The Triangular Trade

Today, I'd like to discuss briefly the topic of the Triangular Trade. This is better known as the trade in which slaves were exported throughout the world from Africa. There is much more to it than just slave trading.

The Triangular Trade started in Britain. They loaded ships with trade goods like "cloth, guns, ironware and drink that had been made in Britain." With these goods, the ships went to West African Coastal villages and traded the goods for slaves. From West Africa, the slaves were shipped to South America, then the Carribean, and finally North America. From there, they went back to Britain. This is the abridged version of the Triangular Trade. There is much more information to be learned, especially how slaves were captured and what foods, spices and animals were transported. I may write more about this in the future.

Many Americans think slaves were only sent to America to work on cash crops in the south. This is far from true, slaves were sent to South America, Carribean islands and North America.

We all like numbers... they tell us a lot, don't they? Well, here's some for you! These numbers have been rounded off and remain very close to true numbers.

USA: 500,000 slaves.
Europe: 300,000 slaves
Central America: 200,000 slaves.
Carribean islands: 4.5 million slaves.
Brazil: 5 million slaves.

These numbers are staggering and you can see the consequences of the Triangular Trade by looking at the racial make up of each country currently.