Triangular trade, mutiny, Middle Passage Slavery Aim: How did the Atlantic Slave trade shape the lives and economies of Africans and Europeans? Warm-up: vocab pg 125 Triangular trade, mutiny, Middle Passage

The triangle trade The transportation of Africans to North America and the Caribbean formed one side of what has become known as the triangle trade. Ships would load up with guns, ammunition and manufactured goods in Britain and France, then sail for four months to West Africa where the cargo was exchanged for Africans. Then came the middle passage across the Atlantic, and the sale of the African people in the Caribbean and in North American colonies. Finally, the ships loaded up with the sugar, tobacco and cotton produced in the colonies and sailed back to England and France where the raw produce was refined and re-exported to other countries. www.nald.ca/fulltext/caribb/page12.htm - 3k

More than 20 million West Africans were captured and shipped across the Atlantic to work on plantations, but it is estimated that only half survived the journey. The Africans were often held in prisons for a long time before the ships came and then had a long journey, known as the middle passage, across the sea to the Caribbean. The Africans were chained together and crammed into holds on board ships and were subject to horrible living conditions, cruelty and torture. Preferring death to slavery, some of the Africans managed to break their chains and dive overboard; others succumbed to disease. Millions of others braved the deplorable journey to face a harsh life on the plantations.

The Slave Trade Existed in Africa before the coming of the Europeans. Portuguese replaced European slaves with Africans. Sugar cane & sugar plantations. First boatload of African slaves brought by the Spanish in 1518. 275,000 enslaved Africans exported to other countries. Between 16c & 19c, about 10 million Africans shipped to the Americas.

Slavery in the Americas Why? Needed labor on plantations Black Africans were thought to be a cheap labor force b/c a. worked in hot climates b. new to the area c. immune to European disease d. experience in farming

400,000 slaves in the Southern colonies 50,000 slaves in the Northern colonies Transported by ship, through the middle passage 20% died on the voyage Slave ships called floating coffins

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Slave Ship “Middle Passage”

“Coffin” Position Below Deck

African Captives Thrown Overboard Sharks followed the slave ships!