Reading Comprehension : The Slave Trade to America
1500 - 1807
The intensive agriculture of the New World demanded a large workforce. Crops such as sugar cane, tobacco and cotton
required an unlimited and cheap supply of strong workers to assure production for the European market. Slaves from
Africa offered the solution. The slave trade moved Africans along 3000 miles of Africa’s west coast to the New World.
Slaves used to be captured by Africans and Europeans for sale or trade. The slave trade between Western Africa and the
America's reached its peak in the mid-18th century when it is estimated that over 80,000 Africans annually used to cross
the Atlantic in terrible condition. It was called the Middle Passage. Forty to fifty hundred people used to be shipped in
the same boat with little air and very little food, so there were lots of diseases. Then the slaves who survived the voyage
and finally reached their destination, used to spend the rest of their lives in chains.
It was a profitable business. A slave bought on the African coast for the equivalent of 14 English pounds in 1760 could be
sold for 45 pounds in the American market. African slaves were chosen because they were resistant to Western diseases
and they could work in the hot weather. They mostly used to work in cotton, sugar cane and tobacco plantations.
I. Read the text again and answer these questions. (niveau A2+/B1)
1. Where did slaves come from ? They came (come came come) from Africa
2. When did the slave Trade start ? It started in the 16th century.
3. Why did the slave Trade begin ? The slave trade began (begin, began begun) because the New World
needed a large workforce (workers for the plantations).
4. How many people were moved from Africa to America ? 80 000 Africans were annually moved from
Africa to America.
5. Who captured the African slaves ? Africans and Europeans captured slaves after battles. The first slaves
were war prisoners.
6. How did they travel to the New World (America) ? They travelled to the New World by boat, in terrible
conditions.
7. Did they all survive the voyage? Why? They did not all survive the voyage (crossing) because there were
many diseases due to the lack ( le manque) of food and air.
8. What happened to them after ? When they reached America, they spent ( spend, spent,spent) the rest of
their lives in chains, because they were sold (sell, sold, sold) on the American market.
9. What was the voyage called? The voyage was called the Middle Passage
10. Where did they work ? The slaves used to work in tobacco, cotton and sugar cane plantations (fields) in
the New World.
Word bank : Crops=fields
Cross = go through
Require = need (be necessary) Supply = stock, reserve
Peak = maximum
For sale = trade: to be sold
Disease : when you are sick or ill, you’ve got a disease.