Triangular Trade Colonial merchant ships followed trade routes
between the colonies, Europe, Africa, and the West Indies that
formed triangles.
Slide 4
Triangular Trade
Slide 5
The Middle Passage One leg of the trade route involved shipping
African slaves to the New World. Most of the slaves were shipped
and sold in the West Indies, the islands of the Caribbean. They
were forced to work on large plantations. Some were sold in the
British colonies that would later become the United States.
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The Slave Trade
Slide 7
Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano was born into a wealthy West
African family in 1745. Olaudah Equiano's father was a village
chief. He had seven children and many slaves, so Equiano grew up in
a slave society. But it was a different kind of slavery.
Slide 8
Olaudah Equiano With us the slaves do no more work than other
members of the community, than even their master; their food,
clothing and lodging were nearly the same as ours, except that they
were not permitted to eat with those who were free-born
Slide 9
Olaudah is kidnapped When Olaudah was eleven years old, he was
kidnapped by African slave traders. He was sold several times in
Africa before being sold to European slave traders. Olaudah was
taken as a slave to the New World.
Slide 10
Slave Auctions
Slide 11
"I was soon surrounded by strange men who examined and handled
me in the same way that a butcher would a calf or a lamb he was
about to purchase, and who talked about my shape and size in like
wordsI was then put up to sale the people who stood by said that I
had fetched a great sum for one so young a slave. I then saw my
sisters led forth and sold to different ownersWhen the sale was
over, my mother hugged and kissed us and mourned over us, begging
us to keep a good heartIt was a sad parting, one went one way, one
another, and our poor mammy went home with nothing." Taken from The
History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave
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A Happy Ending for Olaudah Olaudah was a slave for many years
but managed to save up enough money to buy his freedom. He moved to
London, England where he fought against slavery. Olaudah died in
1797 at the age of 52. England banned the slave trade 10 years
later.
Slide 13
Slavery in the U.S. Although many people in the United States
were opposed to slavery, it was not eliminated until the end of the
Civil War, in 1865.