Slavery

Around 200,000 freed slaves, like this soldier, joined the Union military in the Civil Wa

The Emancipation ProclamationYour guide to Abraham Lincoln's proclamation

African and Caribbean people in Britain: a 2,000-year history

How one woman liberated a notorious US slave jail

A portrait of Moses Roper, the first African-American fugitive from slavery to make a home in Britain

Moses Roper: the story of an American fugitive from slavery in Britain

A painting of Lisbon depicts conspicuous displays of Portuguese imperial wealth and power – including enslaved African people

How slavery thrived in Renaissance Europe

Kris Manjapra“Black communities have had to pay for the failures of emancipation”

The failings of emancipation

Escaping slavery in the American South

The Demerara slave uprising

In late 1781, the crew of the slave ship Zong, facing a shortage of water, threw overboard much of their ‘cargo’. The massacre of 133 African people and resulting law case – not for murder, but insurance – focusses attention to the treatment of enslaved people. (Image by Alamy)

The Zong Massacre: what the dark episode meant for the British slave trade and abolition

How slavery & empire shaped epidemiology

Berbice: a slave rebellion that nearly succeeded

Q&ACould Roman slaves buy their own freedom?

An illustration of the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865

Jamaica's Morant Bay Rebellion: brutality and outrage in the British empire

A modern illustration shows prisoners of war being sold into slavery

Slavery in ancient Greece: what was life like for enslaved people?

How should we teach the slave trade?

Emma Dabiri"William Cuffay's story is more relevant now than ever"

George II: reassessing a much-forgotten monarch

The slave trade: a family history

Emma Dabiri"Harriet Jacobs’ writing transports readers to the world of Southern slavery"

African Europeans

A depiction of the Haiti Rebellion. From 1791-1804, the Caribbean isle of Hispaniola burned and convulsed as enslaved Africans rose up in rebellion after rebellion – finally emerging as independent Haiti. (Image by Getty Images)

The Haitian Revolution: the enslaved Africans who rose up against France

Opulent headquarters East India House in London, 1850. From inside this grand building, the East India Company directors oversaw the governance of India and its associated territories (Photo by Guildhall Library & Art Gallery/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

1838: A year in the life of the British empire

How slavery fuelled the British empire

Harriet Tubman (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad: how one woman saved hundreds from hell

The colonial secrets of Britain’s stately homes

Illustration of the raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne

Slaves in the Viking Age: how prevalent were enslaved people in Viking societies?

Enslaved women & resistance

An Atlantic slave war

Life in bondage Formerly enslaved African-Americans sit for a photograph in Virginia, c1850. At that time, 4 million people were still enslaved across the US, as debates around abolition raged on both sides of the Atlantic (Photo by Fotosearch/Getty Images)

The black abolitionists who shocked Victorian Britain