The Slave Trade
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The Act of Union in 1707 gave Scots access to the slave trade. Scots travelled to the colonies and generated great wealth for Scotland based on slave labour. Merchants arrived, followed by administrators, doctors, and missionaries.
The Triangular Trade
Ships were loaded in British ports with guns, copper and brass goods and other manufactured articles.
The ships sailed to the west coast of Africa and traded goods for young men and women who had been enslaved by African merchants. The slaves were transported across the Atlantic Ocean on the 'Middle Passage' to America and the West Indies.
After a journey lasting weeks, crammed below decks with little air, food or water, the survivors were sold. In the southern states of America, the Caribbean islands and South America, slaves were used to work the plantations. In 1817, Scots owned 32 per cent of the slaves in Jamaica.
Plantations were large farms growing crops wanted in Europe, including tobacco, sugar and cotton. The merchant ships would load up with these products and take them back to Britain on the last leg of their journey.
It was a three-legged voyage, known as the triangular trade, designed to keep the ships fully laden at all times and maximise profits.
Ships from Glasgow took part in the triangular trade and traded directly with the plantations.