USI – Glossary Of Terms

The Glossary lists key historical and contemporary terms related to the transatlantic slave trade. These words are used across the website and particularly in the Themes and Use of language.

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There are currently 17 Terms in this directory beginning with the letter T.
Tabloid
A newspaper carrying short and sensational news stories and many photographs
Task labour
A system where people are given goals to achieve and therefore benefit if they can complete the work quickly
Temperance
A movement started in the 19th century to encourage people to stop drinking alcohol
Tenant
People who farm land rented from a landlord
Thirteenth Amendment
The 1865 alteration to the United States Constitution which abolished slavery
Thrive
To grow vigorously; to gain wealth and possessions
Tithe
A form of taxation where a tenth of a person's income or the produce from their land, whether derived from crops or animals, was paid to the church to support the clergy
Tolerance
Sympathy for or acceptance of feelings, habits or beliefs that are different from one’s own
Tract
A short printed pamphlet, on religious or political subjects, to distribute to the public
Trading forts
Europeans built forts as trading bases along the West African coast; they temporarily housed enslaved Africans until they were loaded onto ships
Trafficking
The transport and trade in humans for economic gain using force or deception
Transatlantic
Across the Atlantic Ocean
Transatlantic slave trade
A Eurocentric term used to describe the selling of Africans as chattel across the Atlantic Ocean between Europe and the Americas
Transatlantic slavery
The institution that kept people as property, and submissive to work under the domination of others; the system of slavery that incorporates the ‘trade’ of enslaved Africans, the culture of enslavement, resistance of the enslaved and abolition
Treaty
Formally ratified agreement between political groups or states
Triangular Trade
The name often given to the transatlantic slave trade; describes the three sides to the route the slave ships took from Europe to West Africa, then to the Caribbean and the Americas and finally back to Europe; the routes are known as the Outward Passage, the ‘Middle Passage’, and the Return or Homeward Passage. The term is slightly inaccurate as there were many trade routes used during this period that did not start and end in Europe.
Tuberculosis
A disease caused by bacterium and usually marked by wasting fever and the formation of cheesy tubercles in the lungs