This site contains videos and other resources for students and a teachers guide. The long nightmare of the trans-Atlantic slave trade had multiple dimensions and phases, from the first forced arrivals of Africans in the New World in the 17th century through the outbreak of civil war and abolition of slavery. Even after the international slave trade became illegal in the United States in 1808, slave traders violated the law in order to bring highly profitable human cargo across the ocean for sale. The paths of these human beings into slavery comprise a collection of countless interlocking and horrific stories. USS Constellation: Battling for Freedom tells one of them the dramatic and little-known tale of a flagship U.S. Navy vessel's dogged pursuit of the Cora, an illegal carrier attempting to transport over 700 slaves to the United States.