Slavery

1. Year 8
Home learning booklet
The Slave Trade
Name: ……………………………………………………………..
Teacher: ………………………………………………………….

2. Contents
What is slavery?.....................................................................................1
Origins of slavery ...................................................................................2
Africa in 16th century ............................................................................ 4
The Triangular Slave Trade ........................................................................6
Experiences of enslaved Africans........................................................8
The Middle Passage ........................................................................... 9
The Slave Auction.............................................................................. 10
Life on a plantation................................................................................11
Punishments.....................................................................................13
Slave resistance......................................................................................14
Abolishing the Slave Trade...................................................................... 16
Legacy of Slavery ................................................................................ 19
Remembering Slavery.........................................................................21

3. Page 1
What is slavery?
Slavery has existed for thousands of years, in many different forms. It continues to exist today. But
how would we define slavery?
Decide whether each of the statements below does or does not describe a slave. Tick the box to
show your decision.
Statement Is a slave
Could be a
slave
Is not a
slave
They are owned by a master or
mistress.
They work long hours for money.
They were born into this position.
Their children may be taken from
them and sold.
They can travel wherever they want
to.
They are not paid.
Their skin may be branded.
They have no rights.
They have been kidnapped.
They can only be freed by their
owner.

4. The Roots of Slavery
Page 2
In the imagination of many people, slavery is enslaved Africans taken from their homes and shipped
across the Atlantic to the Americas. While this is what slavery looked like at it’s peak during the mid-
19th
century, slavery has many other roots.
Use the information below to fill the diagram.

5. Page 3
Summarise each example of slavery into brief bullet points and answer the questions in the discuss box.

6. Page 4
SOURCE A:
We are a nation of dancers, musiciansand poets… our
manners are simple, our luxuries are few… our
important women wear golden ornaments… before we
taste food we always wash our hands… each family has
a piece of ground…we have nobeggars.
From a description of life in the Kingdom of Benin by
Olaudah Equiano (1789). He was a slave who bought
his freedom.
SOURCE B:
The houses of Timbuktu are huts made of clay with
thatched roofs. There is a temple built of stone and a
palace for the king. The people that live there are very
rich, with lots of grain and animals, the king has lots of
gold. In Timbuktu there are lots of judges, teachers
and priests. The citizens have many slaves, me and
women.
From a description of life in the city of Timbuktu, in
the Songhai Empire, focused around modern day
Mali. Written by Leo Africanus in 1526, he was a
Moroccan traveller who wrote about what he saw.
African life before slavery
It is important for us, as historians, not see slavery as the only example of
African history. This is dehumanizing and patronizing. The West Coast of Africa
in the 16th
century had a rich history and culture, before white Europeans
entered and began trading.
Annotate the source below. What does it tell us about Africa in 1686?
Benin City. 1686: A engraving showing the
King of Benin (now Nigeria) with a paradeof
musicians andhorsemen.
“This source suggests that Africa
Read the following sources about Africa during the 16th
century, before the arrival of the slave traders.
Answer the questions below.

7. Page 5
1) Would West Africa have been a good place to live before the slave trade?
2) Why was the Kingdom of Benin so wealthy?
3) What changes do you think happened to West Africa when the slave trade began?
4) Which of these sources do you think is the most useful?Why?
5) Compare sources A and B. List the similarities betweenthem.
•
•
•
SOURCE E:
When the slave trade began, African rulers sold slaves
to Europeans. When the trade increased, African
leaders became more violent to get slaves. Those left
behind in Africa were affected by famine as there were
not enough farmers left.
Written by a historian in 1987, explaining the impact
of the slave trade.
SOURCE D:
The Songhai Empire was centred on the river Niger and
would trade with Benin city. Italian, Arabic and Jewish
traders could be found living in the Songhai Empire.
There was lots of culture- it was an Islamic empire and
the rulers encouraged research and study. It therefore
became a centre of religion and learning.
From a history textbook written in 2016 to teach
schoolchildren about the slave trade.
SOURCE C:
The Kingdom of Benin was one of the most developed
kingdoms in Africa, now Nigeria. It lasted from the
15th
-19th
century. Explorers said it had an organised
system of law courts and government, and became
very wealthy due to trade.
From a history textbook written in 2016 to teach
schoolchildren about the slave trade.

