How Much Do You Know About the Triangle Trade?
During which time periods did the triangle trade primarily take place?
- Though slave trading has happened throughout history, the most significant and extensive occurrence was the triangle trade from the early 1500s until the mid-1800s.
Approximately how many slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas during the triangle trade?
- About 12.5 million enslaved people were shipped from Africa to the Americas, but only approximately 10.7 million actually survived the grueling passage and ship conditions.
What were some of the products that were shipped from European ports in exchange for enslaved people?
- Manufactured items were traded between Europe and Africa, instigating the shipment of enslaved people to the Americas, and then receiving raw materials from the New World.
When did the United States finally abolish slavery, officially freeing enslaved people?
- The Thirteenth Amendment was signed at the end of 1865 to officially end slavery and freed over 100,000 slaves.
The triangular trade pattern was not created in recent history. What were the three primary locations where the first hypothesized triangle trade of slaves and goods took place in the ancient world?
- Ancient world trade routes were common, and historians have pinpointed a particularly strong one with goods and slaves existing in the Iron Age, due to the spread of specific artifacts between countries.
What were the three components that fueled the triangle trade?
- The trifecta of trade included money and goods from Europe, African slave labor, and raw resources from the Americas.
What was the initial average cost of a slave in 1700, paid in trade goods by British slavers before heading to the Americas?
- During the first leg of the triangle trade, British slavers would trade items like guns, textiles, metals, liquor, or gunpowder for a slave, generally in the sum of around $3. In the Americas, they were sold for a profit without thought of well-being.
The slave trade always took place under terrible and unsafe conditions, but a few journies across the Atlantic stick out in terms of inhumanity. What was the name of the ship whose crew was tried in 1783 due to the death and cruelty that occurred?
- Over 130 captured slaves perished due to the conditions on the Zong, including a lack of fresh water and rampant sickness. The ship's crew was tried and this horrible instance marked progress towards abolitionism.
What was the last country in the world to abolish slavery?
- Mauritania was the last country to join the rest of the globe in abolishing slavery, doing so in 1981, and the country only recently made slavery a crime in 2007.
The New World was a key place for slavers to sell enslaved human beings. But what part of the Americas was the largest hub for transatlantic slavery?
- Both the Caribbean and Brazil were incredibly profitable locations for slavers to sell their human cargo, with around 45% of enslaved people brought to either place before purchase and dispersal.
