The Age of European Expansionism

A Lesson in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the Horrors of

the Middle Passage

The transatlantic slave trade was the trade of African people supplied to the colonies of the “New World" that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Africa

Europe

The America

s

Atlantic

Ocean

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Began in the 1500s

What purpose did the trans-Atlantic slave trade serve?

The Atlantic Slave Trade

Purpose:• To fill the need for labor in Spain’s American

empire • Eventually provided labor for British and

French colonies in the Americas

Triangular Trade

What is triangular trade?

Triangular Trade Hint: It is not the trading of

triangles… Hey! Sweet triangle dude!

Want to trade it for a chicken leg?

Triangular Trade

Triangular trade is trade between three ports or regions.

Most famous: West Africa, the Americas, and Europe

The Middle Passage The Middle Passage was the sea lane

west from Africa that carried abducted or recently purchased African slaves.

The Middle Passage

1 - 6 month journey (weather dependent)

Estimated 11+ million Africans

A 1 - 6 month cruise sounds good, right?

Middle Passage Problems:

• Overcrowding• Disease• Brutal, inhuman treatment

Many died due to poor conditions• Dysentery• Scurvy• Starvation• Smallpox

Journal Exercise Use the next 2 minutes to write a 2-3

sentence response to the following prompt:

Would it be better to live and be a slave, or commit suicide to avoid slavery? Explain

Primary Source Reading Excerpt from

Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography

Activity: African Slave Quilt Think about what you’ve read and

heard today. For homework (due tomorrow), write

a letter from a captured slave’s perspective.

See your rubric for criteria. Use your imagination - be creative

and have fun!!