8. Page 6
America
The Triangular Slave Trade
The slave trade began with Portuguese (and some Spanish)
traders, taking mainly West African (but some Central African)
slaves to the American colonies they had conquered in the 15th
century. British sailors became involved in the trade in the 16th
century and their involvement increased in the 18th century
when the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) gave them the right to sell
slaves in the Spanish Empire. The slave trade made a great deal of
profit for those who sold and exchanged slaves. Therefore, they
often ignored the fact it was inhuman andunfair.
At least 12 million Africans were taken to the Americas as slaves
between 1532 and 1832 and at least a third of them in British
ships. For the British slave traders it was a three-legged journey
called the 'triangular trade':
• Because of advances in machinery and production, goods like glassware, metal pots and pans, silk from
Asia and copper were all traded to Africa. West African slaves were exchanged for trade goods such as
brandy and guns.
• In exchange for the goods from Europe, African chiefs would trade enslaved peoples. Slaves were then
taken via the ‘Middle Passage’ across the Atlantic for sale in the West Indies and North America.
• Cotton was essential to the British economy so was essential trade for Britain. In exchange for enslaved
men and women, Plantation owners in the Americas traded items like sugar, cotton, rum, rice, coffee and
tobacco which was then shipped back across the Atlantic toEurope.
On your map below, draw a diagram of the slave trade triangle. It needs to include arrows showing the
direction of travel, items/goods that were traded, and the names of any specific journeys.

9. Page 7
There were many arguments used to justify the trade of people in the late 18th
-early 19th
century.
Below are some of the arguments put forward. Color code the arguments into different categories.
- Beliefs - Money (economics) - Religion
“Why was the Slave Trade established?”
• Briefly explain what the slave trade is
• Explain how it benefitted Europe
• Give justifications for it
• Use examples and evidence toexplain

10. Page 8
Experiences of Slaves
Life for a slave was difficult, harrowing and violent. Their lives were ripped apart. Below are four
stages of the life of a slave.
Tasks
1. Place the pictures in the correct stage of the timeline below (you can either cut the images out or
draw arrows). There should be two pictures for each stage of a slave’sjourney.
2. Label the pictures with words to describe what you can see ishappening.
Capture Transportation (The Middle Passage) Sale Plantation life

11. Page 9
Source E
“Every slave, whatever his size, was found to have only 5feet
6inches in length and 16inches in breadth to lie in. The floor
was covered with bodies and often in between the floor and
deck were platforms also covered in bodies. The men were
chained two together by their hands and feet. Their allowance
consisted of one pint of water each day. They were fed twice a
day on yams and beans”
Thomas Clarkson in a nineteenth century history book
Source D
A museum display of the inside of a slave ship
The Middle Passage
One of the most harrowing experience for any enslaved African was the journey across the Atlantic
Ocean, to the Americas. Below are a series of sources describing that journey. Read the sources and
answer the questions.
Source A
“After about seven months [forced to walk by his
captures] we reached the coast. The first thing I
saw was the sea and a slave ship, anchored,
waiting for its cargo. I was taken on board and
handled roughly by the crew to see if I was
healthy. Their skin was a different colour to
ours.”
Olaudah Equiano’s biography. He was a slave
who eventually bought his freedom and
campaigned against slavery.
Source B
“Below deck, the stench and the crying made me so sick and low
that I wanted to die. I was severely beaten. I would have jumped
overboard but we were being watched carefully. […] one man was
flogged so mercilessly that he died and was tossed over the side.
The heat and overcrowding almost suffocated us. The air became
unfit to breathe and brought on a sickness amongst the slaves.
Many died.”
Olaudah Equiano’s biography. He was a slave whoeventually
boughthis freedom and campaigned against slavery.
Source C
An image of a
slave ship
used by
abolitionists
(who wanted
to end
slavery).
Questions
Source A. Why did the men check Olaudah washealthy?
Source B and C. Why would Olaudah have wanted to jump overboard?
Why would sickness have spreadquickly?
Source C. Why was it used by abolitionists? Is it likely to beaccurate?
Source D and E. Why were so many people crammed into such small spaces?

12. Page 10
The Slave Auction
Once enslaved Africans landed in the Americas, they were taken immediately to auction for sale. This
experience was embarrassing and dehumanising.
Questions
Source A. Why were buyers checking slaves before they bought them? If a slave had lashes and whip marks on
their back, they wouldn’t be purchased; why?
Source B. Which types of slaves do you think would not be very popular to buy?
Source C.. Describe how slaves were prepared forauction.
Source E. When is a maleslave worth the most? Why do you think that is?
Source E
Source C
Source D
A slave auction at Richmond, Virginia 1851
Source B
"The buyers, who were present to the number of about
two hundred, clustered around the platform; while the
Negroes, who were not likely to be immediately wanted,
gathered into sad groups in the background to watch the
progress of the selling in which they were so sorrowfully
interested.”
A witness to a slave auction, 1859
Source A
"The slaves remained at the race-course, some of
them for more than a week and all of them for four
days before the sale. They were brought in thus early
that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy
that privilege, although none of them were sold at
private sale. For these preliminary days their shed
was constantly visited by speculators. The negroes
were examined with as little consideration as if they
had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their
mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs
to find how muscular they were, walking them up
and down to detect any signs of lameness, making
them stoop and bend in different ways that they
might be certain there was no concealed rupture or
wound”
A witness to a slave auction, 1859

