Overview
Slave Trade
Portugal and Spain were instrumental in popularising the imperial strategy of utilising African slaves to populate, labor, and establish new colonies. However, the United Kingdom further developed and refined this approach, leading to significant historical ramifications. This era is commonly recognised as the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Route
Map showing the flow of goods and enslaved people across the Atlantic between Europe, Africa and America in the transatlantic triangular trade which the European colonial powers operated from the 16th to the 19th centuries CE. This triangular trade system facilitated the Columbian Exchange by moving goods, populations and plant species between the continents.
The National Archives (2023) 1833 factory act - source 3, The National Archives. Available at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1833-factory-act/source-3/ (Accessed: 27 March 2024).
Transporting Enslaved People
A diagram showing the stowage of the British slave ship Brookes under the regulated slave trade act of 1788.
Plymouth Chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (2024) Diagram of the stowage of slaves on a slave ship, World History Encyclopedia. Available at: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/13900/diagram-of-the-stowage-of-slaves-on-a-slave-ship/ (Accessed: 27 March 2024).
Illustration by Plymouth Chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade