History of American Slavery & the Underground Railroad Return to front page
by Cheryl Brown
The Origins of Slavery

Some five hundred years ago ships captained by Europeans began transporting millions of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. This massive population movement helped create the African Diaspora in the New World. Many did not survive the horrible oceanic journey known as the "Middle Passage."
ship
"Now that the whole ship's cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate...almost suffocated us... The shrieks of women, and the groans of the dying rendered it a scene of horror almost inconceivable... I began to hope that death would soon put an end to my miseries."

    Oladaudah Equiano, sold from Africa into New World slavery at age 12

slave boat
African Homelands

Enslaved Africans represented many different peoples, each with distinct cultures, religions, and languages. Most originated from the coast or the interior of West Africa, between present-day Senegal and Angola. Other enslaved peoples originally came from Madagascar and Tanzania in East Africa.

The Triangle Trade

The demands of European consumers for New World crops and goods helped fuel the slave trade. Following a triangular route between Africa, the Caribbean and North America, and Europe, slave traders from Holland, Portugal, France, and England delivered Africans in exchange for products such as rum, sugar, and tobacco that European consumers wanted. Eventually the trading route also distributed Virginia tobacco, New England rum, and indigo and rice crops from South Carolina and Georgia.

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Glossary
  • Abolitionist: an individual who held strong antislavery views
  • African Diaspora: the dispersal of Africans in the New World
  • Bondsperson: a person held in servitude as human property to another
  • Coffle: a group of enslaved individuals transported together for sale
  • Conductor: one who helped escaping persons move from station to station on the Railroad.
  • Enslave: to force another into bondage
  • Manumit: to free
  • Maroons: runaways who escaped
  • Middle Passage: the name Africans gave to the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to New World enslavement
  • Underground Railroad: A movement in the United States from the early 19th century on to help bondspersons escape from slavery and reach freedom
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