The triangle trade

The transportation of Africans to North America and the Caribbean formed one side of what has become known as the triangle trade. Ships would load up with guns, ammunition and manufactured goods in Britain and France, then sail for four months to West Africa where the cargo was exchanged for Africans. Then came the middle passage across the Atlantic, and the sale of the African people in the Caribbean and in North American colonies. Finally, the ships loaded up with the sugar, tobacco and cotton produced in the colonies and sailed back to England and France where the raw produce was refined and re-exported to other countries.¹

Graphic Courtesy: Language and Power