Slave trade facts for kids

The first slave auction in New Amsterdam in 1655

Slavery is when one person is owned and controlled by another. Throughout history, people have been forced into slavery in many different cultures. Buying and selling people as slaves is a very old practice. Today, a similar crime called human trafficking still exists.

History of the Slave Trade
Slave Sales and Auctions
- Types of Slave Auctions
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History of the Slave Trade

Slavery has been a part of human history since the earliest civilizations. Early hunter-gatherers did not use slaves. They hunted and gathered all their own food. Having more people meant more mouths to feed, so owning others made no sense.

Slavery began to appear when people started living in cities and towns. With more food available, having cheap labor became useful. The main way people became slaves was through war. When a town was captured, men were often killed. Women were enslaved to work in fields or as helpers.

In early civilizations, slaves were a small part of the population. These areas included China's Yangtze River valley, India's Indus Valley, Egypt's Nile valley, and the Tigris and Euphrates valleys in Mesopotamia.

Slavery in Early Civilizations

Once slavery became a big part of the workforce, trading slaves became a business. Ancient Greece was the first civilization where slaves made up a large part of the population. Between the 6th and 4th centuries BC, about one-third to one-half of the people were slaves.

Slaves came from many places. They included prisoners captured in war, people who were kidnapped, and even children sold by their parents. Criminals could also become slaves. After a battle where many slaves were taken, their market price would drop. Slavery was a huge part of the Greek economy. A slave could sometimes earn money to buy their freedom. Ancient Rome relied even more on slaves.

Slavery in Medieval Europe

Slavery also existed in medieval Europe. Societies that did not use slaves often became a source of slaves for others. In the Viking world, slavery was very important to their economy. Vikings captured slaves during raids and battles. They also sold slaves in other markets. The Vikings were active slave traders.

Most forms of slavery decreased in Northern Europe over time. However, it continued in other parts of Europe. In Sicily, Italy, Spain, France, Russia, and North Africa, slavery lasted through much of the middle ages. Most of these slaves were "white" people from other parts of Europe and Eastern Europe.

When the New World was colonized, slavery was already a common way to get cheap labor. By the time Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, Europeans were already using African slaves in their colonies in West Africa. Before that, historians believe that between 650 AD and the 1960s, 10 to 18 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders. These slaves were taken from Europe, Asia, and Africa. They were moved across the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and the Sahara desert.

The Transatlantic Slave Trade

For four centuries, starting in the late 15th century, millions of Africans were taken as slaves by Europeans. Europeans began sending Africans to the New World. They needed cheap labor for their colonial plantations. This terrible period was known as the Atlantic slave trade.

Early attempts to enslave Native Americans did not work well. This led to the rise of the African slave trade. Africans were a relatively easy source of slaves for Europeans. European traders did not have to capture them themselves. Instead, they relied on Arabs and other Africans to do it for them. Even before outside traders arrived, Africans themselves had their own systems of slavery and trading. Their economy was not based on money, but on trading goods. Slaves were often treated as a Commodity (like a product to be traded).

Slave Sales and Auctions

Enslaved people were often sold at markets and auctions. Slave auctions showed that enslaved people were not seen as human beings with human rights. Instead, they were treated as property that could be bought or sold. Enslaved people for sale were often advertised in newspapers. This was similar to how cars or houses are advertised today. Slave traders were even listed in public directories, like phone books.

Enslaved people had no say in what happened to them. Many times, families were cruelly split up. They were sold to different owners for different amounts of money. Millions of families were separated this way. They often never saw each other again.

Types of Slave Auctions

There were three main types of slave auctions: Grab and Go, May the Highest Bidder Win, and The Scramble.

In a "grab and go" auction, a buyer would pay the slave trader a certain amount of money. In return, they would get a ticket. When a drum roll sounded, the area holding the enslaved people would open. The buyer would rush in and grab the person or people they wanted. They would then show their ticket to the slave trader before leaving.

In a "may the highest bidder win" auction, enslaved people were shown to buyers one at a time. If more than one buyer wanted a particular person, they would all bid on them. This meant they would offer what they were willing to pay. The buyer who offered the most money would be able to buy that enslaved person.

In "the scramble," buyers would quickly grab whichever enslaved people they wanted. They would then take them away to work.

Images for kids

13th-century Africa – Map of the main trade routes and states, kingdoms and empires.
Arab slave-trading caravan transporting African slaves across the Sahara.
Arab slave traders and their captives along the Ruvuma river (in today's Tanzania and Mozambique), 19th-century drawing by David Livingstone.
The inspection and sale of a slave.
200th anniversary of the British act of parliament abolishing slave trading, commemorated on a British two pound coin.
Illustration of slave ship used to transport slaves to Europe and the Americas
Christian slaves in Algiers, 1706
A young boy with an enslaved woman, Brazil, 1860.
Slaves cutting the sugar cane, British colony of Antigua, 1823
18th-century painting by Dirk Valkenburg showing plantation slaves during a Ceremonial dance.
Funeral at slave plantation during Dutch colonial rule, Suriname. Colored lithograph printed circa 1840–1850, digitally restored.
Well-dressed plantation owner and family visiting the slave quarters.
James Hopkinson's plantation, South Carolina ca. 1862.
A plate in the Boxer Codex possibly depicting alipin (slaves) in the pre-colonial Philippines.
A contract from the Tang dynasty that records the purchase of a 15-year-old slave for six bolts of plain silk and five Chinese coins.
Ottoman Turks with captives, after 1530
Ottoman advances resulted in many captive Christians being carried deep into Muslim territory.
Giovanni Maria Morandi, The ransoming of Christian slaves held in Turkish hands, 17th century
One of the four chained slaves depicted at the bottom of the 17th-century Monument of the Four Moors in Livorno, Italy.
Portrait of an African Man, c. 1525–1530. The insignia on his hat alludes to possible Spanish or Portuguese origins.
Emperor Charles V captured Tunis in 1535, liberating 20,000 Christian slaves
Burning of a Village in Africa, and Capture of its Inhabitants (p. 12, February 1859, XVI)
Bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth in August 1816, Thomas Luny
Illustration from the book: The Black Man's Lament, or, how to make sugar by Amelia Opie. (London, 1826)
Polish Jews are lined up by German soldiers to do forced labour, September 1939, German-occupied Poland
Registration of Jews by Nazis for forced labor, 1941
Proclamation of the abolition of slavery by Victor Hugues in the Guadeloupe, 1 November 1794
A painting of the 1840 Anti-Slavery Conference.
Protector of Slaves Office (Trinidad), Richard Bridgens, 1838.
"Avenue Schœlcher 1804-1893", Houilles (France)
Wes Brady, ex-slave, Marshall, Texas, 1937. This photograph was taken as part of the Federal Writers' Project Slave Narrative Collection, which has often been used as a primary source by historians.
C. 1480 BC, fugitive-slave treaty between Idrimi of Alakakh (now Tell Atchana) and Pillia of Kizzuwatna (now Cilicia).
Slaves in chains during the period of Roman rule at Smyrna (present-day İzmir), 200 CE.
13th-century CE slave market in Yemen.