Before 1500 England was a small northern European country most people in the world hadn’t heard of. Cities in China, Turkey, India, South and Central America and Africa were as rich as or richer than London.
By 1900 London was the richest city in the world and Europe was far more powerful than Africa or Asia.
The world we live in was shaped then. It is a very different world from the one people lived in 500 years ago.
Was the trade in enslaved Africans the reason for this? If so, why? If not, why not? Were there other factors, too? You will try to answer this and other questions to look at the link between their past and our present.
WHAT TO DO
You can:
- tell the story of the triangular trade and what happened to enslaved Africans
- explain the link between this trade and Britain’s wealth (the Industrial Revolution)
- describe life on the slave plantations
- find out about slave resistance and rebellion (Amistad, Nanny of the Maroons, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Sam Sharpe, Paul Bogle, Mary Prince etc)
- find out how the slave trade was abolished (got rid of) (Olaudah Equiano, Thomas Clarkson, Ottobah Cuguano, Ignatius Sancho, Granville Sharpe, Robert Wedderbirn, William Wilberforce etc)
- design a memorial to the slave trade
HOW TO DO IT
Some ideas:
- well structured writing, either word processed or handwritten
- your own original artwork
- an electronic presentation (PowerPoint or similar)
- a paper display
- a story in comic form (using ComicLife in the Media Suite)
- music soundtracks linked to slavery, resistance or freedom
- a review of a commercial film about the slave trade (ask your teacher - we have a selection on DVD)
Video clips:
1. The slave trade.
Adventurers and slavers
Adventurers and slavers
2. Abolition.
3. The Middle Passage
4. Resistance and rebellion
