Diagram illustrating the stowage of African slaves on a British slave ship.
Depiction of the Triangular Trade of slaves, sugar, and rum with New England instead of Europe as the third corner.
The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured …show more content…
It got it's namefrom the three routes that formed a triangle. The first route carried fish, lumber, and other goods from New England to the West Indies. In the West Indies they picked up sugar and molasses which is a dark brown syrup product made from sugar cane. This was used to makes rum. From the West Indies merchants carried the rum, along with guns, gunpowder, and tools to West Africa. Here, they traded these items for slaves, they carried the slaves to the West Indies where they were sold. Traders would take the profits and buy more molasses.
The slaves were treated so harshly that some of them didn't make it to the West Indies. Traders were so greedy that they wanted to bring as many slaves as possible. The slaves were chained and crammed together below the deck. There was hardly any sitting room or standing room. The slaves even have fresh air. The air was so stifling that some suffocated to death. Others tried to starve themselves to death or jump over board. Most died from diseases.
When the slaves reached the Americas they were auctioned off. Many families were broken up and never seen again. I hope you have a better understanding of the Triangular …show more content…
The shipment would go to Africa, where the goods would be traded for people who were enslaved.
A ship leaving Africa for America would contain hundreds of enslaved people, tightly packed in horrific conditions for the journey to their new "home."
Once in America, the ship would unload the slaves and take on any or all of molasses, rum, sugar, or tobacco and then head to Great Britain, completing the Triangle. (It should be said here that not all ships made this giant triangular trip. Many ships did no more than sail back and forth from America to Africa and vice versa or from England to Afria and vice versa. The description of the Triangluar Trade deals more with the goods as a whole.)
Some of the ships coming to America sailed straight to ports along the Eastern Seaboard, although some stopped in the Caribbean or Brazil, where large slave plantations were.
The number of Africans shipped as slaves to America has been conservatively estimated at 10 million. That number doesn't include the thousands who died along the way. Some estimates have concluded that 15 to 25 of every 100 Africans died on those voyages. The practice of slavery had a history of hundreds of years. It was made illegal in America in 1807, although it continued in small part for many years after