Permanent gallery

Essential Information

Location
Price Free

The influence of the Atlantic Ocean reaches far beyond its shores.

Since the late 1400s, it has transported people, ideas, languages, cultures and goods that have shaped the world as we know it today.

The Atlantic Worlds gallery at the National Maritime Museum tells of the unequal, sometimes brutal histories involved, and the making or unmaking of its many connected worlds.

Content warning: while this gallery includes stories of resistance and joy, some areas feature depictions of violence and trauma.

Inside the gallery: history of the transatlantic slave trade

Image
Detail of Brookes (Revisited), an art installation created by Elgin Cleckley, Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia

From the start of the 1600s, Britain violently seized and defended lands in the Americas. To exploit much of this territory, a ‘triangular trade’ developed.

By the mid-1600s British ships were sailing directly to West Africa to exchange goods for captured Africans. These captive people were then forcibly transported across the Atlantic and sold as an enslaved workforce. British slave traders were among those who purchased products made by enslaved people – including sugar, tobacco and cotton – to sell in Britain, making huge profits.

During Britain’s involvement in transatlantic enslavement its ships transported 3.4 million African people to the Americas. This inhumanity created its own profitable industry including shipbuilding, ship insurance and the making of weapons and restraints.

Throughout this period, British ports thrived, its population grew, and its empire expanded. It became one of Europe’s most powerful countries, and the huge wealth generated by slavery is still visible to this day.

Resistance and rebellion

Enslaved Africans resisted from the moment they were captured. Their resistance took place on ships and plantations, despite the risk of violent punishment or death.

Enslaved people fought not only for freedom, but also to retain their culture, including language, music, names and spiritual beliefs. They found many ways to fight back, from small subversive acts such as damaging crops, breaking tools or faking illness – to large-scale rebellions.

Some enslaved people bought their freedom using money they made selling provisions they grew. Others ran away, sometimes using false documents and identities. Some people who escaped, known as the Maroons, formed self-sufficient communities that they fought to the death to defend.

Uprisings were common across the Caribbean. Captive people set fire to plantations or armed themselves in attempts to overthrow their oppressors. The continued resistance against a cruel and violent system helped enslaved people to bring about the end of European colonial slavery.

Objects in focus

Tap the arrows to discover more about some of the displays and artworks within the gallery.

Tap to begin

Blunderbuss

"Imagine how an enslaved person would have felt, finding themselves staring down the barrel of a blunderbuss like this one, with their legs in chains, surrounded by hostile sailors and a shark-infested ocean," says author and historian Stella Dadzie. "It would take some courage to plan a mutiny in face of such hopeless odds. Yet amazingly, many captives were prepared to take the risk.

"We now have access to a Transatlantic Voyages database that identifies 485 acts of resistance by captive Africans on slave ships between 1698 and 1807, including 382 cases of shipboard revolt and attacks from the shore," Stella continues. "More than 360 ships – that’s as many as one in ten - experienced some form of violent insurrection. Given what we know about the debilitated condition of the captives on board, these numbers are nothing less than staggering."

Hear more of Stella's responses to the gallery by listening to the 'Freedom Fighters' audio guide.

An image for 'Blunderbuss'

Sovereign Strength

Artist Joseph Ijoyemi is a Swedish-Nigerian artist, whose practice focuses on illuminating African history from a contemporary viewpoint.

His work Sovereign Strength is a double-sided acrylic painting celebrating female rules from pre-colonial Africa.

“I want women, especially young Black women, to look at this artwork and feel inspired, empowered, and to realise that there were dominant women before the transatlantic history,” he says. 

An image for 'Sovereign Strength'

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, a key figure in the fight to end the slave trade within the British Empire in the 18th century, once lived just around the corner from what would become the National Maritime Museum.

In his bestselling book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, published in 1789, Equiano described being kidnapped as a child in Benin, and the horrors of the voyage across the Atlantic.

Sold to a Royal Navy captain, Equiano was forced to work on warships, and then on trading ships in the Caribbean. In his early 20s he was able to buy his freedom and came to London. In sharing his own story Equiano became a public figure, and alongside many others played an important role in campaigning for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

An image for 'Olaudah Equiano'

Brookes (Revisited)

The Liverpool ship the Brooks (also known as 'Brookes') was used in the slave trade from 1783. Abolitionists in Britain commissioned a drawing of how people were squeezed on board the Brooks to raise awareness of the inhumanity of the slave trade.

Elgin Cleckley, Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia, used the drawing to create a new art installation for the gallery. Brookes (Revisited) features 740 cardboard 'memory markers', each representing an individual held on board.

“Perhaps works like Brookes (Revisited) can offer a new way to think about the images we’ve seen associated with the slave trade,” he says: “It’s important for people to look at works like this, and think about how to develop their own ways to create and use art to tell untold stories.”

