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Chains, shackles and documents are among the horrific and brutal reminders of the Africa-to-North America slave trade, which began 400 years ago. A look at some of these artifacts: reut.rs/2yaI0dN (1/10) 
Millions of African men, women and children were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean between the 16th and 19th centuries. Many died in horrific conditions. Those who survived were forced into servitude and worked on plantations (2/10)
William Wilberforce, who successfully campaigned to have British parliament ban the slave trade in 1807, used diagrams and models of the 'Brookes' slave ship to show the terrible conditions for the enslaved Africans on board (3/10)
Collars were used as a punishment, designed to prevent rest and make escape difficult (4/10)
Enslaved people were branded with a red-hot iron on their chest or shoulder (5/10)
A husband and wife are separated after being sold to different purchasers, in this illustration published in 1794 (6/10)
This tool from the 18th century was used to suspend a slave who was considered stubborn from a tree. The ring at the end of the tool was forced over their already broken wrist. The tool was then attached to a tree branch, holding their entire body weight off the ground (7/10)
These chains, taken from an 18th-century slave ship and weighing about 80 kg, were used to shackle 20 people together when working in the fields (8/10)
A copy of a poster advertises the sale of slaves by auctioneer Beard, listing people of various ages, characters, skills and also the terms of sale (9/10)
A punishment record from the Friendship Plantation, dated July to December 1827, lists the dates, names, nature of offenses (such as refusing to work or running away), the times, places, nature and extents of punishment, by whose authority, by whom inflicted and witnesses (10/10)
