What was the Atlantic slave trade?

The Atlantic slave trade was the forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, where they were sold and enslaved to work on plantations and in mines.

What was the “triangular trade”?

It was a trade system with three stages: Europe to Africa: Goods such as guns, textiles, and alcohol were traded for enslaved Africans. Africa to the Americas (Middle Passage): Africans were transported under horrific conditions. Americas to Europe: Raw materials like sugar, cotton, and tobacco were shipped back for profit.

What was the Middle Passage?

The journey across the Atlantic where enslaved Africans were crammed into ships in terrible conditions. Many died from disease, malnutrition, and mistreatment.

The trade in enslaved African people

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Part 3: The trade in enslaved African people, 1770–1807

A study of the nature of the British trade in enslaved Africans in the later 18th century, changing attitudes towards it in Britain and the pressures that led to its abolition, illustrating the themes of ‘race’, empire, exploitation and rights.

Key issues and description of content

The Triangular Trade

The organisation and nature of the slave trade: its effects on British ports, eg Liverpool, Bristol; its effects on African societies, eg Ashanti, and on West Indian plantations. Slave ‘factories’ on the African coast; the economics and conditions of the ‘Middle Passage’.

Britain and the Caribbean

The importance of tropical crops such as sugar. The influence of the British in the Caribbean and the impact of the Caribbean trade on the British economy (e.g. banking, shipbuilding, textiles). The negative impact of the slave trade on the development of the Caribbean islands.

The captive’s experience and slave resistance

Living and working conditions on the plantations. Discipline. Other forms of slave labour on the Caribbean islands. Resistance on the plantations. Fear of revolt.

The abolitionist campaigns

Origins of the abolitionist movement and its increased support outside and within Parliament. Role of Wilberforce. Arguments of the abolitionists (Christian, humanitarian, economic).
Methods of the abolitionists: meetings, evidence (e.g. Clarkson; first-hand accounts by enslavers, publicity). Attitudes and evidence of slaves and former slaves (e.g. Equiano). Resistance to the trade by slaves.
Arguments for the slave trade: planters, MPs, cities. Effect of the French Revolution.
The debate over reasons for the eventual success of the abolition campaign: public opinion, Parliamentary debate, economic circumstances.