US President Donald Trump has once again criticised the Smithsonian Institution for focusing too much on “how bad slavery was”.

“The Smithsonian is out of control, where everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been…” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

His post came a week after White House officials told the Smithsonian it would soon face “a comprehensive internal review” of its museums. 

Trump said he has instructed his lawyers to “go through” what he described as “woke” content at Smithsonian museums, vowing to begin “the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made.”

The Smithsonian, founded by Congress in 1846, now oversees 21 museums. Its funding is largely provided by the federal government.

The Institution has been a repeated target of Trump’s wrath for highlighting the “negative aspects” of US history, such as the trans-Atlantic trade of African slaves.

European traders transported approximately 12.5 million and 15 million African men, women and children across the Atlantic between the 16-19 centuries. Generations endured systemic oppression while contributing heavily to the labour-intensive US economy of the time.

Scholars and historians, however, remain unequivocal in acknowledging the horrors of slavery: The trans-Atlantic slave trade was “one of the worst crimes against humanity” in recorded history.

Here are five facts that illustrate the scale of the suffering, loss of life, and systemic dehumanisation for generations.

Forced migration, mass death 

The trans-Atlantic slave trade forcibly displaced millions of Africans for over 400 years, making it one of the largest coerced migrations in human history.

According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database, at least 12.5 million Africans were loaded onto ships, with about 10 million surviving the forced migration to the Americas.

The one-way journey was deadly, with an estimated 1.8 million deaths due to disease, malnutrition, and inhumane conditions aboard slave ships.

For example, the Zong massacre of 1781 saw over 130 enslaved Africans thrown overboard by a British crew to claim insurance money.

Conditions on slave ships were horrific: people were chained together in cramped, unsanitary holds, often unable to sit upright, with minimal food and water.

Historian Marcus Rediker describes the Middle Passage – another name for the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean – as a “floating dungeon”, rife with smallpox and other diseases.

 Systemic violence

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was marked by violence, from capture in Africa to sales in the Americas.

Enslaved Africans faced whippings, branding, and mutilation. The Code Noir, a 1685 French legal document, permitted severe punishments, including amputation for runaways, while British and Spanish colonies similarly sanctioned brutal discipline.

Lynching, though more associated with the post-slavery era, had roots in the slave trade period, with public executions terrorising and suppressing any signs of resistance.

For instance, after the 1739 Stono Rebellion in South Carolina, where enslaved Africans rose up against their captors, at least 20 rebels were executed, their heads displayed on pikes to deter future uprisings.

Sexual exploitation was also rampant, with enslaved women subjected to rape by enslavers, as documented in books like that of Harriet Jacobs, who detailed her abuse in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Destroyed families, erased identities

The trans-Atlantic slave trade tore apart families and erased cultural identities on an unprecedented scale. Enslaved Africans were often captured during raids or wars, separated from family, and sold multiple times before reaching the Americas.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture showcases how slave markets, such as those in Charleston, South Carolina, split families, with children, parents, and spouses sold to different plantations.

One example is the 19th-century sale of enslaved people from Maryland’s Jesuit plantations, where families were divided without regard for their bonds.

This destruction also extended to cultural heritage. 

Enslaved Africans from diverse ethnic groups were stripped of their languages, religions, and traditions. Enslavers imposed new names and Christian practices, erasing ancestral ties.

Economic exploitation

Slavery was central to the economic system of the Atlantic world.

Enslaved Africans were treated as commodities, with their unpaid labour fuelling the wealth of European and American powers through plantations of sugar, cotton, and tobacco.

The Royal African Company alone transported over 200,000 enslaved people between 1672 and 1731, generating immense profits for British elites. In the Americas, enslaved labour sustained economic growth with South Carolina’s rice plantations and Virginia’s tobacco fields relying entirely on their slave exploitation.

This economic system reduced humans to property as they were auctioned like livestock. ‘Owning’ slaves enriched enslavers and strengthened a racial hierarchy that justified cruelty.

Economic inequality persists to date.

For example, the typical White household in the US has 9.2 times as much wealth as the typical Black household, a gulf that analysts say is a result of slavery’s denial of economic opportunity to African Americans.

Legacy of trauma, inequality

Abolition in the 19th century did not erase slavery’s consequences.

Racial prejudice deepened, giving rise to Jim Crow laws, passed between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American South.

Family separations and cultural loss also created intergenerational trauma, with descendants of the enslaved facing economic and social barriers.