Slavery and Triangle Trade

1660-1865

Lesson Objective: To understand the history of the Triangle Trade and how it

impacted the American colonies.

Triangular Trade The triangular trade system

was so named because the ships left from European ports with manufactured goods, stopped in Africa to trade goods and gather the captives, after which they set out for the New World to deliver their human cargo, trade for natural goods and then returned to the ports of Europe. The Middle Passage was that part of the slave triangle that brought the human cargo from West Africa to North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Europe to Africa One leg of the

triangular trade brought manufactured goods from Europe to Africa.

Some goods included knives, guns, pots, beads, cloth, hardware, rum, or salt.

Africa to the Americas(The Middle Passage)

Originally European traders wanted Ivory, gold, and other goods from Africa. European colonies in the Americas needed workers for their large sugar plantations, mines, and tobacco fields.

African rulers would capture and sell their enemies and neighbors to European slave traders who would sell them in the Americas.

European goods were bartered (traded) for slaves.Many of the slave ship captains were Portugese and had

already established their trade routes around Africa

Middle Passage Conditions The trip from Africa to

the Americas was referred to as the Middle Passage.

Slaves were crammed tightly below deck and chained together. They had little space and disease was rampant.

The captured Africans were allowed on deck for very little time and were given little food. Many died from disease, hunger, or committed suicide.

Tight packers lost more “cargo” because they packed in as many captives as possible.

An estimated 2-3 million slaves died on the slave ships.

Americas back to Europe Goods from the

colonies in the Americas traveled back to Europe in the holds of the ships who had unloaded their slave cargoes.

Molasses, sugar, tobacco, indigo, rice, and other crops along with lumber, fish, and furs were shipped to Europe for money.

Triangle Trade and the Colonies

The Northern colonies’ economy was based on the shipbuilding and fishing industries. Lumber and skilled craftspeople were also important to the Northern colonies. These goods were traded with other countries.

The Southern colonies’ economy depended on agriculture. Tobacco, sugar cane, cotton, and rice were some of the cash crops of the South. The slaves worked hard to produce these crops. The surplus of the crops were sold to Europe.

Triangle Trade Activity Time

Please clear off your desk completely. The only item you should have on your

desk is a pen or pencil.