The transatlantic slave trade
The transatlantic slave trade: the triangular trade, the Middle Passage, plantations, resistance and abolition. Read one part at a time and tap “I know this”. Then test yourself in the quiz.
Know it already? Jump straight to the quiz
The trade
Consequences and sources
- West African communities were disrupted (a demographic loss); plantations in the Americas grew enormously; African communities across the Americas are a visible consequence.
- Enslaved people and abolitionists fought the trade; an uprising of enslaved people is a slave revolt.
- Olaudah Equiano, a freed man, wrote about being enslaved: such a survivor’s account tells the enslaved people’s own side. A slave register feels cold, because people are counted as cargo.
Resistance and the road to freedom
Between the 1500s and the 1800s about 12 million Africans were taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Enslaved people kept their culture alive in songs and stories, and many resisted in different ways.
| Who or what | What happened |
|---|---|
| Nat Turner (1831) | Led an uprising against slavery in Virginia |
| Joseph Cinqué and the Amistad (1839) | Captives took control of a slave ship; a court later set them free |
| The Underground Railroad | A secret network of routes and safe houses along which slaves escaped to freedom |
| Harriet Tubman | Escaped herself and then helped many others to freedom |
| John Brown | A white American who fought to abolish slavery; his raid in 1859 failed, but it fired up the debate about slavery |
The slave trade made America and Britain rich, but weakened West Africa: millions of young people were taken away.
Remember this and test yourself
- The transatlantic slave trade was the forced shipping of about 12 million Africans across the Atlantic.
- The triangular trade linked Europe, Africa and the Americas; the voyage from Africa to the Americas is the Middle Passage.
- Most were forced to work without pay on plantations: sugar in the Caribbean and Brazil, and tobacco, rice, cotton and sugar cane in the American South. Chattel slavery: people owned as property for life.
- Abolition: ending slavery by law; in the British colonies (including the Cape) in 1834.
- It was a crime against humanity: millions were robbed of freedom.
Write these points in your book. Read them again the night before the test.
The triangle’s three corners: goods out, people across, sugar back.
Important words
First say what the word means, then turn the card over.
Match column A to column B
Tap a word in column A, then its meaning in column B. You can also start in column B.
True or false?
Read the question and the answer. Is the answer right? Tap True or False.
Now the real quiz!
The quiz has many more questions on this topic. Every question shows straight away whether you are right and explains why.
Take the quiz: The transatlantic slave trade- Read one part together and ask your child to tell it back in their own words.
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Follows CAPS for Grade 7 Social Sciences (History). Always check your teacher’s notes and textbook too.