The Trade

Two hundred years ago, on 25 March 1807, the kidnapping, trafficking and sale of black Africans as slaves became illegal throughout the British Empire. The Slave Trade Act was the result of a long campaign fought against bitter resistance, to bring to an end four hundred years of profit for a few and hell for many. To Western historians, it was known as the triangular trade, or Atlantic trade. To Africans it has become known as Maafa, the Kiswahili word for 'holocaust' or 'great disaster'. To those who profited from dealing in human flesh, it was known simply as 'The Trade'. At its height, the Trade was a highly organised, international, commercial venture that had the potential to generate vast profit. There were risks, but at its peak, the trade made Bristol the second port in the country and its subsequent wealth was derived from the proceeds of the Atlantic slave trade.


The city's lucrative sugar and tobacco industries were fuelled by the Trade, making an already wealthy city even wealthier; many of the great and good of Bristol were involved, and money from this enterprise ultimately paid for the University, many of the great Clifton buildings and Bristol's almshouses and schools. The story of Bristol's involvement in the Trade provides an original insight into the way port cities around the world profited from the Maafa.