The British Transatlantic Slave Trade contains primary texts relating to the British slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first volume contains two 18th-century texts covering the slave trade in Africa. Volume two focuses on the work of the Royal African Company.

Robin Law presents a comprehensive and deeply researched account of Britain’s extensive involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The collection of essays assembled in this volume challenges simplified narratives about Britain’s participation by highlighting the complexity, scale, and long-term consequences of its role.

According to the scholars featured in Law’s compilation, Britain was not merely one of many European nations engaged in the trade, but it was a leading force that helped shape its global structure. British merchants, shipowners, and investors transformed slave trading from a fragmented enterprise into a highly organized and economically central system. Through companies such as the Royal African Company and private commercial ventures, British traders transported millions of enslaved Africans to colonies across the Americas and the Caribbean.

In volume 2, The National and Private Advantages of the African Trade Considered emphasized that Britain’s involvement in the trade cannot be understood solely through moral or humanitarian lenses. Instead, it must be seen as an economic and imperial strategy that bound together Africa, Europe, and the Americas in a network of exploitation. The collection traces how the profits from enslaved labor directly contributed to Britain’s industrial and maritime power, laying the foundations for its rise as a global empire.

At the same time, Law’s edition reveals the contradictions within British society. While the trade was justified through legal frameworks and economic necessity, it also sparked moral debates that would later drive abolitionist movements. The book’s contributors show how Britain’s abolition of the slave trade in 1807 was not purely an act of moral progress, but also a response to shifting economic conditions and imperial interests.

Overall, The British Transatlantic Slave Trade, Volume 1 and 2 portrays Britain’s role as both architect and beneficiary of one of history’s most destructive global systems. Britain’s self-image as a moral leader in abolition by confronting the depth of its complicity in slavery’s establishment and operation.