Transatlantic Slave Trade

• The Triangular Trade transported manufactured goods (pottery, cloth, guns) to Africa and was traded for enslaved people.
• Enslaved Africans were then taken across the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships.
• These enslaved Africans were sent to the Americas, where 2/3 were sent to work on plantations (large farms) growing sugar, tobacco, and cotton. These goods were then sold in Europe.
• The Middle Passage = the journey along the Atlantic from Africa to the Americas.
• The conditions were terrible, enslaved people were tightly packed into the ships, with little food and often experienced extreme violence.
• Objects left behind show that enslaved people did try to resist by fighting back, refusing to eat, or trying to jump overboard.
• Enslaved people of all ages worked long hours, sometimes up to 18 hours a day, often doing physical work on plantations.
• Some enslaved people were given positions of power over other enslaved people to help run the plantations as there were far fewer white people in comparison to enslaved people. Violence was common and extreme.
• The abolition of the Enslavement Trade was in 1807 and the abolition of enslavement was in 1833.
• This was achieved through a range of different tactics, such as petitions, meetings, and leaflets.
• Formerly enslaved people, like Olaudah Equiano, published their life experiences in books that became bestsellers.
• Thomas Clarkson went onto different slave ships and brought physical evidence of the horrific treatment of enslaved people to try and convince people in England of the reality of what was happening.
• Legacy: Something that is left behind.
• People who made their fortunes from the enslavement often invested their money into life in England.
• Banks and insurance companies made money by charging interest on loans given to people involved in the trade.
• Jobs were created in factories and ship building, and Charles II and James II invested their money in the Royal Africa Company, meaning they got a percentage of the company’s yearly profit.
• Some universities were funded with money from the slave trade.
• People who made huge amounts of money from enslavement often used it to change the physical world around them.
• Streets and areas are named prominent slave owners, such as Tulse Hill in south-east London.
• People also funded schools, Collegiate School in Bristol was funded by Edward Colston, and were celebrated with statues.
• The development of the city of Glasgow was funded by money made by people involved in the tobacco industry.
• The Slave Compensation Commission was created in 1833 to give money back to people who lost their enslaved people due to abolition.
• A total fund of £20 million was reserved to pay these people back.
• Many people in Islington and Camden applied for this money and used it to invest in railways, or institutions like the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, and University College London. Although slavery was over, Britain continued to benefit. 
• As Europeans gave weapons to African kingdoms that supported them in kidnapping enslaved people, conflict in Africa increased and has led to longer term political instability.
• Racism developed as a result of the enslavement trade as it was largely based off people’s skin colour. Racism continues to be a problem in the 21st century.