History Of The Triangle Trade System

The triangle trade system was a three-legged international trade network. It linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas. It also included a slave trade known as the middle passage. Starting with the manufactured goods in Europe to Africa, a cruel journey of slaves in Africa to the Americas, to raw materials from the Americas to Europe.

The first leg of the triangle trade was European goods being shipped to Africa. These goods were things like guns, cloth, and cash. These were then traded for slaves.

The second leg was known as the middle passage. The slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas. There Africans were exchanged for sugar, molasses, and other manufactured products. The slaves traded in this second leg were shipped in “Floating Coffins”. Hundreds of men, women, and children were crammed into a single ship for journeys that could have lasted for three months. Slave ships usually arrived in America with half of the slave dead from disease or brutal mistreatment.
For example, they would ship sugar, tobacco, cotton, furs, salt fish, and rum from America to Europe. They were traded at a profit for European commodities (anything bought and sold) that merchants needed to return to