The Atlantic Slave Trade
1500s – mid 1800s
How did the Atlantic slave
trade shape the lives and
economies of Africans and
Europeans?
Triangular Trade
►A
triangle shaped series of trade routes
linking Europe, Africa and the Americas
across the Atlantic
 Shipped people AND goods (commodities)
Triangular Trade PROFIT!
► Merchants
grew wealthy
► Shipbuilding industry thrived in New
England
► Successful port cities
Slaves
► Slaves
from Africa were part of this
triangular trade, known as the Transatlantic
Slave Trade.
Slavery in Africa
► The
Spanish were the first European
partners in the slave trade
 Remember, slavery was not invented at this
time; this is just the first time that Europeans
are trading with Africa for their slaves
To the Ships
► Most
Africans were taken from inland
villages
 Forced to march to coastal ports
 Bound to each other with ropes and chains
 Many died along the way
► Waiting
 Those who survived were restrained in holding
pens and warehouses
The Middle Passage
► The
Middle Passage is the name of the
journey by ship to Europe and the Americas
(North, South and Central)
The horrors of the Middle Passage
► The
middle passage was brutal, cruel, and
beyond what most of us could ever imagine
enduring.
► The
descriptions in the following video are
graphic in nature.
Perils while on the Middle Passage
► The
ships, and the slaves aboard, faced
many other hardships




Storms
Raids by pirate ships
Mutinies (revolts by the captive Africans)
Disease & Death
►Dysentery
►Small
pox
►No apparent disease at all often killed the captives
►Suicide
Impact
►
►
►
►
►
Wealth to merchants and traders (from all countries)
Provided labor that helped colonial economies grow
African states and societies torn apart
Lives of individuals cut short or forever brutalized
Historian estimate:
 Enslaved Africans sent in the 1500s: 2,000/year
 Enslaved Africans sent in the 1780s (the peak of the trade):
80,000/year
 11 million enslaved Africans had reached the Americas by the end
of the trade in the mid-1800’s
 2 million probably died along the Middle Passage
 Unknown how many died before they even reached the ships
Assignment: Occasion/Position Thesis Statement
► Write
a thesis statement in the following format:
The Occasion:
Is the first part of the thesis statement
Introduces your reason for writing
Can be any event, problem, idea, solution
Example:
Because Christopher Columbus loved the sea,
The Position:
Is the second part of the thesis statement
States what you plan to prove or explain in
your paragraph
he spent his life aboard a ship looking for a Western
passage to Asia.
Use these as “starter words” for your statement:
After
Although
As
As if
because
before
even
even if
in order that
in order to
since
so that
when
whenever
Where
Wherever
While
unless
if
as soon as
Whether
though
even though
as long as
 Assume that for this assignment, the African slave trade
was the most influential event of the age of exploration.
Say why in your statement.
 Then, list at least 3 facts as evidence.