In this lesson, 5th graders learn about the many societal structures that developed in colonial days, including the conditions for self-government in America, the free-market economy, and the slavery system. Background information for...

Read Olaudah Equiano's account of being captured in his village in Africa, and placed on a slave ship to be taken to America. He describes the middle passage of the triangular trade route, as well as the leg from Europe to Africa. [pdf]

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.

Online exhibition from the Mariners' Museum chronicles the plight of African slaves from the beginning of their journey when they are torn from their homeland all the way to the shores of the Americas. Caught up in the lucrative...

An overview of the Transatlantic Trade whereby Europe, Africa, and the America's engaged in a network of people, raw materials, finished goods, merchants, and sailors bringing wealth to colonial empires. The consequences of the...

Information is provided on the three routes of the triangular slave trade: the middle passage, the outward passage, and the return passage.

A nice intro into the topic and history of triangular trade. Includes maps and trade routes. Done as a project for Norwegian students.

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.

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.

Easy-to-read, colorful maps that show the triangular slave trade routes from 1451 to 1870.

This is a map that shows the trade routes, principal ports, goods being traded, and the areas possessed by the British and the Spanish.

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...

Learn about plantation life during the 18th and 19th centuries by viewing images, maps, and text material in this virtual exhibition from the British Library. Writer Mike Phillips gives his personal interpretation of this exhibit on...

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.

Moving description of the Middle Passage and African American trauma through the perspective of the artist, Tom Feelings.

An intriguing resource that gives first hand accounts of four Africans being taken from their homes and forced into slavery. Click on the pictures of the people to read their unbelievable stories and see artifacts about slavery.

In the Southern colonies, a predominantly agricultural society developed.