The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
1.
Analyze the pictures below. For each picture, describe
what you see, including as many specific details as you can.
What do you think was the original purpose of these
images?
Triangular Trade:
a historical
term indicating
trade among
three regions,
specifically,
Africa, Europe
and the
Americas.
2. Write the definition for triangular trade (above) in your notes.
3. List several of the resources each continent traded with one
another.
What caused the Triangular
Trade?
4. Define natural resources in your notes.
• Africa had resources that could be traded with
other nations, such as gold and silver, but they
were lacking manufactured goods that
England and the New World could provide.
This created a trading system between the
three continents.
What caused the Triangular Trade?
• Pretty soon, European countries such as Great
Britain, Portugal, France and the Netherlands
began establishing permanent colonies in
Africa as well as the New World.
• This gave Europeans access to natural
resources that created great wealth…
• …however, while the European countries were
becoming more and more wealthy, Africa was
being stripped of resources – human
resources.
What caused the
Transatlantic Slave Trade?
• There was an incredible need for strong
laborers to help build and pioneer this new
land.
• Also, there was a need for plantation workers
so that additional natural resources (such as
sugar, molasses, and tobacco) could be traded
with Europe.
The Transatlantic
Slave Trade
• The need for labor created the beginning of the
Transatlantic Slave Trade, where millions of
Africans were sold by African tribes or captured
into slavery and sold for a massive profit.
• Slaves could be bought for $20 and sold in the
Americas for up to $120 dollars.
• Eventually, the demand for labor was so strong
Europeans no longer traded manufactured goods
for slaves, but began capturing Africans against
the will of the African people.
Transatlantic
Slave Trade
European nations would
capture or trade
manufactured goods for
African people and sell them
in the New World for profit.
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
• Slavery was not new to
Africa. Various
kingdoms would force
people into labor.
• However, the number
of slaves skyrocketed
when Europe began
exploiting Africa.
• Nearly 12 million
people were sold into
slavery.
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Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 1: West African Villages
5. What emotions do you
see in these pictures?
6. How can you tell some
men are supervisors?
7. Why are these
supervisors not white?
8. In conclusion, what do
you believe is
happening in these
pictures?
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 1: West African Villages
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 2: Trading Post/Cape Coast Castle
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 2: Trading Post/Cape Coast Castle
Europeans set up trading posts to trade manufactured goods for the natural
resources of Africa. The one pictured above was located in Ghana and called the
Cape Coast Castle. Eventually, these sites became places to house thousands of
slaves who awaited their dreaded journey to the new world. Around 1000 male
slaves and 500 female slaves occupied the castle at any one time in separate
dungeons. Each slave would be locked up for 6-12 weeks, waiting for their turn
to board one of the ships. The dungeons must have been unbearable with
hundreds of slaves crammed in together and no toilet facilities. The picture
above (to the left) is a picture of “The Cave of No Return” where slaves would
exit the trading post and board their ships.
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 2: Trading Post/Cape Coast Castle
9. What was your first impression of the Cape Coast
Castle?
10. Why is this trading post located on the coast?
11. How can you tell this trading post was built by
Europeans?
12. At this point in the journey, what would you be
feeling if you were one of the captured slaves?
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 3: Middle Passage
The Middle Passage was the journey from Africa to the
Americas. Ship captains were known as “tight packers” or “loose
packers” depending on how many people they were willing to fit
on a ship. Most ships held 400, but it was not unusual to have
600-700 people per ship. People were treated as cargo. The trip
would take nearly 50-90 days. Due to their packed conditions,
Africans would have to lie in each other’s sweat, urine, feces,
and blood. The heat was unbearable and un-breathable.
Many people would refuse to eat; some even committed
suicide. The ship’s crew would brutally force the slaves to eat so
that they would not die, because if someone died they could not
be sold for profit. The slaves would often be beaten with a
device called a cat-o-nine-tails, which would leave horrible
wounds on the slaves.
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 3: Middle Passage
This diagram shows how slaves would be transported aboard a
ship.
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 3: Middle Passage
Slaves were treated as cargo, and packed as tightly as possible onto
the ship to maximize potential profits.
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 3: Middle Passage
This photograph from the 19th
century shows the scars of a
slave who had been severely
beaten with a whip.
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 3: Middle Passage
13. What was your first impression of the Middle
Passage?
14. Why were slaves beaten during the Middle Passage?
15. With that many people in such a small area, what
types of problems do you think occurred?
16. If you were on the Middle Passage, how would you
cope with the conditions?
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 4: The Slave Auction
Stops Along the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Stop 4:
17. What are these images
communicating? / What is
the purpose of these
images?
18. Where would these
images be found?
19. Note the color of the man
by the stage in the picture
above. How could he have
gotten a job at a slave
auction?
20. What was the purpose of
the Transatlantic Slave
Trade?
Effects of the
Transatlantic Slave Trade
• 10-16 million African people were sold into
slavery, leaving a significant portion of African
without its strongest men.
• Families were torn apart.
• European colonies thrived and became
extremely wealthy while Africans were
exploited and lost great wealth.
Effects of the Transatlantic Slave
Trade
• The southern colonies (later US states) became
economically reliant on slavery.
• Ironically, the American ideals of liberty and equality
were born from a culture that believed in and relied
upon a system of slavery that was based on race.
• Tensions over slavery would plague the colonies and
new United States of America from the time of its
inception until the American Civil War in the 1860s.
• Racial tensions between European Americans and
African Americans remains a prevalent issue in
modern American culture.