The Development of the Slave Trade Triangle

Development of the Trade Triangle: 17th-19th century.

Introduction

The topic I have chosen to investigate is the development of the trade triangle but I decided to focus on one specific kind of trade: slavery. The trade triangle is the three stages of the journey that were made by slave trading ships: from Europe to Africa, from Africa to America and from America back to Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. This formed a triangular trade pattern and this is why it is called “the slave triangle” I picked this topic as I find it very interesting and I wish to find out in more detail what happened with slavery involving the African Continent and the two main trading continents: America, Europe.

Change and continuity

The slave trade was divided into three different parts. The first part of the trade triangle took part bat the beginning of the 17th century. It included slave trade from Europe to Africa. At first Europe and the nations of Africa would trade goods but they later on discovered that many African rulers would also sell or trade their slaves for goods. In Africa, the European slave traders would find slaves to bring back to Europe and exchange them with goods such as: gold, other metals, feathers, and ivory tusk.

The second part of the triangular slave trade was the voyage from Africa to America. This was called the “Middle passage”. In this part of the triangle, the enslaved Africans were forced to across the Atlantic Ocean to America. The slaves who were lucky to have survived the journey would have then been sold as slaves in America to work on plantations.

The third and final part of the slave triangle was the return of the slaves from America to Europe. The ships would return back to Europe loaded with goods produced by the slaves on the plantations. This whole journey could take up to a year or more.

Slavery or “involuntary human servitude” (Dictionary) was first carried out by Africans themselves within other Africans. These slaves...