Atlantic slave trade · about 1500-1867

The Atlantic slave trade seen from Africa

Over more than three centuries about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships bound for the Americas. Students look at the trade from the African side: the states and ports involved, the people taken, and those who resisted.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1715 to AD 1815
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Over more than three centuries about 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships bound for the Americas. Students look at the trade from the African side: the states and ports involved, the people taken, and those who resisted.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate the main African regions and ports of the Atlantic slave trade.
  • Explain how the trade worked on the African side, and why African responses ranged from taking part to resisting.
  • Describe at least three forms of resistance and the effects of the trade on African societies.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1715

African states on the coast

Open the map in 1715 and look along the coast of West and Central Africa. Write down the names of three African states near the coast. African rulers, not Europeans, controlled this land.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1783

The ocean crossing

Turn on Trade Routes. Find the Atlantic Triangular Trade. Follow its three sides and say what was carried on each.

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1815

Freedom on the coast

Move to 1815 and find the label Sierra Leone. After 1807 British ships landed Africans freed from slave ships here, at Freetown.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. About 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships. Why do historians stress that each number was a person with a name, a family and a home?
  2. Some African rulers and merchants sold captives, while others fought the trade. Why did people make such different choices?
  3. How did the trade change life in Africa itself? Think of wars, families and farming.
  4. Enslaved Africans resisted on land and at sea. What forms could resistance take?
  5. How should a country, a museum or a school remember the Atlantic slave trade today?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Elizabeth I, in whose reign John Hawkins made England's first slaving voyages (1562-1569). Afterwards, compare with King Afonso I of Kongo, who in 1526 asked Portugal to stop the kidnapping of his people. What power did each ruler have?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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