Afua Hirsch, Simcha Jacobovici and Samuel L. Jackson unite for BBC slavery doc

Author Afua Hirsch and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici have teamed up with Hollywood icon and human rights activist Samuel L. Jackson for a new four-part docuseries on the slave trade.

Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade will be shown on BBC Two and sheds new light on 400 years of human trafficking, as millions of enslaved Africans were shipped to the Americas by Western European slave traders. 

More than 12 million people were kidnapped and sold into slavery. At least two million perished en route at sea. 

Using new diving technology – such as advanced 3D mapping and ground-penetrating radar – to locate and examine sunken slave ships on three continents, the series reveals an entirely new perspective on the history of the transatlantic slave trade. 

The story takes viewers from Africa to the Americas, as well as the UK, with Hirsch visiting the now infamous – and since toppled – statue of Edward Colston in Bristol.