Enslaved will tell the story of the millions of enslaved Africans who were ripped from their homes and shipped against their will to the Americas by Western European slave traders.

During these 400 years, over 12 million people were sold into slavery and taken onto slave ships, which saw them packed like sardines and suffering inhumane conditions for weeks, leading to two million dying en-route at sea.

New diving technology, which uses advanced 3D mapping and ground penetrating radar, has found and examined these sunken slave ships on three continents, revealing new facts about the transatlantic slave trade.

Deep sea divers will explore dive sites in the UK, Caribbean and Florida to try and discover the ships that sank during the slave trade, while in Ghana, England and the Americas, experts will learn about the stories linked to these locations.

Underwater artefacts, dramatic reconstruction, reportage and scientific investigation will be used to uncover the personal lives and stories of the enslaved people and their European captors, and examine the politics, economics and ideology that helped create and sustain the transatlantic slave trade.

Enslaved provides a new perspective on a global story and shines a light on the cultures millions of people were forced to leave behind and the impact survivors have had on our cultures today. 

Each episode will take a different look at the transatlantic slave trade and will be led by Hollywood legend and human rights activist Samuel L. Jackson, writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici.

“These are stories that demand to be told and which sit at the very centre of our shared history,” said Patrick Holland, Controller of BBC Two.

He added: “I had the privilege to meet with Samuel L Jackson, Afua Hirsch and Simcha Jacobovici at the start of their production last year and I was determined to bring their essential, hugely ambitious and important series to the BBC.”