The Atlantic Slave Trade

Triangular Trade Across the Atlantic

First leg: Merchants

brought European goods
like guns, cloth, and cash
to Africa—traded goods

for Africans(slaves)

Second leg: The Middle
Passage—Africans were

transported to the

Americas and exchanged
for sugar, molasses, and

other products

Last leg: Products and
other American goods
were shipped to Europe,

traded for profit, and
returned to Africa by

merchants

Atlantic slave
Trade

Horrors of the
Middle Passage

• Most Africans taken from

their villages

• Men, women, and children

were bound with ropes and
chains and forced to walk to
the coast

• Restrained in holding pens

until European traders
arrived by ship

Horrors of
the Middle
Passage

• Hundreds of men,

women, and children
were crammed on ship

• Voyages lasted from three

weeks to three months

• The ships faced storms at

sea, raids by pirates, and
mutinies

• Slave ships were named

“floating coffins”

• Half the Africans died

from diseases, brutal
mistreatment, and even
suicide– more common
than mutiny

• Believed that in death

they would be returned to
their home countries

Impact of the Atlantic
Slave Trade

• Brought enormous wealth to

merchants, but devastated
the lives of Africans

• Historians estimate 11 million

enslaved Africans reached
the Americas

• About 2 million probably

died under brutal conditions
of the Middle Passage

Amistad(1997)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw
gTpMBvyxU

Answer the
questions

How did the expansion of European presence
in Africa impact the African slave trade?

How does the Atlantic Slave Trade impact the
world?

Who benefited from slave trade? How?