\How did the triangular trade work?

For the British slave traders it was a three-legged journey called the 'triangular trade': West African slaves were exchanged for trade goods such as brandy and guns. Slaves were then taken via the 'Middle Passage' across the Atlantic for sale in the West Indies and North America.

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On the first leg of their three-part journey, often called the Triangular Trade, European ships brought manufactured goods, weapons, even liquor to Africa in exchange for slaves; on the second, they transported African men, women, and children to the Americas to serve as slaves; and on the third leg, they exported to Europe the sugar, rum, cotton, and tobacco produced by the enslaved labor force.  Traders referred to the Africa-Americas part of the voyage as the "Middle Passage" and the term has survived to denote the Africans' ordeal.

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