triangular trade

Three-sided (‘triangular’) trade route between Britain, West Africa, and the West Indies, in operation until the banning of the slave trade in 1807. Manufactured goods were shipped from England to Africa (the first leg of the journey). The same ship would then take a cargo of African slaves to the West Indies or southernmost American colonies (the second leg of the journey) and sell them for work on plantations. On the final leg of the journey the ship would take sugar, molasses, rum, cotton, or tobacco back to Britain.

British involvement in the triangular trade began with the colonization of America from 1607 and the West Indies from 1623, but it was dominated by the Portuguese and Dutch until late in the 17th century, when France, Denmark, and Sweden also became involved. The chief British ports were London, Liverpool, Bristol, and Glasgow.

The slave trade Estimates of the total number of slaves transported are as high as 12.5 million from 1650 to 1850, and over twice as many slaves died on the journey as lived to be sold. The British West Indies took some 2.4 million slaves, and British North America 0.5 million. Conditions on board ship for the slaves were cruel and unhealthy, and were publicized by former slaves like Olaudah Equiano. Slaves often tried to commit suicide by jumping overboard. In 1781 a Captain Collingwood had slaves who were dying of an epidemic thrown overboard from the slave ship Zong, so that the insurance for them could be collected at the end of the voyage.

Slave traders and planters often gained huge wealth, and many other people's livelihoods depended on the trade, from sailors to the grocers in Europe who sold West Indian sugar. Despite this, some merchants, like those in Belfast, agreed not to join the slave trade, and opposition grew to its cruelty. Abolitionism combined with economic changes led to the banning of the Atlantic slave trade by Denmark in 1792, the USA in 1794, and the British Empire in 1807. The importing of slaves into the USA was made illegal by Congress in 1808. The British navy policed the ban, supported by other countries, from 1814, but illegal smuggling continued into the mid-nineteenth century.