Digital History
Digital History: The Slave Trade's Significance
An explanation of the significance of the slave trade in the colonial economy as well as in Europe. See why the slave trade stimulated manufacturing and resulted in the transatlantic triangular trade.
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery and Spanish Colonization
Read about the slave trade and use of slaves in agriculture and mining in Spanish America in the New World. Find out why it was expedient to use African slaves.
Digital History
Digital History: The Rise of Antislavery Sentiment
See how the increase of slavery stimulated the economy on three continents through the transatlantic triangular trade.
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.
New Georgia Encyclopedia: Atlantic Slave Trade to Savannah
Encyclopedia article describing slavery in Colonial Georgia and the role that Savannah played in slave trade from 1755 to as late as 1858.
British Library
British Library: The Slave Trade
An article describing the historical background to the Abolitionist movement in England, giving details on the slave trade and more.
British Library
British Library: Abolitionist Campaigners
A collection of short biographies of individuals who were involved in the anti-slave trade movement in England during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
BBC
Bbc News: Focus on the Slave Trade
BBC News offers a short summary of the slave trade from Africa to the Americas. Gives statistics on the number of slaves (estimated at 10 to 28 million), where they went, and the cruel conditions of their enslavement.
PBS
Pbs: Confronting the Legacy of the African Slave Trade
PBS offers an excellent site with the description of some of the areas that supplied slaves.
PBS
Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Threat of Fasting During the Middle Passage
Description of how slaves tried to starve themselves to death on slave ships as a form of resistance, and how the slave traders forced them to eat so they would not lose money. Click on Teacher's Guide for teaching resources.
PBS
Africans in America: Equiano's Autobiography
From a larger site from PBS' Africans in America, blurb about Olaudah Equiano and his autobiography with a link to text of this historical document.
PBS
Africans in America: Revolution: 1750 1805
Part of a detailed PBS site which describes "the history of racial slavery in the United States, this section focuses on slavery from 1750-1805.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Us History: The Middle Passage
A detailed look at the trans-Atlantic slave trade that lasted from the 1500s to the 1800s.
PBS
Pbs: Africans in America: Part 1: The Growth of Slavery in North America
Focuses on slavery in North America, the worry about uprisings, and slavery's economic impact. Links to related information.
Other
Personal Site: Thomas Clarkson
A nicely done biography of the famous British anti-slavery campaigner in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Other
Personal Site: William Wilberforce
A nice biography of the famous British abolitionist who served in Parliament during the late 18th and early 19th century.
Other
Cocc: African Slave Trade and European Imperialism
This site from the COCC provides a very large and informative website providing a historical summary plus links to many aspects of the slave trade. Detailed timeline describes the development of African civilizations from the 15th...
Other
The Roman Slave Trade
An interesting article explaining the life a slave led in Ancient Rome. The text explains the work they did, the lives they led, and the treatment they received.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Atlantic Crossing
Discover the period some refer to as "Middle Passage," when enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean or America. Read first-hand accounts of the torture and deprivation experienced by thousands of...
Library of Congress
Loc: Slavery the Peculiar Institution
Using primary sources, explore the slavery system in the South. Sources include advertisements for slaves, pictures of slave ships, the Supreme Court decision in the Amistad case, spiritual freedoms, journal entries, and pamphlets.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Resistance and Rebellion
Enslaved Africans fought hard to win back their freedom through resistance, rebellions, and uprisings. Rebellions along the Middle Passage and in places like the Caribbean were important to the retention of African culture.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: The Campaign for Abolition
Learn how the anti-slavery movement mobilized the British population to stage the campaign for the abolition of slave trade.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery: Atlantic Crossing: Capture and Enslavement Case Study
Find out about the four ways African men, women, and children became enslaved: criminals sold by chiefs, free Africans captured, domestic slaves resold, and prisoners of war sold to other slave owners.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Plantation Life: Personal Accounts
Read first-hand accounts of former slaves, and learn about the devastating realities of the Transatlantic slave trade in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery: Atlantic Crossing: First Hand Accounts Case Study
Read eye-witness accounts of the brutality and cruelty suffered by enslaved Africans as they traveled across the Atlantic on slave ships.