Key Terms and Definitions
Below are clear, age-appropriate definitions for five important terms related to the Atlantic Slave Trade. They are written to help you understand how these ideas connect and why they matter.
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Atlantic Slave Trade
Definition: A historical system where millions of Africans were forcibly taken from their homes and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to work as enslaved people in the Americas, primarily from the 15th to the 19th centuries.
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Triangle Trade
Definition: A three-part trading system between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Ships carried goods from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and raw materials from the Americas back to Europe.
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Middle Passage
Definition: The brutal sea voyage that enslaved Africans endured from West Africa to the Americas as part of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Conditions were overcrowded and inhumane, causing immense suffering and death.
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Dehumanization
Definition: The process of treating people as if they are less than human, denying their rights and dignity. In slavery, this meant seeing enslaved Africans as property rather than as full human beings.
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Eugenics
Definition: A now-discredited movement that promoted the idea of improving the human population through controlled breeding. It unjustly claimed some groups of people were inherently superior or inferior, which has caused real harm and discrimination.
Why these terms matter: Understanding them helps explain how the slave trade operated, why it was brutal, and how harmful ideas like dehumanization and eugenics justified inequality. It also sheds light on the lasting impacts of this history on society today.