Expansion of the Atlantic Slave Trade

Timeline

1. 1641–1645Gold Coast · Gold CoastPortuguese, Dutch, and other European merchants acquired war captives and kidnapped people through local intermediaries at ports such as the Gold Coast, Congo, and Angola, holding Africans in coastal forts before loading them onto slave ships.
2. 1643–1648Atlantic · AtlanticSlave ships crossed the Atlantic along fixed routes; overcrowded holds, disease, and hunger caused extremely high mortality, and volumes in the 1640s rose markedly over the previous decade, making this the core link of the triangular trade.
3. 1646–1650Barbados · Lesser AntillesTrafficked people arriving in colonies such as Brazil, Barbados, and Jamaica were auctioned to sugar and tobacco plantations; the Caribbean sugar boom of the 1640s further stimulated the forced importation of African labor.