Slave trade | Definition, History, & Facts

slave trade, the capturing, selling, and buying of enslaved persons. Slavery has existed throughout the world since ancient times, and trading in slaves has been equally universal. Enslaved persons were taken from the Slavs and Iranians from antiquity to the 19th century, from the sub-Saharan Africans from the 1st century ce 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 Leon, 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 circa 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, enslaved African persons were traded in the Caribbean for molasses, which was made into rum in the American colonies and traded back to Africa for more slaves. The practice of slavery continued in many countries (illegally) into the 21st century. Indeed, the not-for-profit abolitionist organization American Anti-Slavery Group claims that more than 40 million people are enslaved around the world. Sex slavery, in which women and children are forced into prostitution—sometimes by their own family members—is a growing practice throughout the world.