Advertisements such as this one for the sale of a group of recently arrived Africans appeared frequently in newspapers throughout the colonies. During the mid-1700s, few colonists observed the contradiction between a vigorous commerce in human slaves and an equally vigorous promotion of freedom of the press and political liberty for white men. Later, some printers, including Benjamin Franklin, would oppose slavery.
This diagram of a slave ship illustrates the intense crowding and inhumane treatment of enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic. An estimated 7.7 million Africans were carried across the Atlantic between 1492 and 1800.
Credit: Library of Congress