An image for 'Brookes (Revisited)'

John Hawkins

John Hawkins was the first English slave trader, who made four voyages to Sierra Leone between 1564 and 1569, taking a total of 1200 Africans across the Atlantic to sell to Spanish settlers in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

On his first voyage he described capturing 300 Africans 'by the sword and partly by other means'. In the Caribbean he sold them to the Spanish for 'hides, ginger, sugars, and some quantity of pearls, but he freighted also two other hulks with hides and like commodities'.

An image for 'John Hawkins'

Coin commemorating the abolishment of slavery

"The campaign to abolish slavery was long and protracted. Traditionally associated with the efforts of men like William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, it is only recently that other names have begun to be acknowledged," explains Stella Dadzie.

"Mary Prince, who was born into slavery in Bermuda in 1788, led a life that was fairly typical of many enslaved women. Across the West Indies, they were over-worked, flogged and abused on a regular basis. But Mary refused to be beaten into submission. Like many other enslaved women, she fought tooth and nail for her right to be free.

"Much of what we know about Mary’s life comes from her published narrative, The History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave, Related by Herself, which was published in 1831, three years before the British finally abolished slavery on 1 August 1834," Stella continues. "Mary’s poignant testimony stands as an example of the resilience and resistance of generations of enslaved women throughout the West Indies." To hear more about Mary Prince and other black revolutionary women, listen to the Freedom Fighters audio guide.

An image for 'Coin commemorating the abolishment of slavery'

‘A Negro Festival drawn from Nature in the Island of St Vincent’

In this image, the artist avoided depicting any sign of harsh plantation conditions. Instead, he has shown enslaved people at leisure and dancing.

"It was purposefully done to create this false sense of what it was like," explains artist Sharon Walters. "That ability to lie and share these images that, years and years later, we’re still looking at [as] representations of that time, is both upsetting and sickening."

To hear the full discussion about this image and others in the Museum collection, listen to the Seeing Ourselves podcast.

An image for '‘A Negro Festival drawn from Nature in the Island of St Vincent’'

Join a tour

Gain a deeper insight into some of the Museum’s most prized – and lesser-known – objects on display with one of our friendly guides.

Daily tours are available when you visit, or you can choose to follow one of our dedicated audio guides and explore the Museum at your own pace.

An image for 'Join a tour'

Visiting the gallery

Where is the gallery?

Atlantic Worlds is a permanent gallery at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, located on the first floor. Entry to the Museum is free: book tickets online in advance to guarantee entry and receive updates before you visit.

Follow the gallery guide

Tours and audio guides

'Freedom Fighters' is a dedicated audio guide to the Atlantic Worlds gallery created by historian Stella Dadzie. Listen using your phone here.

The tour highlights the lives of enslaved women who fought for freedom, Nanny of the Maroons, who led an uprising of formerly enslaved Africans against the British, Mary Prince, the only enslaved West Indian woman to leave an account of her life, and Sanite Bélair, known as the ‘Tigress of Haiti'.

You can find the full range of audio guides available at the National Maritime Museum here, or find out more about objects on display by ordering a special Treasures audio tour.

Accessibility

The gallery is wheelchair accessible, with lifts available to take visitors to the first floor and wide aisles within the gallery.

BSL is included as part of the National Maritime Museum audio guide. Large print guides are also available.

For more information about accessibility at the National Maritime Museum, click here.

Gallery closures

Occasionally some gallery closures may affect your visit to the National Maritime Museum. Find details of upcoming closures here.

Make the most of your visit

Find more free galleries and attractions at the National Maritime Museum.

Explore the galleries

See what's on

Tickets and Opening

10am-5pm daily

  • Greenwich Station
  • Cutty Sark DLR
  • Maze Hill Station
  • Greenwich Pier

Atlantic Worlds Reimagined

The National Maritime Museum is working with an Atlantic Worlds Advisory Board to redevelop the gallery.

The advisory board includes people with a broad range of expertise relating to history, art, psychology, museum studies and education. Members of the Board have designed interventions for the Atlantic Worlds gallery.

These tell the wide-reaching and brutal story of enslavement, as well as highlighting and celebrating the lives of African people before, during and after the time of transatlantic slavery.

Visit the National Maritime Museum

Discover epic stories of exploration and endeavour that have shaped our world today

Our partners

The Atlantic Worlds Reimagined project has been developed with Art Fund support

Choose your tickets

National Maritime Museum

  • Guaranteed entry time
  • Access to all free galleries and activities
  • Special exhibitions free in 2024
Free entry
Book online
BOOK NOW

Become a Member

  • Unlimited entry all year
  • Royal Observatory
  • Cutty Sark
  • Planetarium Shows
  • Special exhibitions
Direct Debit One-off
Individual: £50 Individual: £60
Family: from £60 Family: from £70
JOIN TODAY