slave trade

noun

: trafficking of enslaved people
especially, in U.S. history : the business or practice of capturing, transporting, selling, and buying enslaved African people for profit prior to the American Civil War

Examples of slave trade in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Some patrons participated in history’s great crimes, from the Crusades to the slave trade. Brian Klaas, The Atlantic, 7 Feb. 2025 All fell victim to the armed forces of the slaveholders’ republic and to the wartime slave trade, embodying the lengths to which Rebels would go to keep emancipation at bay. Robert Colby, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Feb. 2025 Since Senegal gained its independence in 1960 after more than three centuries of French rule, Gorée Island, home to the House of Slaves, has become a distinct memorial to the slave trade. Kayla Stewart, AFAR Media, 3 Feb. 2025 On indigo blue dye and the slave trade These scenes in the historical record of people being exchanged for a block of indigo were heartbreaking to me. Tonya Mosley, NPR, 28 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for slave trade 

Word History

First Known Use

1701, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of slave trade was in 1701

Dictionary Entries Near slave trade

Cite this Entry

“Slave trade.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slave%20trade. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.

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