Atlantic world · 1640-1789

Sugar, plantations and the triangular trade

Sugar turns small Caribbean islands into some of the richest colonies on Earth, built on the forced labour of enslaved Africans. Students follow the triangle of trade, see how sugar changed European diets, and meet the Maroons who fought for their freedom in the mountains.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, AD 1750
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

Sugar turns small Caribbean islands into some of the richest colonies on Earth, built on the forced labour of enslaved Africans. Students follow the triangle of trade, see how sugar changed European diets, and meet the Maroons who fought for their freedom in the mountains.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain how Caribbean sugar plantations depended on enslaved labour.
  • Describe the three sides of the "triangular trade" and why historians call it a simplification.
  • Describe how enslaved people resisted, including the Maroons of Jamaica.
2

Explore the map

12 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 1750

Islands of sugar

Open the map in 1750 and zoom in on the Caribbean. Find Barbados, Jamaica and Hispaniola. Which European powers held islands here?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1750

The triangle

Turn on Trade Routes and follow the Atlantic Triangular Trade. Which part of the triangle carried people, and which carried sugar?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1750

Maroon country

Zoom in on the mountains of eastern Jamaica. Why would steep, forested mountains help people who had escaped slavery stay free?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

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

  1. Sugar was once a luxury in Europe. Why did it become an everyday food by the 1700s?
  2. Many plantation owners lived in Britain or France, far from their estates. How might that affect the way plantations were run?
  3. Many ships never sailed a triangle, for example going straight between Brazil and Africa. How can simple models help, and how can they mislead?
  4. The Maroons of Jamaica forced Britain to sign treaties in 1739-1740. What does that show about their strength?
  5. Whom should we name when we talk about the wealth sugar created: the owners, the traders or the people who did the work?
4

Game round

9 min

Play a round of Rule History as Napoleon Bonaparte, who in 1802 brought back slavery in French Guadeloupe and sent an army to retake Saint-Domingue. There the formerly enslaved defeated his army and founded Haiti in 1804. Discuss: how did enslaved people's own actions change history?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.