Lesson 4: The Middle Passage Unit 5: The Economy of Resources

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Obama visits “door of no return” https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=bsLkpztXI_k

Triangular Trade The slave trade was also known as the triangular trade because it has three stages.

The Triangular Trade is the name given to the trading of goods and slaves between Europe, Africa and the Americas. The Middle Passage was the specific route from Africa to the Americas that the slaves were taken on. Coastal African states would capture and sell their enemies – the interior African states – to the Europeans. Interdependence is when two groups need each other and lean on each other to get what they both want. Europeans wanted slaves and raw goods, Africans wanted gold and supplies.

Triangular Trade: Stage 1 Europe to Western Africa The Atlantic slave trade has been called the triangular trade because it had three stages that roughly form the shape of a triangle when viewed on a map. The first stage began in Europe, where manufactured goods such as metals, cloth, guns, and spirits were loaded onto ships bound for ports on the African coast. There the goods were exchanged for slaves.

Triangular Trade: Stage 2 Africa to the Americas The second stage of the triangular trade was the shipment of slaves across the Atlantic Ocean, usually to Brazil or to an island in the Caribbean Sea. This trip, known as the Middle Passage, took a few weeks to several months.

Triangular Trade: Stage 2 (continued) Africa to the Americas The ships were grossly overcrowded, with the captives wedged below decks and chained to platforms stacked in tiers. The average space allotted to an individual was just 6 feet long, 16 inches wide, and perhaps 3 feet high (183 by 41 by 91 centimeters). Unable to stand up or turn over, many captives died in this prone position.

Triangular Trade: Stage 2 (continued) Africa to the Americas The almost continuous dangers faced by the captives included epidemic diseases, raids at port by hostile tribes, and attack by pirates, in addition to physical, sexual, and psycho-logical abuse at the hands of their captors. Death rates on the Middle Passage ranged from about 10% to more than 20%.

Triangular Trade: Stage 3 Americas to Europe After arriving in Brazil or the Caribbean, the slaves were sold at auction and were taken throughout the New World. They were put to work on plantations. The shipment to Europe of plantation crops and products made from them was the third leg of the triangular trade. Among the most valuable exports to Europe were sugar, tobacco, cotton, molasses, and rum.

SLAVE TRADE For weeks, months, sometimes as long as a year, captured Africans waited in the dungeons of the slave factories scattered along Africa's western coast. They had already made the long, difficult journey from Africa's interior to the coast -- but just barely. Out of the roughly 20 million who were taken from their homes and sold into slavery, half didn't complete the journey to the African coast, most of those dying along the way.

Now You! Read and annotate with your elbow group.

STOP! Let’s talk about Paragraph 5… What is the first example of control? What is the first example of an unhealthy condition?

Now go: finish up! Create CONCEPT WEBS for AFRICAN SLAVERY TRAINGULAR TRADE Complete the webs with as many facts from the Guided Practice reading selection as you can.