Aim: If you were a reporter how would you report on
the Atlantic Slave Trade?
Do Now: Answer the following questions in your notebook
• Where is this place?
• Who is in the picture?
• What is happening in the picture?
The Atlantic Slave Trade
Video
Task – Write down three facts about the Atlantic
Slave Trade from the video.
The Atlantic Slave Trade began in
Africa in 1492?
• It ran for four centuries, from the 1500’s to the 1800’s.
What else happened in 1492?
• Slaves were captured in West Africa and
brought across the Atlantic Ocean to the
Caribbean and Brazil.
Slavery
• Slavery is the buying and selling of human
beings, The Europeans caused an
involuntary mass migration from Africa to
the Americas.
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•
•
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The Portuguese began the slave trade in 1441
The Spanish entered in the 1500’s
The British French and Dutch in the 1600’s
Between 10 and 20 million Africans were kidnapped
and carried to the Americas.
The Triangular Trade
• From Europe, ships carried manufactured goods (guns) to
Africa.
• From Africa, ships carried slaves to islands in the Caribbean
(This was the Middle Passage)
• From the Caribbean, ships carried plantation goods (sugar,
coffee, cotton) to Europe
The Middle Passage:
• Conditions on the ship were terrible
• People were packed into tight, unsanitary spaces
on the ship for three months.
• Many died from disease and heat exhaustion (10
to 20% died during the voyage.
Why did slave traders pack the Africans in so tightly?
African Captives Thrown Overboard
Sharks followed the slave ships across the Atlantic!
Revolt Aboard a Slave Ship
Shortage of Labor
• The Europeans established colonies in the Americas
• They established plantations (large farms) to grow sugar, coffee,
tobacco and cotton.
• These crops needed a lot of labor for planting and harvesting.
• There were not enough Europeans
• They tried to enslave Native Americans but they were dying of
diseases like smallpox
Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)
1789  wrote and published, The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or
Gustavus Vassa the African.
• “One day… two of my wearied countrymen who
were chained together…jumped into the sea;
immediately another … followed their example…
two of the wretches were drowned, but the ships
crew got the other and afterwards whipped him
unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death
to slavery”.
•
-Olaudah Equino
Task
• Use the information from the notes and the
movie to write a news article on the
Atlantic Slave Trade.
– Write the article addressing the 5W’s
– Draw pictures (scenes) depicting the slave
trade
– Show where on the map provided
– Use information the first hand account of
Olaudah Equino in your article