Transatlantic Slave Trade

Definition

The Transatlantic Slave Trade specifically refers to the trading of African people primarily from West Africa who were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to work on plantations in North America, South America, and Caribbean islands.

Related terms

Colonialism: Refers to control by one power over dependent areas or peoples. In this context, European powers colonized parts of Africa and Americas leading up-to-and during transatlantic slave trade era.

Plantation Economy: An economic system based on agricultural mass production usually monoculture (like tobacco or sugar), where enslaved Africans were forced into labor.

African Diaspora: Refers broadly to communities throughout world that are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa, predominantly to Americas and Middle East during transatlantic and Arab slave trades.