Triangular Trade

The Atlantic triangular trade is a shorthand for the connected trade among Europe, Africa and the Americas, in which manufactured goods went to Africa, enslaved people were forced across the Atlantic, and goods produced by their labour returned to Europe. Historians treat it as a useful simplification, not an exact map of every voyage, because many routes, such as direct sailings between Brazil and Africa, did not follow a triangle. Behind every arrow on the diagram were human beings.

It is called a triangle because the three main stretches of the system, Europe to Africa, Africa to the Americas and the Americas back to Europe, form a triangle when drawn on a map. The name is a historian's teaching aid, not a term people used at the time. Many real voyages followed other patterns, and trade within Africa and within the Americas mattered as well, so a good lesson asks what the triangle leaves out.

The Middle Passage was the forced sea crossing that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas, the middle leg of the triangle. It lasted from several weeks to a few months and was a period of great fear, danger and loss for those aboard. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, as described by the National Endowment for the Humanities, records about 12.5 million people put aboard ships and about 10.7 million survivors between 1526 and 1866; these are estimates.

Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, France, Denmark and Sweden all took part at different times, along with merchants in the Americas. The SlaveVoyages estimates table, by flag of the carrier, lists about 5.8 million people to Portuguese and Brazilian ships, about 3.3 million to British, about 1.4 million to French, about 1.1 million to Spanish, 0.55 million to Dutch, 0.31 million to United States and 0.11 million to Danish and Baltic vessels, out of about 12.5 million.

Some African rulers and merchants took part in capturing and selling people, while many other Africans were victims of it. African coastal societies were active political and commercial actors that set terms and controlled access, but the demand, capital and legal frameworks of the Atlantic system were driven largely by European and colonial economies. Effects on African societies varied widely by region and period, and historians continue to study them.

European traders offered textiles, metalwork, firearms and gunpowder, alcohol, tobacco, beads and cowrie shells, among other goods. Textiles, including cloth brought from India, were among the most important. African buyers were selective and wanted particular colours, weights and qualities, so merchants sometimes adjusted their cargoes. The goods had real value in African markets, but weapons and trade goods could also encourage raiding and warfare.

Major crops included sugar, tobacco, rice, indigo, coffee, cocoa and cotton, depending on region and period. Sugar is most closely associated with the rise of plantation slavery in Brazil and the Caribbean, tobacco with the Chesapeake region, rice with the Carolinas and Georgia, and cotton with the southern United States in the nineteenth century. Enslaved people also worked in mines, ports, households and many skilled trades.

They resisted in many ways, from slowing work and preserving language, music and faith to escaping, founding free communities and staging revolts. Examples include the Stono rebellion in South Carolina in 1739, Tacky's War in Jamaica in 1760 and the Haitian Revolution from 1791. Some used petitions and lawsuits, saved money to purchase freedom, or later published their own testimony. Most acts of resistance were met with severe punishment.