8.1.2

The Triangular Slave Trade

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Triangular Trade

Britain’s colonies were at the centre of the slave trade. This made Britain very wealthy.

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Africa

  • In Africa (mostly West Africa but occasionally Central Africa), slaves were people who were captured, sold to a person in return for goods such as guns, and forced to work perpetually for that person as part of their personal property.
    • In the 18th century, a slave was worth £3 in goods.
  • Slaves were chained together and taken to the coast. They then lived in a prison, called a ‘factory’.
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The Middle Passage

  • The Middle Passage was the journey across the Atlantic. It connected Africa to the Americas.
  • Slaves were sold in North America and the West Indies.
    • In the 18th century, a slave was sold for £20 (£17 more than what they were bought for in Africa).
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Sugar

  • Increasing demand for sugar in Britain meant increasing amounts of sugar needed to be produced in the Caribbean.
  • The slaves worked on sugar plantations. This was hard and time-consuming work.
  • In return for the slaves, sugar and rum would return to Britain from the colonies to be sold at a profit.

Jump to other topics

1The Medieval World: 450-1450 AD

1.1Anglo-Saxon England

1.2The Contest for the English Throne

1.3Conquering the Holy Land, 10-96-1396 AD

1.4King John

1.5The Magna Carta & Parliament

1.6The Black Death

2Worldviews

3The Empire of Mali

4The Renaissance & Reformations, 1500-1598 AD

5The British Empire, 1583-1960 AD

6The Peasants' Revolt

7Religion in the Middle Ages

8Slavery, 1619-1833 AD

9The English Civil War, 1642-1660

10The Industrial Revolution, 1750-1840

11US Independence, 1775-1783

12The French Revolution, 1789-1815

13The British Empire, 1857–1930

14Suffrage

15World War 1, 1914-1918

16The Inter-War Years, 1919-1939

17World War 2, 1939-1945

18The Cold War, 1947-1962

19Civil Rights in the USA, 1954-1975

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