BBC
Bbc News: Focus on the Slave Trade
BBC News offers a short summary of the slave trade from Africa to the Americas. Gives statistics on the number of slaves (estimated at 10 to 28 million), where they went, and the cruel conditions of their enslavement.
![University of Texas: Africa Enslaved [Pdf] Lesson Plan](https://static.lp.lexp.cloud/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "University of Texas: Africa Enslaved [Pdf] Lesson Plan")
University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas: Africa Enslaved [Pdf]
A comprehensive study of the slave trade in Africa, South America, and the Caribbean.
Hanover College
Hanover College: Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano Vol. 1
The complete text of a famous slave narrative from the late 18th century (1789), it tells the story on how Equiano is captured in Africa, transported to the Americas and his experiences as a slave. It provides rich details about the...
University of Groningen
American History: Essays: European Conquest & Commerce in Africa
Essay outlines European conquest beginning with the Portuguese settlement at Cape Verde and traces the development of commerce leading to the slave trade in regions of Africa and the New World.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1491 1607: African Societies and Atlantic Slave Trade
The beginning of the Atlantic slave trade uprooted previously established societal norms in West Africa.
The Newberry Library
Newberry: Olaudah Equiano: Eighteenth Century Debate Over Africa Slave Trade
Learning module uses 18th Century literature as primary source material to examine the debate over slavery and the role Olaudah Equiano played in the conversation.
Digital History
Digital History: The Slave Trade [Pdf]
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]
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.
OpenStax
Open Stax: West Africa and the Role of Slavery
This section of a chapter on "The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492" takes a look at the major West African empires and discusses the roles of Islam and Europe in the slave trade.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Freedom, Making of African American Identity: V. 1, 1500 1865
Twenty nine primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the qualities and conditions of African lives on the west coast before and during the European slave trade.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Africa Before Transatlantic Enslavement
The history of West Africa provides a context for learning about the transatlantic slave trade. Discover the rich cultural traditions and economic networks that existed in the West African empires such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhay long...
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Trade and Commerce
The transatlantic slave trade lay at the heart of a complex global commerce system between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Learn about the clash over possessions, and the disputes over each others' presence in the seas.
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...
Library of Congress
Loc: African Immigration: Africans in America: Life in a Slave Society
An excellent overview of the African American experience in America beginning with West Africa during the slave trade, through emancipation and reconstruction, to "New beginnings."
British Library
British Library: Discovering Literature: African Writers and Black Thought in 18th Century Britain
This article describes how four writers, taken from Africa as children and sold into slavery, grew up to write works that challenged British ideas about race, called for African brotherhood, and demanded the abolition of the slave trade.
The Newberry Library
Newberry: Aphra Behn's Oroonoko: Slavery and Race in the Atlantic World
Newberry Library lesson using digitized primary source explores how Aphra Behn's novel, Oroonoko, compares to other representations of race, slavery, and colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Questions to consider are...
BBC
Bbc: The Story of Africa: The Missionaries
This article talks about the presence of European missionaries in 19th century Africa. It mentions the efforts of David Livingstone to try to suppress the slave trade. It offers examples of the humanitarian work done by other...
Brown University
Brown University Library: Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally: 1764 65
Providence, Rhode Island's Nicholas Brown and Company owned a slave ship, Sally. Sally is documented for many trips to Africa to pick up slaves. The slaves would be delivered to Caribbean Islands in exchange for sugar and molasses to...
PBS
Pbs: Africans in America: Part 1: The Growth of Slavery in North America
Focuses on slavery in North America, the worry about uprisings, and slavery's economic impact. Links to related information.
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.
BBC
Bbc History: British History: Empire: British Slaves on the Barbary Coast
A fascinating article examining the issue of white Europeans who ended up being sold or kidnapped into slavery in North Africa during the 17th century. Archived.
Understanding Slavery Initiative
Understanding Slavery Initiative: Emancipation
Although the British Parliament passed the Abolition of Slavery Act in August 1833, the trade continued, and for many years there were exceptions to abolition. Learn how the British government attempted to prevent the slave trade from...
Digital History
Digital History: Slavery and Spanish Colonization
Read about the slave trade and use of slaves in agriculture and mining in Spanish America in the New World. Find out why it was expedient to use African slaves.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Age of Exploration: The Columbian Exchange
A fascinating look at the exchanges that took place around the world after the Americas were discovered. This covered the gamut from diseases which wiped out 90% of the native peoples in North and South America, to farm animals, tools,...