Quick Facts
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
transatlantic slave trade
Captive Africans being transferred to ships along the Slave Coast for the transatlantic slave trade, c. 1880.
Slave Coast
region, West Africa
Slave Coast, in 18th- and 19th-century history, the section of the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, in Africa, extending approximately from the Volta River in the west to Lagos, in modern Nigeria, or, alternatively, the Niger Delta in the east (in the present-day republics of Togo, Benin, and Nigeria). Although Germans, Danes, French, Portuguese, Swedish, and Spanish made efforts to establish forts and stations in this coastal region, it became primarily a sphere of Afro-British and Afro-Dutch trade in enslaved people and in various commodities.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Sheetz.
Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.
By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica
Privacy Policy
and
Terms of Use.