Slave Trade Triangle & Spirituals - Social Studies

For the past few weeks here in Social Studies, we have been focusing on the Slave Trade Triangle. The Slave Trade Triangle occurred between the years 1532 to 1832, the late 16th to 19th century. What is the slave trade triangle? The slave trade triangle is made of three passages. It all starts in Liverpool Europe, the first passage. They send ships filled with goods such as textiles, metals, firearms and a lot more. The cargo would sail to the west coast of Africa. These goods are going to be offered by chiefs and are going to be swapped with slaves. The slaves that are swapped with the goods are taken by other tribes. They fought other tribes and take people who looks healthy and are capable of doing work, being enslaved in short. The trade of goods and slaves completes the first passage. The second passage is the deliverance of the slaves from West Africa to America. Those slaves are put in a cargo which is then shipped to America. The slaves are kept in the cargo for two to three months and the way that they are treated is very disturbing. They are kept inside the ship with their hands and feet shackled together, they are crowded, and the height of the wall is only 4 feet tall. The slaves are only taken out of the "room" or the place that they are kept in two to three times throughout the whole trip, so to sum everything up, they are treated like animals. The worst part was that except for being treated like "animals", some of them gets sick or killed while being shackled together. When this happens, the other slaves that were next to the people who has died, this would give them trauma. They will be scared but won't be able to do anything about it. Then after the ship arrives to America, that ends the second passage. Once the ship is unloaded, the slaves are sold to work in different states of America. They work day and night and when some try to escape, they are punished with very heavy consequences. Those slaves are the ones who works day and night to make the goods that are sent back to Europe, which is the last/third passage. 

Here is the link of the presentation that I made with My Map: LINK

Spirituals are sung by slaves while on the ship. It was also sung on on ceremonies and gatherings. This is explained much better on the presentation that I made but here is one example of a Spiritual that was sung by the slaves while on the ship: "Wade in the Water"

They sung this while they were still on the ship. This song's hidden is for the children or other slaves to wade in the water while they make distraction. The most important or key part of the song is that it's telling them to escape withe the water. If they escape by the waters, the dogs won't be able to identify their smell to find them. This one is a perfect example of an Spiritual. 

About Harriet Tubman:

Harriet Tubman was a very famous woman, who was also born into slavery but has managed to escape. She became  a member of a group called Underground Railroad. She was the one who was responsible for helping the people who were still enslaved. She would sometimes sneak into groups of slaves and use Spiritual as a way of passing messages and escape plans. Except for being a part of this group, she was also a nurse, a women's suffrage supporter, and a union spy.

The Underground Railroad:

The Underground Railroad is again, a group that Harriet Tubman was a part of. This group helps other slaves to break free and escape to go to other places which were safe for them to stay to safely. They didn't like the idea where they had the freedom that they needed while other people like them are still suffering. The way they help them is by a few of them sneaking into slave groups. Using Spiritual as a way of communication. They used the name Underground Railroad because they didn't want to raise any suspicions as the things that they do to help are kept a secret. 

The significance of what has happened to the people from West Africa has made a very big impact to the world these days. People now stands up for what's right and is brave enough to stand on their own feet. Some people who are in the higher place also helps the ones who aren't brave enough to speak up. There has been a movement that has happened to America recently. It's called "Black Lives Matter". This movement started when a video of a "black man" went viral on the internet. A police officer was kneeling on his neck and only stood up when the man wasn't responding anymore. When people saw this, they have finally gotten enough courage to say that they've had enough. This horrible thing that happened has given the people enough strength to stand up. The rap songs these days are kind of the similar as Spirituals, telling the stories or the things that they went through because of their race/colour.