Glossary
Glossary
Plain-language definitions, filed by letter.
Terms: 25
A
- Atlantic slave tradeThe forced transport of Africans across the Atlantic to be enslaved in the Americas, carried out by merchants, companies and governments of several nations over roughl...
- AbolitionThe movement and legal process of ending the slave trade and slavery. It happened at different times in different places: Britain passed the Slave Trade Act in 1807 an...
- AbolitionistA person who campaigned to end the slave trade or slavery. Abolitionists included formerly enslaved people such as Olaudah Equiano, whose autobiography was published i...
- Archival silenceThe absence from historical records of certain people's voices and experiences. For the slave trade, many enslaved people left few or no written records, and records o...
- Apprenticeship systemA period of unfree labour required of formerly enslaved people in the British Caribbean after 1834. The National Archives records that the 1833 Act made apprentices of...
C
- CommodityA raw material or agricultural product traded in bulk, such as sugar, tobacco or cotton. The Atlantic economy was built on commodities produced by enslaved labour, and...
- Chattel slaveryA system in which people were legally treated as property that could be bought, sold and inherited. It was the form of slavery that dominated the Atlantic plantation e...
D
E
- Enslaved personA human being forced into slavery. The term emphasises that enslavement was a condition imposed on the person and not an identity, which is why many historians and edu...
- EnslaverA person who held others in slavery and exercised control over their labour and lives. Many historians prefer the word to terms that suggest ownership was legitimate, ...
- EmancipationThe act of freeing people from slavery, whether by law, war or individual action. Legal emancipation did not automatically bring equal rights: in the British Empire, T...
F
H
- HistoriographyThe study of how history has been written and how interpretations change over time. It helps explain why historians disagree about the economic role of slavery, the ca...
- Haitian RevolutionThe uprising of enslaved people in Saint-Domingue that began in August 1791 and led to the independent state of Haiti, declared on 1 January 1804. It ended slavery in ...
M
- Middle PassageThe forced sea voyage that carried enslaved Africans from the African coast to the Americas, the middle leg of the triangular model. Crossings could last from several ...
- MaroonA person who escaped slavery, or a member of a community founded by such people, especially in the Caribbean and the Americas. Maroon communities often formed in remot...
- ManumissionThe formal release of an enslaved person by an owner, or the act of gaining freedom through purchase or legal process. It was granted rarely and under varied condition...
P
- PlantationA large agricultural estate producing crops for sale, often by enslaved labour in the Atlantic world. Sugar, tobacco, rice, indigo, coffee and cotton were among the ma...
- Primary sourceEvidence created at the time being studied, such as a letter, law, ship's log, advertisement or narrative. It reflects the perspective and purpose of its creator, so i...
- Provision groundsPlots of land where enslaved people in some colonies grew food for themselves and sometimes for sale. They allowed a degree of economic and cultural independence, a ba...
Q
R
S
- Secondary sourceAn account written later by someone analysing the past, such as a textbook or scholarly book. It interprets primary sources and may change as research develops, which ...
- Slave codesColonial laws that defined the legal status of enslaved people and restricted their movements and rights. They show how slavery was enforced and what slaveholders fear...