1698

Parliament ends the RAC's monopoly, opening the slave trade to all English merchants. The volume of enslaved people transported in English ships roughly triples within two decades. Bristol and Liverpool merchants rapidly expand operations; between 1698 and 1750 English ships transport an estimated 500,000 Africans into slavery, dwarfing the RAC era.

Parliament removed the Royal African Company's monopoly on the slave trade in 1698, opening the trade to all British merchants. The result was an immediate and dramatic surge in the volume of Africans transported to British colonies in North America. Where the RAC had shipped roughly 4,000 enslaved people per year in the late 1600s, independent traders now vastly expanded the trade. South Carolina and Virginia saw their enslaved populations grow exponentially in the decades immediately following. The RAC had previously branded enslaved Africans with the letters 'DY' (Duke of York) or 'RAC' on their chests using hot irons. The end of the monopoly transferred that brutality to dozens of competing private firms.

When the Royal African Company's monopoly on the English slave trade was broken in 1698, Virginia and other colonies gained access to independent slave traders. The result was a dramatic expansion in the volume of enslaved Africans imported directly to the Chesapeake. Slave imports to Virginia more than tripled in the decade after 1698 compared to the prior decade. This liberalization of the slave trade massively expanded the enslaved population and entrenched the plantation economy.