The Transatlantic Slave Trade

1. What was west Africa like before European arrival?

African states
first encounter west
1440s-70s: Portugal
Key question: What do 2. How did the slave trade begin and who benefitted?
3. What was life like for enslaved Africans?
sources tell us about the 4. How did enslaved people resist?
impact of the slave trade? 5. How did the slave trade come to an end?
Key words 6. What is the legacy of the slave trade?

engages in slave trade

1480s: Portugal first
Abolition Banning or getting rid of something

Auction A sale of property where the highest bidder gets the item; enslaved Africans were often sold at auctions

Colonialism The practice of taking control over another region, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it for your own benefit

Colony An area of land settled by and under the control of people from another country

Dehumanise To treat someone as less than human, such as by taking away their human qualities and treating them as property

Enlightenment New ways of thinking that emerged in the 1700s which emphasised reason and logic over tradition and superstition

Exploitation Treating people or a country unfairly to benefit from their work or resources

Maroons A group of runaway slaves who formed their own community in the mountains of Jamaica

Middle Passage The journey of slave ships from Africa to the Americas; part of the ‘Triangular Trade’

colony (Jamestown)
1619: first slaves in British
Mutiny When a ship is taken over by force by the crew or passengers

Plantation Large-scale farm that specialises in one crop and requires a lot of workers

Triangular Trade The trade system in the Atlantic Ocean; manufactured goods were shipped from Europe to Africa, enslaved Africans shipped from Africa to
the Americas, and cash crops shipped from the Americas to Europe – a merchant would usually complete a round trip

Timeline of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Transatlantic Slave Trade The forced movement of 12-15 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas where they were used as slaves

Underground Railroad A network of secret routes and safehouses that attempted to get runaway slaves to safety

Key terms for sources:

Analyse Examine in detail in order to interpret what is being said or suggested

Infer Learn from a source something that goes beyond what is says on the surface to what it suggests

become largest
Spain & Portugal to
trade overtakes
1720s: British slave
Source A piece of historical evidence – for example a document, image, building, artefact, etc

Methods of resistance
• Low level resistance: speaking own

per year
trade; 78,000
1780s: peak of
language, taking extra food, etc
• Mutiny: such as Little George (1730)
and Amistad (1839)
successful slave revolt
Revolution begins; first
1791: Haitian

• Run away: such as Underground

Railroad (USA) and Maroons (Jamaica)
• Revolt: such as Haiti (1791) and
Jamaica (1832)
British Empire
of slave trade in Jamaican slave
1807: Abolition 1831-32: largest

Reasons for involvement Reasons for abolition:

• Enlightenment in Europe: new ways
of thinking about equality and human
revolt

rights
• Abolition Committee: educated
British public and organised petitions
final slaves freed
British Empire;
abolished in
1833: slavery the USA after

• Slave revolts: costly to deal with

a civil war 1888: Brazil is last

abolished in
1865: slavery
to abolish slavery
nation in Americas

Nanny Toussaint Louverture

Leader of the Maroons Haitian Revolution