slave traffic
- noun
- /sleɪv ˈtræfɪk/
- NSFW
:
tráfico de esclavos
- During the 18th century, slave traffic was rampant, leading to the forced migration of millions of Africans to the Americas.
Examples
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At the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Britain pressured some foreign powers to adopt a similar policy and managed, in the end, to reach a solution to the slave traffic.
Academic text (2008) -
The volume of slave traffic during that period numbered more than 6,000 persons a year.
Academic text (1990) -
I will put an end to this white slave traffic and rid Dublin of this odious pest.
-
That convention updated international agreements from 1904 and 1910 on the "suppression of the white slave traffic."
Academic text (2006) -
Authorities worked hard to combat the slave traffic that flourished in coastal regions during the colonial era.
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The historical account detailed the brutal conditions faced by those caught in the slave traffic across the Atlantic Ocean.
Synonyms
17
3.6
Buying, selling, and moving people to force them to work, often from Africa to the Americas
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound meaning is directly derivable from 'slave' (a person owned and forced to work) plus 'traffic' (trade or illicit commerce): together they denote the trading/transporting of slaves. This compositional pattern mirrors common constructions in other languages (e.g. tráfico de esclavos, trafic d'esclaves) and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Slave traffic paints a harsh picture: in past centuries traders moved and sold people as if they were goods, and traffic here meant that trade and movement. So, slave traffic refers to 'the buying, selling and transportation of enslaved people, especially the journeys across the ocean to the Americas'.