The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade
11th and 12th Grade Literature and Informational Reading Texts
The Middle Passage was the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. The following quote is from an African captive during the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas: "The stench of the hold...was so intolerably loathsome,that it was dangerous to remain there for any time...The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate….almost suffocated us...The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable" - Oluadah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,1789.
During the 15th century, the Portuguese sought to bypass Muslim North Africans who had held a monopoly on the sub-Saharan trade in gold and spices. As the Portuguese explored and traded in West Africa, they soon realized that money could be made by transporting slaves along the Atlantic coast to Muslim merchants. More than 500 years before the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade began and Africans made their way across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, Arabs had been the first to import large numbers of African slaves to work sugar plantations at the north end of the Persian Gulf. By 1,000 C.E. cotton and sugar had become desired crops from Iran to Spain. Muslim Arabs pioneered new trade routes and discovered new trading goods such as citrus fruits, cotton, sugar, silver, and gold from east and west Africa.
Muslim Arabs expanded this trans-Saharan slave trade, buying or seizing increasing numbers of black Africans in West Africa, leading them across the Sahara, and selling them in North Africa. From there, most of these slaves were exported to far-off Asian destinations such as the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia (in present-day Turkey), Arabia, Persia (present-day Iran), and India. In addition to trading in Africa, the Portuguese began to export small numbers of slaves to Europe, to work in the cities. At the end of the 15th century, about 10% of the population of Lisbon (one of the largest cities in Europe) was African. Also, by this time Europeans had established sugar plantations on the islands off of Northwest Africa and the slave trade to those islands had become profitable. This was the start of the movement to use slave labor for plantation agriculture and foreshadowed the development of slavery in the Americas.
According to the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, Europeans began to explore Africa in search of gold. By the 1450's the Portuguese interest in Africa moved away from gold toward a much more available commodity--slaves. It was a trade in which every stage of the journey could be profitable for merchants. This began because European powers in the New World lacked a workforce. Most of the American-Indians were dead from diseases brought over by Europe. The Europeans were unsuited to work because of the climate and suffered tropical diseases. Africans however had experience with keeping cattle and agriculture, were used to a tropical climate, and were resistant to tropical diseases.
What was the Triangular Trade? Named for the rough outline of the shape made on a map, the triangular trade represented the three stages of an extensive trading process involving three continents. The first stage of the Triangular Trade involved taking manufactured goods from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, metal goods, and guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves (until they were finally used against European colonizers). These goods were exchanged for African slaves. The second stage of the Triangular Trade ( also known as The Middle Passage) involved shipping slaves to the Americas. The third, and final, stage of the Triangular Trade involved the return to Europe with the yield of crops from the slave-labor plantations: indigo, cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum.
During the 15th century, the Portuguese sought to bypass Muslim North Africans who had held a monopoly on the sub-Saharan trade in gold and spices. As the Portuguese explored and traded in West Africa, they soon realized that money could be made by transporting slaves along the Atlantic coast to Muslim merchants. More than 500 years before the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade began and Africans made their way across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, Arabs had been the first to import large numbers of African slaves to work sugar plantations at the north end of the Persian Gulf. By 1,000 C.E. cotton and sugar had become desired crops from Iran to Spain. Muslim Arabs pioneered new trade routes and discovered new trading goods such as citrus fruits, cotton, sugar, silver, and gold from east and west Africa.
Muslim Arabs expanded this trans-Saharan slave trade, buying or seizing increasing numbers of black Africans in West Africa, leading them across the Sahara, and selling them in North Africa. From there, most of these slaves were exported to far-off Asian destinations such as the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia (in present-day Turkey), Arabia, Persia (present-day Iran), and India. In addition to trading in Africa, the Portuguese began to export small numbers of slaves to Europe, to work in the cities. At the end of the 15th century, about 10% of the population of Lisbon (one of the largest cities in Europe) was African. Also, by this time Europeans had established sugar plantations on the islands off of Northwest Africa and the slave trade to those islands had become profitable. This was the start of the movement to use slave labor for plantation agriculture and foreshadowed the development of slavery in the Americas.
According to the North Carolina Civic Education Consortium, Europeans began to explore Africa in search of gold. By the 1450's the Portuguese interest in Africa moved away from gold toward a much more available commodity--slaves. It was a trade in which every stage of the journey could be profitable for merchants. This began because European powers in the New World lacked a workforce. Most of the American-Indians were dead from diseases brought over by Europe. The Europeans were unsuited to work because of the climate and suffered tropical diseases. Africans however had experience with keeping cattle and agriculture, were used to a tropical climate, and were resistant to tropical diseases.
What was the Triangular Trade? Named for the rough outline of the shape made on a map, the triangular trade represented the three stages of an extensive trading process involving three continents. The first stage of the Triangular Trade involved taking manufactured goods from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, metal goods, and guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves (until they were finally used against European colonizers). These goods were exchanged for African slaves. The second stage of the Triangular Trade ( also known as The Middle Passage) involved shipping slaves to the Americas. The third, and final, stage of the Triangular Trade involved the return to Europe with the yield of crops from the slave-labor plantations: indigo, cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum.