The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was the forced capture, transportation, and sale of African men, women, and children into chattel slavery across the Americas and Europe. Over roughly 350 years, historians estimate that about 12.5 million Africans were embarked on slave ships, and approximately 10.7 million survived the Middle Passage to be sold into bondage in the New World. Many thousands died en route due to brutal conditions. Enslaved people in the United States and other colonies were sometimes branded or subjected to physical markings by enslavers as a means of punishment or identification. A barcode represents inventory, pricing, tracking, and ownership in the modern world. While enslaved Africans were not literally marked with barcodes, they were treated as commodities listed on manifests, insured as cargo, priced by age, gender, and physical condition, and recorded in ledgers like products.

Slavery is often mistaken as a relic of the past, but forms of slavery persist today, hidden in human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation. According to major global estimates, more than 40 million people worldwide are living in some form of modern slavery, which includes work or services they cannot refuse or leave because of threats, coercion, or deception; this figure has grown compared to earlier decades. Women and girls represent a significant share of victims, and children make up a large portion as well. Modern slavery is tied to criminal networks that generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually, making it one of the most profitable illicit enterprises in the world.