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This map shows triangular trade routes that started in the 1500s. What trade goods were slaves exchanged for in North America?

The Atlantic Slave Trade

In the 1750s, a young 11-year-old boy named Olaudah Equiano was seized from his Nigerian village by slave traders. He was then transported as human cargo from West Africa to the Americas. In later years, he wrote about the experience in his autobiography:

The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship which was then riding at anchor and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board.

—Olaudah Equiano

Enslaved Africans like Olaudah Equiano formed part of an international trade network that arose during the 1500s. The Spanish were the first major European partners in the slave trade, buying slaves to labor in Spain's South American empire.

As other European powers established colonies in the Americas, the slave trade—and with it the entire international trade network—intensified.

Triangular Trade

The Atlantic slave trade formed one part of a three-legged international trade network known as triangular trade. This was a triangle-shaped series of Atlantic trade routes linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Triangular trade worked in the following way. On the first leg, merchant ships brought European goods—including guns, cloth, and cash—to Africa. In Africa, the merchants traded these goods for slaves. On the second leg, known as the Middle Passage, the slaves were transported to the Americas. There, the enslaved Africans were exchanged for sugar, molasses, and other products manufactured at plantations owned by Europeans.

On the final leg, merchants carried sugar, molasses, cotton, and other American goods such as furs, salt fish, and rum made from molasses. These goods were shipped to Europe, where they were traded at a profit for the European commodities that merchants needed to return to Africa.

Merchants, Industries, and Cities Thrive

Triangular trade was immensely profitable for many people. Merchants grew wealthy. Even though there were risks such as losing ships at sea, the money to be made from valuable cargoes usually outweighed the risks. Certain industries that supported trade thrived. For example, a shipbuilding industry in New England grew to support the shipping industry. Other colonial industries, such as fishing, raising tobacco, and processing sugar, became hugely successful.

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