5. The myth of the triangle trade routes for slave ships
Over the years, an image has emerged of slave ships engaging in what is known as a triangle trade route. In this telling, ships departed from European ports, such as Bristol in Britain or Brest in France. Laden with goods such as arms, gunpowder, trinkets and beads, cloth, copper, and other items desirable by African rulers, they journeyed to their African factories. There the goods were exchanged for African enslaved people. As quickly as possible they departed for the Americas, bound for the Caribbean due to favoring currents and winds. Arriving in the Caribbean or North America they discharged the slaves and took on cargo bound for Europe. Using the Gulf Stream and the favoring winds, they returned to their homeport, or other European port, completing the triangle with all three legs being lucrative for the owners.
Slave ships did follow such a route, but by the middle of the 18th century, few returned to Europe with large cargoes of the produce of the colonies. Slave ships by then were built to crowd as many people as possible into their decks. They included several decks, all with low overheads. They simply weren’t intended to carry bulk cargo, such as the sugar, rum, molasses, tobacco, and other items shipped by the colonies to Britain and Europe. Frequently they arrived at their colonial destinations out of season for that year’s produce. Most slave ship captains purchased what little cargo they could find, and put the rest of the vessel into ballast. Taking on heavy stones and gravel served to stabilize the vessel sufficiently to return home. There the ship would prepare for another voyage to Africa.