trade — Slave Slave (sl[=a]v), n. [Cf. F. esclave, D. slaaf, Dan. slave, sclave, Sw. slaf, all fr. G. sklave, MHG. also slave, from the national name of the Slavonians, or Sclavonians (in LL. Slavi or Sclavi), who were frequently made slaves by the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • slave trade — slave ,trade noun uncount the business of buying and selling people as SLAVES, especially the trade in people from Africa who in the past were brought to North and South America to be sold …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • slave trade — slave′ trade n. amh. the business of procuring, transporting, and selling slaves, esp. the bringing of black Africans to America • Etymology: 1725–35 …   From formal English to slang

  • slave trade — ► NOUN historical ▪ the procuring, transporting, and selling of human beings, especially African blacks, as slaves …   English terms dictionary

  • slave trade — n. traffic in slaves; specif., the former transportation of black people from Africa to America for sale as slaves …   English World dictionary

  • SLAVE TRADE — Jews engaged in the slave trade – although they never played a prominent role in it – from the early Middle Ages to the early modern period. While it was not proscribed to pagans, none of the three monotheistic religions either prohibited slavery …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Slave Trade —    For most of the nineteenth century a commerce in human misery was in steady decline among the imperial powers. The Atlantic slave trade during the sixteenth century was initially established by Spain and Portugal for the transport of enslaved… …   Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800–1914

  • slave trade — noun traffic in slaves; especially in Black Africans transported to America in the 16th to 19th centuries (Freq. 1) • Syn: ↑slave traffic • Hypernyms: ↑traffic * * * noun : traffic in slaves; especially …   Useful english dictionary

  • slave trade — N SING: the N The slave trade is the buying and selling of slaves, especially Black Africans, from the 16th to the 19th centuries. More than a century and a half since the transatlantic slave trade was abolished, slavery is far from dead …   English dictionary

  • Slave Trade Compromise and Fugitive Slave Clause — The Framers debated over the extent to which slavery would be included, permitted, or prohibited in the United States Constitution. In the end, they created a document of compromise that represented the interests of the nation as they knew it and …   Wikipedia

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