For more than 400 years from the 15th through the 19th centuries, Europeans enslaved many millions of Africans. Torn from their homeland, men, women and children were shipped to the Americas and forced into slavery. The transatlantic slave trade was a highly profitable maritime business. Without African slaves the potential economic value of the Americas could never have been realized. This exhibition examines the slave trade and seeks to increase understanding of this maritime epic and its legacies in the modern world including the cultural contributions of Africans that are an integral part of America today. Art objects from the Museum for African Art are also shown as part of the exhibition, as well as art from Maroon villages in Suriname from the Janina Rubinowitz Collection of Maroon Arts. The exhibit opened December 2003.