Intro to the Slave Trade

(aka Triangular Trade)

Warm-up 4/20

•What is slavery?

What is slavery?

• Slaves are not paid or rewarded for their work

• Slaves are not free to travel or work for themselves without permission from their owners

• Slaves obey orders or risk severe physical punishment

Why did the Slave trade begin?

• As new parts of the world were discovered, countries in Europe began to establish colonies in these areas– Spain, Portugal, France, England

Colony- A territory that is controlled by a ruling country

Why did the Slave trade begin?

• These countries relied on their colonies to bring natural resources and raw materials back to Europe

Cotton Sugar Tobacco

Why did the Slave trade begin?

• As Europeans empires expanded to the New World, they lacked one major resource- a work force.

• Indigenous (native) peoples had proved unreliable (most of them were dying from the diseases brought over from Europe).

• Europeans started capturing people from Africa and brought them to the New World to perform the hard labor

Triangular Trade

Triangular Trade• The name given to the trading route used by European merchants

1) Europeans brought manufactured goods to Africa in exchange for slaves

-Guns, metal, cloth, and tobacco

2) Slave were sent to the Americas to work in the fields and produce raw goods

-This was known as the Middle Passage

3) Raw goods were shipped to Europe where they were manufactured and traded-Cotton, sugar, tobacco

Slavery in the United States

• Slavery lasted from around 1500 to the late 1800’s in the Americas

• The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, freeing all slaves

• The affects of slavery were felt for many years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Some of these issues can still be seen today.

•Do we still see the affects of slavery today?

•How?