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6 Common Misconceptions About the Enslavement of African People

Posted byBy Tracy | Published on: | Updated on July 21, 2017 CommentsComments (244)

slave triangular trade route

Where the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Began

The men, women and children needed to fuel the trans-Atlantic slave trade were initially snatched from their lives in Senegambia (Senegal and The Gambia) and the Windward Coast. Around 1650, slave traders moved their operations to West-Central Africa (the Kingdom of the Kongo and neighboring Angola).

According to author Alistair Boddy-Evans, the triangular slave trade – named for the rough shape it makes on a map – occurred in three stages.

“The first stage of the triangular trade involved taking manufactured goods from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, cowrie shells, metal goods, and guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and, ultimately, obtain more captured Africans (until they were finally used against European colonizers). These goods were exchanged for captured Africans.

The second stage of the triangular trade (the middle passage) involved shipping the captives to the Americas for enslavement.

The third, and final stage of the triangular trade involved the return to Europe of the produce of the slave-labor plantations: cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum.”

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