Age of abolition · 1787-1838

Ending the Atlantic slave trade

Campaigners in Britain, formerly enslaved writers and rebels in the Caribbean all fought the slave trade. Students follow the struggle from the first petitions to the end of slavery in the British colonies, and ask whose actions mattered most.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 1800 to AD 1831
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

Campaigners in Britain, formerly enslaved writers and rebels in the Caribbean all fought the slave trade. Students follow the struggle from the first petitions to the end of slavery in the British colonies, and ask whose actions mattered most.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Describe the Atlantic slave trade and the three continents it connected.
  • Explain how campaigners, formerly enslaved people and rebels helped end the British slave trade (1807) and slavery (1834-1838).
  • Evaluate why compensation was paid to slave owners and not to the people they had enslaved.
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 1800

The Atlantic system

Open the map in 1800 and turn on Trade Routes. Follow the Atlantic Triangular Trade. Name the three continents it connects and the European port where it begins and ends.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1815

A colony for the freed

Drag the slider from 1800 to 1815 and zoom in on the coast of West Africa. Which new British colony appears there?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1831

Sugar islands

Open the map in 1831 and zoom in on the Caribbean. Find Jamaica, one of Britain's richest sugar islands. Which other European powers held islands nearby?

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. Olaudah Equiano wrote about his own enslavement in 1789. Why were stories by formerly enslaved people so powerful?
  2. Hundreds of thousands of Britons stopped buying slave-grown sugar. Can shoppers change the world?
  3. Why did banning the slave trade in 1807 not end slavery itself?
  4. Britain paid £20 million to slave owners and nothing to the people they had enslaved. How would you judge that decision?
  5. Revolts of enslaved people, such as the Baptist War in Jamaica, are often left out of the story. Why do you think that is?
4

Game round

10 min

No Rule History ruler led this campaign. Play Napoleon Bonaparte: in 1802 he restored slavery in French colonies, five years before Britain banned its slave trade. Discuss: why did one power move towards abolition while another went backwards?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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