The Triangular Trade saw to the trade between the Southern part of the United States, Great Britain, and Africa. Essentially, Great Britain supplied arms and rifles to allied native tribes in Africa, who in turn, invade and capture thousands of slaves. These slaves are then placed on boats to be sold into captivity in the Americas (which in this case, is the United States). Conditions on the boats was extremely poor, with many dying on enroute. On arriving to the Americas, they are then sold into slavery, where (in the United State's case), they are typically used to grow cash crops, which was first tabocco, which was then replaced with cotton. These crops were grown in large quantities, which in turn needed lots of farmhands. Slaves were the cheapest alternatives as compared to indentured servants, as they had no rights, were treated as sub-human, only needed their basic of basic needs taken care of (shelter, poor-variant of clothing, food, etc). Because of these poor living conditions, constant supplies of slaves from Africa was needed to keep up the demand of growing cotton.
Once the cotton was picked (or the cash crops gathered), they were typically shipped as raw ingredients to factories in the Northern parts of the US, or to European countries (typically Great Britain), where they use the raw materials to create finished products. These, in turn were sold in all parts of the triangular trade, with some making it's way down to Africa as tradeables or as payment for more slaves, other to the US at mark-up prices, and also to the native population in Great Britain. The Triangular trade essentially sustained itself, even if it was detrimental to the parties one way or another.
