Title: Atlantic slave trade  - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help
Headings: Atlantic slave trade
Atlantic slave trade
Introduction
Origins
The Triangular Trade
Opposition to and End of the Slave Trade

Content: A smaller number came from Portuguese-controlled parts of southeastern Africa. The Atlantic slave trade changed the nature of African slavery. Within Africa, slave owners wanted primarily women and children for labor and for incorporation into their societies. They tended to kill males because they were troublesome and likely to flee. The Europeans, however, demanded primarily adult males to work in the New World colonies. Thus, African rulers began selling males into the international slave trade. Most enslaved people were captured in raids on neighboring African peoples, though others became slaves because of criminal convictions or failure to pay debts. African rulers transported the captives to the coast and kept them in holding pens until they could be sold to European ship captains who sailed up and down the coast looking for slave cargo. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The second stage of the triangular trade was the shipment of enslaved people across the Atlantic Ocean, usually to Brazil or to an island in the Caribbean Sea. This trip, known as the Middle Passage, took a few weeks to several months.