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The Transatlantic Slave Trade

In this lesson, students will be able to define the following terms:

The Transatlantic Slave TradeReasons for the Transatlantic Slave Trade

The Middle PassageThe Treatment of Slaves in the Americas

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Many Native American Indians diedfrom smallpox disease.

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Disease and Death

• Many Native American Indians died from the smallpox disease introduced by the European conquerors.

• Many Native American Indians also died from the harsh working conditions imposed by the Europeans.

• Theses deaths created a need for a work force.

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Europeans decided to use African slaves to replace a dying Indian population.

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The Transatlantic Slave Trade• Slavery had always existed but the

Transatlantic Slave Trade expanded slavery on a massive scale.

• Europeans removed millions of Africans between the 1500s to the 1800s.

• Africans were stripped of their language and culture and forced to labor on plantations in the Americas.

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Enslaved Africans were usually capturedby warring African tribes and traded

to European and American slave traders.

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Captured Slaves

• Enslaved Africans were usually captured by warring African tribes and traded to European and American slave traders.

• Slaves were traded in exchange for guns and other goods.

• Captured Africans were brought across the Atlantic ocean to the Americas.

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The “Middle Passage” was the voyageacross the Atlantic to the Americas.

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The Middle Passage

• The “Middle Passage” was the journey from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

• It was a long and brutal journey.

• Many slaves died during the “Middle Passage”.

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CapturedAfricans

were crammed

intosmall

quartersduring the

Middle Passage.

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The Costs of Slavery

• African slaves were robbed of their language, labor, and culture.

• They were forced to labor under brutal conditions in the Americas.

• While the use of African slaves enriched Europeans and American settlers, it greatly harmed Africans and Africa.

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African slaves encounteredbrutality and cruelty on plantations

in the Americas.

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African slaves were brought tosugar plantations in the Caribbean

and large farms in Brazil.

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Questions for Reflection:

• Why did many Native American Indians die?

• How did the deaths of Native American Indians affect Africans?

• What was the Transatlantic Slave Trade?• Why did so many Africans die during the

“Middle Passage”?• How did slavery harm Africans and Africa?