Question

Explain why New England- where few slaveholders lived- was involved in a triangular trade that sold and transported millions of enslaved africans.

Answer 1

The triangular trading system was not only used to sell/buy slaves, many countries benefitted from other resources that were scarce in their lands. The thirteen colonies would trade fish, whale oil, lumber, tobacco, rum, iron products, flour and meat products and England and Europe would trade teas, spices, furniture, cloth, tools, iron products, etc. New England specifically would trade with the Caribbean for sugar (or molasses) and New England would distill it into rum. The profits from the sale of the sugar would be shipped to West Africa where the majority of slaves came from, and the slaves were sent to the Caribbean to work on sugar plantations.