Digital History
Digital History: Enslavement
A very good description of how Africans were enslaved in Africa for sale to the Europeans. See how the introduction of European weapons changed the dynamic in West Africa.
Digital History
Digital History: Middle Passage
The number of Africans who died or were enslaved as a result of slave trading both across the Atlantic and into the Arabian peninsula is truly shocking. Read about the Middle Passage which brought millions of slaves to the New World, see...
British Library
British Library: The Slave Trade
An article describing the historical background to the Abolitionist movement in England, giving details on the slave trade and more.
PBS
Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Threat of Fasting During the Middle Passage
Description of how slaves tried to starve themselves to death on slave ships as a form of resistance, and how the slave traders forced them to eat so they would not lose money. Click on Teacher's Guide for teaching resources.
PBS
Africans in America: Equiano's Autobiography
From a larger site from PBS' Africans in America, blurb about Olaudah Equiano and his autobiography with a link to text of this historical document.
PBS
Africans in America: Living Africans Thrown Overboard
This site is provided for by PBS. In order to receive insurance money, a captain ordered 132 slaves thrown overboard alive. The case went to court, and a landmark decision was made that the Africans on the ship were actually people.
PBS
Africans in America: Interior of a Slave Ship
This site describes how slaves were packed in the ships with barely enough room to sit or move, to maximize capacity.
Other
Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society: The Henrietta Marie
Description and pictures of what was found on the shipwreck, the Henrietta Marie. This ship contained many important objects from the early years of the slave trade.
Other
Liverpool and the Slave Trade: The Triangular Slave Trade
Information is provided on the three routes of the triangular slave trade: the middle passage, the outward passage, and the return passage.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Atlantic Crossing
Discover the period some refer to as "Middle Passage," when enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean or America. Read first-hand accounts of the torture and deprivation experienced by thousands of...
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Resistance and Rebellion
Enslaved Africans fought hard to win back their freedom through resistance, rebellions, and uprisings. Rebellions along the Middle Passage and in places like the Caribbean were important to the retention of African culture.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery: Atlantic Crossing: First Hand Accounts Case Study
Read eye-witness accounts of the brutality and cruelty suffered by enslaved Africans as they traveled across the Atlantic on slave ships.
Other
Juneteenth: The Middle Passage
Moving description of the Middle Passage and African American trauma through the perspective of the artist, Tom Feelings.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: African Americans in the British New World
Read about the transit of Africans from their homeland to the American British colonies to work on plantations in the south as part of leg in the triangular trade.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Constitutional Rights Foundation: The Slave Trade
Article and questions for discussion on the slave trade. Students read about how Europeans captured, transported, and sold African men, women and children into slavery.
BBC
Bbc: The Triangular Trade
Approximately 6 million Africans were taken as slaves to the Americas. Follow the steps of the Triangular Slave Trade with an accompanying map. The map shows which goods and services were traded between the countries.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: African Americans in the British New World: The Middle Passage
A description of the Middle Passage, the leg of the triangular trade that brought slaves from Africa to America. Read descriptions of the way slaves were transported in the ships across the ocean.
Other
School Wires: The Agricultural South [Pdf]
In the Southern colonies, a predominantly agricultural society developed.
Other
Read Works: West Africa: West African Slave Trade [Pdf]
An informational text about the West African slave trade. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
Other
West Chester University: The Trans Atlantic Economy in 1800
This short but good article examines the state of trade as it existed in 1800 between Europe, the Americas and Africa. There is a nice discussion on the slave trade as well as the need for the Europeans to acquire more markets for their...
Georgetown University
Georgetown: Putting a Human Face on the Domestic Slave Trade
This unit will introduce students to the history of the domestic slave trade through the lens of the "GU272," the community of people sold south by the Maryland Jesuits in 1838 to help finance Georgetown College. This unit consists of...
PBS
Africans in America: Olaudah Equiano
This site from PBS' Africans in America series provides a biography of Olaudah Equiano, one of the many Africans forced to travel the Middle Passage. Links to related entries.