The slave trade was about the buying and selling of humans. Slavery has existed throughout history - almost every ancient civilisation had slaves. Sometimes the slaves were enemies captured in wars, other times it was the least fortunate of their own people. By the 1700s a lot of people were getting very rich from the slave trade. The modern slave trade seems to have been started by the Portuguese and Spanish. They had conquered and colonised large parts of South America. They carried slaves across the Atlantic Ocean from communities in West Africa, setting them to work in their... Show more

The slave trade was about the buying and selling of humans. Slavery has existed throughout history - almost every ancient civilisation had slaves. Sometimes the slaves were enemies captured in wars, other times it was the least fortunate of their own people. By the 1700s a lot of people were getting very rich from the slave trade.

The modern slave trade seems to have been started by the Portuguese and Spanish. They had conquered and colonised large parts of South America. They carried slaves across the Atlantic Ocean from communities in West Africa, setting them to work in their colonies.

During the 1600s, a few English pirates had joined in the slave trade, making large profits from selling slaves to rich colonists. They ignored the fact that it was inhumane and unfair.

British slave traders made a journey that has become known as the triangle of trade. First they would sail down to West Africa to trade goods for slaves. They would pack as many slaves as they could into their holds and make the middle passage from Africa, across the Atlantic to the Americas. There they would trade the slaves for goods like rum and sugar that they could sell for a profit back in England.

In the Roman Empire about one fifth of the empire's population and a third of the population of Italy was enslaved. Slaves carried out many domestic, manual and administrative jobs. Britain increased its involvement in the slave trade during the eighteenth century. The Treaty of Utrecht gave British sailors the right to sell slaves within the Spanish Empire.

Some slaves were captured by the British sailors. They would land raiding parties who would then ambush passing locals or raid villages. They chained the people together and marched them to the coast where they were then loaded onto their ship. The majority of slave ships obtained their slaves from slave factors. These were British people who lived full-time in Africa. They bought their slaves from local tribes who had raided nearby villages and captured their enemies to sell into slavery.

Slave ships usually carried many more slaves than they had room for, so conditions on board were very poor. Slaves often died on the voyage from disease or were thrown overboard during the voyage, so that the captain could make an insurance claim. The most famous of these was the Zong. The captain threw 133 slaves overboard. By the end of the 1700s, there was an increasing opposition to the slave trade.

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