Themes

• West African History
• Triangular Trade
  • Background information
• Middle Passage
• Slavery
• Resistance & Rebellion
• Abolition
• Emancipation
• Legacy
• Diaspora

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View Scene on the Coast of Africa

The workings of the trade

The transatlantic slave trade is often described as the triangular trade, which summarizes the movement of goods first from Britain to West Africa, then across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, and finally back to Britain. Copper, cloth, glassware, ammunition, guns and manilas went from Britain to West Africa; people were then transported as slaves from Africa to the Americas; and raw sugar, rum, rice, coffee, tobacco and cotton from the plantations were then shipped from the Americas back to Britain.

The background information provides an overview of the triangular trade, from its beginnings when the Portuguese first traded for gold and people in Africa, to the involvement of the British. The ways in which captives were taken is explored, as well as the way sugar sustained the British economy.

Read more background information

Triangular Trade (1 of 3)
    Kidnap - why did the British enslave West African people?

Triangular Trade (2 of 3)
    Capture