THE MIDDLE PASSAGE/ TRIANGULAR TRADE
Aim: How did the Triangular Trade shape history for the next century?
Standards:
NYS standards: 5
NCSS Standards:
 7.1—enable learners to explain how the scarcity of productive resources (human,
capital, technological, and natural) requires the development of economic systems
to make decisions about how goods and services are to be produced and
distributed
 9.3— help learners to explain conditions and motivations that contribute to
conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among groups, societies, and nations
Goals/ Objectives:
 Students will read an article as well as view visual graphics relating to the
Middle Passage. They will be able to make observations and conclusions
about the Triangular Trade using these materials.
Main ideas/ understandings:
 The Triangular Trade is the reason for the existence of slavery in the
Americas and the Caribbean.
 The nations that composed the Triangular Trade are the Americas, United
Kingdom, and Africa.
 African people were captured by their own kings and sold to the English as
slaves. In exchange for their people, kings would receive guns, rum, etc.
 The English would strip the captured African people and stuff them all onto
giant cargo ships. The slaves would be bound by shackles and would not be
allowed to move, etc.
 This resulted in the death of many slaves during the journey across the
Atlantic Passage.
 Upon reaching the Americas, the slaves would be sold to farmers, plantation
owners, etc.
 The entire process would repeat itself over and over again.
Materials:
 YouTube video clip entitled, “Key Stage 3 History - Slavery: Triangular Trade
Route” (3 minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alfs2-hsoNU
 Pictures/ Drawings/ Photographs
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade/collection/large/E010.JPG
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade/collection/large/E012.JPG
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade/collection/large/E017.JPG
http://hitchcock.itc.virginia.edu/SlaveTrade/collection/large/F001.JPG
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/slaveshipdiagramth_tcm4401534.jpg
http://www.executedtoday.com/images/Slaves_thrown_overboard_from_Z
ong.jpg

Map

http://www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba94/slavemap.png
http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his311/maps/slave-tr.gif
Worksheet/ Chart on Triangular Trade
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Lessons/worksheets/black_peoples/Trian
gular_Trade.doc
Do Now:
 Have you ever been in a crowded subway? How did it make you feel?
Motivation:
 Show the class a 3 minute video clip entitled, “Key Stage 3 History- Slavery:
Triangular Trade Route”
Activities/ questions/ transitions:
 Handout labeled, “Slavery” by Sharon Fabion.
 Read the handout aloud as a class. Have students highlight, underline, or take
notes as they wish.
 During or after the reading, go through pictures on the slideshow presentation.
 Ask the students about their overall impression of the Middle Passage.
 To students: Take time in your groups to answer the questions on the back of
the handout. Remember to use the information that we have highlighted in the
handout to answer the questions. You may help each other answer the
questions.
 After students have completed the questions on the back of the worksheet, go
over the worksheet together as a class.
Summary:
 Complete the worksheet entitled The Triangular Trade as a class while using
the interactive map.
http://www.eckstein.seattleschools.org/elmiller/ss/triangular_trade/
Homework assignment:
Create a cartoon depicting an event from the Triangular Trade. The event can be on a
slave ship, slaves being captured in Africa, slave auctions in America, English sailors
going to get slaves, and so on. Anything that was discussed in class today can be used in
your cartoon depiction.
Name: _______________
Class: _____________
England wants:
The Triangular
Trade
The Americas
want:
Slavery
Africa
By Sharon Fabian
1
Many of the settlers who arrived in America during colonial times were from the
continent of Africa. Unlike settlers from Europe, these settlers did not come to America
voluntarily. They arrived in the New World during the 1600's and 1700's by way of slave
ships, as part of a business triangle.
2
The slave trade was a money-making business proposition [scheme] in three steps. In the
first step, ships loaded with cargoes of European goods sailed for the West Coast of Africa.
There the cargo of goods such as European fabrics, guns, and iron were traded for African
people. In the second step of the process, the Africans were forced to board a slave ship.
They were transported to America where they were sold into slavery. For the final step, ships
loaded with America products such as tobacco and sugar returned to ports in Europe.
3
Africa's West Coast became home to entrepreneurs who made it their occupation to
provide African people for the slave ships that kept arriving. These slave traders did not
capture slaves themselves. Instead, they made business arrangements with native Africans to
handle that part of the job. Slaves were captured in various ways. Sometimes they were
kidnapped. Sometimes they were captured in fighting between neighboring states. They were
brought to the slave traders on the coast and held captive there until the arrival of the next
ship. While they were being held captive, the slaves had no idea of where they would be
going or what would happen next. No one had ever returned from slavery to tell the story.
4
Passage across the Atlantic usually took six weeks or more, but the slaves aboard the
ship had no way of knowing how long it would last. Descriptions of the Middle Passage, or
the crossing of the Atlantic from Africa to America, show that it was a life not fit for human
beings. Hundreds of people were packed side by side below deck on the ship. The space was
often so small that a person could not even stand. The slaves were chained and shackled to
each other at the ankles. There was no fresh air to breathe, and there was no privacy. Since
the slaves were considered property, to be sold on arrival in America, the ships' captains did
make sure that they were fed. Still, many slaves died during the long Atlantic crossing.
5
Feeling helpless and angry, some slaves tried to revolt against their captors when they
had the chance. The ship's sailors kept the slaves under control by violence and intimidation.
6
When the ship arrived in an American port such as Jamestown, the slaves were sold. A
ship's captain who arrived with a large "cargo" of healthy slaves made a lot of money.
7
The slaves went to work for their new "owner." Many of them went to work on
plantations in the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland and Virginia.
8
More and more slaves arrived. More and more landowners bought slaves to work on
their land. Laws were passed that guaranteed the African slaves would stay slaves for life.
Questions:
1) Describe the three steps of the slave trade. Make sure to include where the ship left
from, where the ship landed, and what goods the ship was carrying.
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2) How did the Europeans obtain slaves? What were the various methods used to
capture African people?
3) Describe the conditions on the slave ships.
4) How long did the journey take?
5) What did the Europeans consider slaves to be? Why did the ships’ captains make
sure that the slaves were fed?
6) How were the slaves treated by the crew of the ship? Why do you think that they
were treated this way?
7) What happened to the slaves once a ship docked in an American port? Where did the
slaves go and what did they do?