The Illegal Slave Trade After 1808: Smugglers and the African Squadron

The Atlantic Slave Trade: Empire Built on Human Suffering — Fexingo History · May 5, 2026 · 7m · transcript

Even after the U.S. and Britain banned the importation of enslaved Africans in 1808, the transatlantic slave trade continued for another half-century. This episode looks at the shadowy underworld of illegal slaving: the fast, specially-built Baltimore clippers that outran patrols, the bribed officials in Cuba and Brazil, and the British Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron—its small fleet, its captures, and its mixed record. We follow the story of the last known American slave ship, the Clotilda (mentioned in Episode 24), but also the broader cat-and-mouse game: how slavers used false…