Themes

Click on the themes below to learn more about the histories of Transatlantic Slavery.

Head of an 'Oba' from the Edo of Benin

Africa before Transatlantic Enslavement

The history of Africa and African people does not begin nor end with transatlantic slavery. Understand what Africa was like and what the continent lost as a result of the trade.

HM Brig 'Acorn'

Atlantic Crossing

Understand how people were treated on the slave ships and the extent to which they suffered on the journey across the Atlantic Ocean...

Poster of Barack Obama: 'Be The Change, January 20th 2009'

Diaspora

The transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration of people in history. Understand how this migration has affected societies, cultures and the world we live in...

Portrait of Nancy Burns

Emancipation

Understand how the 1807 Abolition Act ended the British involvement in the slave trade but not slavery, how British women pushed for full...

'Portrait of Sir John Hawkins, (1532 - 95)'

Europe before Transatlantic Slavery

Understand social and cultural aspects of Europe to contextualize the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on this part of the continent.

TUC book on racism in the workplace, 1983

Legacies

Understand how the 1807 Abolition Act ended the British involvement in the slave trade but not slavery, how British women pushed for full...

Ownership Manacle (lock and key)

Plantation Conditions

Understand the harshness of daily life on the plantations, the oppression used to exert control, and the profits...

'Toussaint L'Ouverture, Chief of the French Rebels in St. Domingue

Resistance and Rebellion

Understand how the enslaved actively resisted and rebelled at every stage of oppression including uprisings on board ship, forming their own communities and maintaining cultural...

Abolition commemorative token

The Campaign for Abolition

Understand the forces that led to abolition, the resistance and rebellion on the part of the enslaved, and the...

Rum bottle

Trade and Commerce

Understand how the demand for luxury goods and the Industrial Revolution fuelled the transatlantic slave trade, and how the British...