The Transatlantic Slave Trade saw millions of African captives transported in horrendous conditions to European colonies in North and South America and the Caribbean.

On the first leg of a British slaving voyage, ships set out from ports such as Bristol, Liverpool, Dartmouth, Exeter and Plymouth laden with manufactured goods. They sailed to the African trading centres of the Gold Coast, Angola and the Bight of Benin where they would exchange their goods for slaves provided by local traders. The enslaved people had been captured from across West Africa in inter-tribal wars and in raids on villages.

The National Archives at Kew holds the trade book of Captain John Goodrich of the Bristol ship Sarah, which shows what he traded for each individual slave he acquired on a slaving voyage that took place between 1789 and 1790. A young boy, for example, was exchanged by the local traders for:

28 yards of cloth, 5 guns, 8 kegs of gunpowder, 1 iron bar, 2 brass rods, 1 chest, 1 looking glass, 2 watch glasses, 6 knives, 1 axe, 6 flints, 1 hat, 1 cap, 1 kettle, 1 basin, 1 lead bar and 1 mug.

Negotiating exchanges on an individual basis made the trading of slaves a long-winded process and the captive Africans could be held in squalid cells within the trading centre for months before they began the terrible journey across the Middle Passage to the colonies.

Map of the transatlantic trading routes (from PortCities: Bristol).

When the slaves arrived in the colonies they would be sold in private sales, at auction or in a free-for-all ‘scramble’. The ships would then load up with local goods (mainly sugar, but also tobacco, coffee, rum, cocoa and tropical woods) and return home on the third and final leg of their journey.

The enslaved Africans were routinely treated with cruelty, suffering barbaric punishments, their family and tribal ties severed. They were considered to be their owners’ personal property or chattels, given no more consideration or care than their masters’ livestock. Almost a third of those who survived the voyage to the colonies died within three years of their arrival.

It was the appalling brutality and scale of the Transatlantic Slave Trade that led to some of the first concerted attempts to ban slavery – a form of labour that has existed since ancient times. This resulted in the passing of the Slave Trade Abolition Bill in 1807 and the eventual abolition of slavery in the British Empire.



Map of the island of Jamaica (Glasgow Libraries).

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has written that the 200th bicentenary of the passing of the Abolition Bill

offers a unique opportunity for the people of Britain to reflect on the wider story of transatlantic slavery and its abolition, and to the roles of ordinary people and politicians, alongside other Britons, Africans and West Indians, in helping to bring an end to slavery. (from Reflecting on the Past and Looking to the Future)

In this section of the website we will look at the movement to ban the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the legacy of that trade and the continuing international efforts to bring an end to slavery.

You can find out more about the slave trade by downloading the Transatlantic Slave Trade section from the printed readers’ guide, and following the Read More links on the pages in this section.



Map of the Caribbean. Read more...