13. Page 11
Source A
“The cotton picking season begins at the end of
August. The workers have to be in the cotton
field as soon as it is light in the morning. You
have ten minutes to swallow your dinner of cold
bacon. You are not permitted to be a minute idle
until it is too dark to see. When the moon is full,
you must work til the middle of the night”
Solomon Northop writing in hisautobiography
‘Twelve Years a Slave’, (1847)
Source B
“In a single room were huddled, like cattle, ten or twelve
men, women and children. There were neither
bedsteads nor furniture. Our beds were collections of
straw and old rags. The wind whistled, and the rain and
snow blew in through the cracks. The earth floor soaked
in the moisture til it was just like a pigsty.”
A slave, Josiah Henson, describes his experienceson a
plantation(1849)
Life on plantations
When slaves were sold, they were sent to work on plantations. Here they planted, picked and sorted
cotton and sugar that was then sold to European merchants. The cotton from south American states,
for example, was a key part of the industrial revolution that was taking place in Britain at the same
time. Factories in the North of England (including in Todmorden) used south American cotton in their
weaving industry.
Questions
Source A. Why are slaves worked so hard on theplantations?
Source B. Describe what living conditions were like for slaves.
Source C. What were slave wet nurses used for?
Source D. Why would owners want to use women to ‘breed’ slaves?
Source E. What does this poster suggest about life for slaves?
Source C
“Wet nursing required slave mothers to transfer
to white offspring the nurturing and affection
they should have been able to allocate their own
children”
A slave hold a white child still for a photograph
Source E
A poster advertising a reward for the return of 5 runaway slaves.
Source D
“None of the evils of slavery are more horrible than the
treatment of females. They were oblidged to give in to
prostitution, to equal the labour with males and to
become the breeders of slaves at the will and pleasure
of their master.”
A special judge, Major J. B. Colthurst, sent to the
Caribbean from Britain(1847)

14. Page 12
Research a real-life slave and create an A4 poster about them and their lives. It must include:
• Their Name
• How they became a slave
• Where they lived
• When they lived
• Any interesting facts about their lives
If you need a starting point look here:
http://www.biographyonline.net/people/famous/slaves.html
I want to know where you are getting your
information from so:
If you are using the internet put you websites
address at the bottom of your page.
If you are using a book then put the book title,
and Author at the bottom of your page

15. Page 13
Source A
“Again and again the whip fell on his back. Is cries
grew fainter until a feeble roan was all you heard.
Is head was then put against post and his rightear
was nailed to it. A sharp knife was used to cut f
his ear and leave it sticking to thepost”
Josiah Henson describes how his fatherwas
punished for protecting his mother fromthe
sexual advances of the plantationoverseer.
Source B
“Flogging of up to 75 lashes was common. On
many occasions, planters burned, branded,
stabbed, tarred and feathered, shackled, tortured,
maimed, crippled, mutilated and castrated their
slaves. Thousands of slaves were flogged so badly
that they were permanently scarred.”
Written by a modern historian
Punishment for slaves
Because enslaved Africans were regarded as property, masters were harsh in their discipline of
disobedient slaves. Slaves were expected to follow the rules, and when they didn’t punishments
were brutal.
Questions
Source A. What was the slave punished for? What does this suggest about attitudes towards slaves?
Source B. Besides inflicting pain, what is the purpose of thesepunishments?
Source C. Slaves with scars on their backs were not popular at slave auctions. Why isthis?
Source D. What is the purpose of this source? What does it tell us about attitude towardsslaves?
Source C
Scars left from punishments
on a slaves back
Source E
A drawing from the time
showing a slave being branded
with hot irons.
Source D
“Africans are nothing but brutes.
They will love you better for
whipping, whether they deserve it
or not.”
A plantation owner describeshow
he treats his slaves

