What was the transatlantic slave trade?

For about 350 years, European traders bought and shipped enslaved African people across the Atlantic Ocean.

From the 1500s to the 1800s, European countries such as Portugal, Britain, France, Spain and the Netherlands captured or bought African people and shipped them to colonies in the Americas. There they were forced to work with no pay and no freedom.

• 'Transatlantic' means 'across the Atlantic Ocean'.
• Historians estimate that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic.
• Enslaved people were treated as property that could be bought and sold.

The triangular trade

Ships sailed a three-sided route between Europe, Africa and the Americas, making a profit at every stop.

Capture in Africa

People were seized in raids and wars, then marched to the coast and sold.

Most enslaved people came from West and Central Africa. Some were captured in raids or wars, others were kidnapped. They were forced to walk long distances to the coast, often in chains, and held in prisons called 'slave forts' or 'dungeons' at places like Elmina and Goree Island.

• Families were torn apart and rarely saw each other again.
• Captives were sold to European traders in exchange for goods.
• They were branded and held in crowded forts before being loaded onto ships.

The Middle Passage

The terrible sea voyage across the Atlantic that could last many weeks.

The 'Middle Passage' was the journey across the Atlantic Ocean, the middle leg of the triangular trade. Hundreds of people were packed tightly below deck with little air, food or water. Disease spread quickly and many did not survive the voyage.

• Captives were chained together with almost no room to move.
• The crossing could take from about five weeks to three months.
• Historians estimate that around one in seven captives died during the voyage.

Sold at auction

When ships landed, the survivors were sold like goods to the highest bidder.

In ports across Brazil, the Caribbean islands and North America, enslaved Africans were inspected and sold at public auctions. Buyers paid money for people, and families who had survived the voyage together were often separated again on the auction block.

• Enslaved people were given new names and had no legal rights.
• They could be bought, sold, punished or given away by their owners.
• Most were sent to plantations that grew sugar, cotton and tobacco.

Life on the plantations

Enslaved people worked long, hard hours under harsh control.

On plantations, enslaved people worked from sunrise to sunset with no pay. Overseers used harsh punishment to force people to obey. Despite this cruelty, enslaved communities kept their humanity alive through music, storytelling, religion and by holding on to memories of home.

• Work included planting and cutting sugar cane, and picking cotton.
• Enslaved people had little food, poor housing and no freedom of movement.
• African languages, foods and traditions survived and shaped new cultures.

Resistance to slavery

Enslaved people resisted in many brave ways, large and small.

Olaudah Equiano tells his story

A formerly enslaved man wrote a famous book describing what he had lived through.

The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative, 1789

Olaudah Equiano was captured in Africa as a child and survived the Middle Passage. After buying his freedom, he wrote a book about his life. His story helped many people in Britain understand the cruelty of the slave trade and support ending it.

• His book was one of the first accounts written by a formerly enslaved African.
• He travelled and spoke out against the slave trade.
• Voices like his helped grow the movement to abolish slavery.

Ending the slave trade

After years of campaigning, laws were passed to abolish (end) the trade and then slavery itself.

'Abolition' means putting an end to something. Campaigners called abolitionists, together with formerly enslaved people, argued that slavery was wrong and must stop. In Britain, William Wilberforce led the fight in Parliament.

• 1807: Britain passed a law to abolish the slave trade (buying and shipping people).
• 1833-1834: slavery itself was abolished across the British Empire, including the Cape.
• Slavery ended later in other countries - the USA in 1865 and Brazil in 1888.

Key dates of the transatlantic slave trade

1. 1500s Transatlantic slave trade begins to grow
2. 1789 Olaudah Equiano publishes his life story
3. 1807 Britain abolishes the slave trade
4. 1831 Nat Turner leads a revolt in Virginia
5. 1834 Slavery abolished in the British Empire and at the Cape
6. 1888 Brazil abolishes slavery - the last country in the Americas

The legacy of the slave trade

The effects of the slave trade are still felt around the world today.

The slave trade scattered millions of African people across the Americas and beyond, creating what we call the African diaspora. It brought terrible suffering, but African people also shaped the language, music, food and culture of many countries. Its history of racism and inequality is still being addressed today.

• At the Cape, enslaved people from Africa and Asia helped shape South African society and the Cape Malay community.
• African music and traditions influenced jazz, blues and other world music.
• Studying this history helps us stand against slavery and racism today.

What we learned

The transatlantic slave trade forced millions of Africans into slavery, but people resisted and it was finally abolished.

We followed the story from capture in Africa, across the Middle Passage, into slavery in the Americas, and through the long struggle for abolition. Now show what you have learned.