Europeans were taking Africans as slaves before the triangle trade began. During the fifteenth century, Africans were forced into slavery and shipped off the the Americas and the Caribbean. Therefore, millions of lives were changed along with the demography of the Americas and Africa. As the Trans-Atlantic Triangle Trade began to expand, the slave trade increased too. Many Africans were captured by slave traders or brought by African chiefs and were traded for goods made in Britain such as cloth, guns, and other items. The Slave ships from British ports like London then sailed back to American colonies were these slaves were used for cheap manual labor. To get to the Americas the slaves had to endure the 'middle passage' in which densely packed slave ships would sail across the Atlantic and this caused many deaths and a spread of disease. The slaves were then auctioned off to the highest bidder when they reached American soil and the Africans were sold to work sugar, coffee, or tobacco plantations. Slaves could not be free unless their owner freed them or bought their freedom as they were property and belonged to their plantation owner. The triangle trade connected Europe to Africa to the Americas where money and manufactured goods would be traded for slaves ("The Triangle Trade").
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Triangular trade was the name given to the trade route the Europeans took to trade with Africa and the Americas. The trade route was known as the triangular trade because of the shape the trade route was in. The route went from Europe to Africa for slaves, the next was the "Middle Passage" the journey to the americas to trade slaves for goods, the next was the transportation of goods back to Europe ("The Triangle Trade").