16. Page 14
Slave resistance
As the 18th
century went on, public opinion began to turn against
the Slave Trade. Slaves themselves began resisting their
enslavement. There was resistance to the slave trade:
• Some African rulers refused to sell slaves to the traders.
Occasionally villages attacked British slave ships and set the
slaves free.
• Sometimes slaves mutinied on board ships. The most famous
case was the Amistad in1839.
• There were many slave rebellions. The most famous slave
leader was Toussaint l'Ouverture, who led a successfulslave
revolution in French Saint Domingue in1791.
• In Jamaica, runaway slaves formed 'Maroon' communities that
fought against the Britishsoldiers.
• In Britain, slaves like James Somerset (or Somersett),
frequently ran away from their masters. When hewas
recaptured, he and his friends contested his case inthe courts. Toussaint l'Ouverture
Below are ways that enslaved Africans resisted against their enslavement. Place these on the scale
below in terms of severity of the resistance.
Types of resistance
Slow down the pace
of work.
Speak in a native
language.
Practice faith in secret
with ‘invisible’
services.
Write! (Slaves were
not allowed to be
educated or to write.)
Sabotage: put rocks
or other things
inside cotton bales;
injure or kill farm
animals.
Set fire to crops, barns,
or other buildings.
Organise mass
rebellions against the
master. This often
involved violence.
Steal food from the
master’s stores.
Run away.
Murder: poison or find
other ways to kill the
master.
Pretend to be sick to
avoid work.
Fight with the
overseers or masters.
Damage machinery so that it couldn’t be used
and required either lengthy repair or costly
replacement.
Play native music and sing songs that show
indigenous culture or religion. (Drumming was
banned so playing drums was a way of resisting.)
Speak in a
native
language
Mild
opposition
Severe
opposition

17. Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad Page 15
Read this passage then answer the questions
Harriet Tubman was born about 1820 and was originally named Araminta Ross. She was born to
slaves Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene on a Plantation in Maryland. She was one of eleven
Children. When the slave master died without granting her freedom her status as a slave was in
question. She therefore moved up to the North (where slavery was illegal) leaving her husband
behind. While living in the North of the USA she was involved in the underground railroad, which was
neither underground nor on train tracks. It was a selection of houses that spread across the country
that took slaves, hid them and helped them to the next stage until they reached the North of the
country where they could live in freedom. In a period of about ten years Harriet helped about 300
slaves escape slavery.
Questions
What was Harriet Tubman’s originalname?
What did she do after her Slave master died and why did she dothis?
What is the underground railroad?
How many slaves did Harriet help escape?
Research Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railway further using the internet or books. Create a
storyboard below telling the story.

18. Page 16
Abolishing the Slave Trade
Olaudah Equiano
Background:
Contribution to abolition campaign:
Granville Sharp
Background:
Contribution to abolition campaign:
During the 18th
century Britain became the centre of transatlantic slave trading. Between 1700 and
1810 it is estimated that British merchants transported approximately three million people across
the Atlantic. Many people in Britain benefitted from the trade.
It was also in Britain, however, that the campaign to end slavery began. The campaign involved
many groups of people including slaves themselves, politicians and religious groups and many
ordinary people living across Britain. In 1787, the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was
set up. WilliamWilberforce represented the committee in Parliament. Techniques used were:
• The campaigners boycotted sugar (which was produced using slaves), wrote letters and presented
petitions.
• Thomas Clarkson went on a speaking tour, showing people chains and irons and a model of a
slave ship.
• Other campaigners published leaflets describing conditions on the Middle Passage and atrocities
such as the Zong incident (1781). The captain of the slave ship Zong threw 133 slaves overboard
so he could claim the insurance.
• British Africans such as Olaudah Equiano formed the 'Sons of Africa' and campaigned against the
slave trade.
• There is some evidence that the slave trade was becoming less profitable – the price
of buying slaves in Africa was rising, reaching £25 in 1800, but the price for selling in the Americas
had not risen as quickly and was only £35 in 1800.
Below are 4 individuals who all contributed to the abolition of the slave trade. Using a computer or
textbook, research these 4 individuals and complete the profile for each.
William Wilberforce
Background:
Contribution to abolition campaign:
Thomas Clarkson
Background:
Contribution to abolition campaign:

19. P E R KI B M
R
Tasks
1. Read each
box, think
about
which
category it
matches
with.
Write the
letter in
the
bottom
left hand
corner.
2. Colour
code each
action into
actions of
slaves
themselve
s, and
actions of
white
activists.
Page
17

20. Page 18
One of the aims of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was to increase awareness of the
issue. It did this in many ways, including organising petitions. To get people around the country to
sign these petitions they distributed books, pamphlets, objects and images. The items below were all
produced by the anti-slavery movement to raise awareness.
Answer the questions about each item:
• What is the object and what is it madeof?
• Who made the object and who could buy or use theobject?
• What is the message of the object and how does it get its message across?
• Why do you think the object would have been successful or unsuccessful in persuading people to
end slavery?
In 1787, Josiah Wedgwood designed
a seal for the anti-slavery campaign.
The image (shown above) depicts an
African man kneeling in supplication
under the slogan 'Am I not a man
and a brother?'.
In 1791, thousands of pamphlets were
printed which encouraged people to
boycott sugar produced by slaves.
Estimates suggest some 300,000 people
abandoned sugar, with sales dropping by
a third to a half. Some shops advertised
goods which had been produced by
'freemen' and sales of sugar from India,
where slavery was not used, increased
tenfold over two years.
In 1807 the British Parliament passed a law which made trading in slaves illegal across the British Empire, but
owning slaves continued to be legal. It took a further 26 years for slavery itself to be outlawed across the
British Empire in 1833. Slave ownership continued in other parts of the world for many more years – millions
of slaves continued to live in the United States, for example, where the practice wasn’t ended until 1865.

21. Page 19
The Legacy of Slavery
Background
Slave women would often spend time any free time quilting on the plantations. When slaves were
freed, they continued to make quilts in their new homes and they developed bold quilts based on
traditional American and African American quilts. They would use these to tell the story of their
people and enslavement.
Task
Create a knowledge quilt which helps to explain the legacy of slavery. Choose a topic from the list
below. Research the topic thoroughly using any books provided by your teacher and the internet.
Summarise the main ideas in a few key words or short quotations; images and/or illustrations.
Use your materials to fill in the template provided. You could adopt a colour scheme which you feel
is appropriate. It is important to keep to the template so your work can be ‘stitched’ to others to
create a larger piece. Try to make your theme clear and your key points stand out. You should also
try and make your piece of quilt as symmetrical as possible.
Topics to explore:
Culture and music:
• Music: Billie Holiday’s ‘Strange Fruit’; ‘We shall Overcome’; The FreedomSingers.
• Sport: Jesse Owens (1936); Mexico Olympics (1968).
• Poetry: Su Ben, Quincy Mac.
• Film: Roots; Twelve Years a Slave; Selma; Mississippi Burning.
• Books: S. Northup Twelve Years a Slave; A. Walker The Colour Purple.
Political:
• Jim Crowe Laws
• Civil Rights Act(1960)
• Voting Rights Act (1965)
• Barack Obama
Civil Rights:
• Key individuals: Martin Luther King; Rosa Parks; MalcolmX.
• Campaign groups: NAACP; The BlackPanthers.
• Events: Montgomery bus boycott, Selma to Montgomery march, March onWashington.
Racism:
• Ku Klux Clan
• #blacklivesmatter
Physical impact:
• Plantation mansions
• Stately homes (e.g. Harewood House, England was built from money made through slavery)
• Public monuments

22. Page 20

23. Page 21
Remembering Slavery
Objectives:
• To consolidate your knowledge of the transatlantic slavetrade.
• To consider the significance of the transatlantic slave trade and to decide how it should be
remembered from the point of view of a particulargroup.
• To persuade your audience to support your point ofview.
History education officers at a museum. Design a museum exhibition about the transatlantic slave
trade. The exhibition should include each of the following;
• an explanation of how the slave trade operated (What were the stages? How was money made?
Who benefited?)
• an explanation of how slavery was abolished (When did this happen? Why did it happen? Who
was important in bringing itabout?)
• Some thoughts and comments on the legacy of slavery (in the short term, in the long term, on
particular parts of Britain, in different countries, for different racial groups today both nationally
and internationally)
• A selection of objects and images which you think are particularly important or revealing.
You may wish to produce some or all of the following:
details of where your exhibition will be, a floor plan, pictures of the artefacts you have chosen with
the notes that you would display alongside, consideration of any interactive elements to your
exhibition, details of any events or educational sessions you might hold at your exhibition.
Initial planning:
Why do you want to create an exhibition? Explain what you want to achieve, and why it should be
funded.
Which aspects (key points) about the transatlantic slave trade do you want to emphasise and why?
What objects or pictures would you like to include and why?
Sum up your argument as to why you should be given the money to go ahead.
You may find the following websites helpful:
General
http://abolition.e2bn.org/index.php
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/
http://discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/
http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/tradeindustry/slavetrade/
http://www.historyextra.com/slavery

24. Page 22
Use the space provided to set out your museum exhibition. This can be;
•
•
•
A floor plan
An information wall
A display case with items and explanations

25. Page 23
Use the space provided to set out your museum exhibition. This can be;
•
•
•
A floor plan
An information wall
A display case with items and explanations