Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← History
HistoryBritain in a wider world28 min★★★ difficulty

A world issue: the transatlantic slave trade

For over three centuries, ships carried millions of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic — a system that connected three continents.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Wider world history: Understand at least one study of a significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Understand at least one study of a significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments

Key learning points

  • • The triangular trade
  • • Scale and suffering
  • • Resistance and abolition
  • • Lasting interconnections

This lesson at a glance

  • 28 minutes
  • 18 parts to scroll through
  • 3 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

significantsocietyhistoryinterconnectionsdevelopments

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 18 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 18

Watch first

A world issue: the transatlantic slave trade

An English teaching video on this topic from A. J. Merrick. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand at least one study of a significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 18

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know that Britain traded across the Atlantic, and that empires connected distant parts of the world.

Recap: Britain, trade and transatlantic slavery
3

Key words

Part 3 of 18

Key words

Words you'll need today

Interconnection
The way events in one place shaped lives in another.
Chattel slavery
A system treating people as property that could be bought and sold.
Diaspora
Communities formed by people scattered from their homelands.
Legacy
Effects that continue long after events end.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 18

Learning cycle 1 of 2

The system and its scale

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 18

Learn

The triangular trade

European ships carried manufactured goods to West Africa, exchanged them for enslaved people, transported them across the Atlantic on the horrific 'Middle Passage', then carried sugar, cotton and tobacco back to Europe. This became known as the triangular trade.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 18

Learn

Scale and suffering

Historians estimate that over 12 million enslaved Africans were transported between the 1500s and 1800s, with a significant proportion dying during the brutal crossing. Enslaved people endured forced labour, mainly on plantations in the Americas and Caribbean.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 18

Quick check

What was the 'triangular trade'?

8

Reset break

Part 8 of 18

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
9

Quick check

Part 9 of 18

Quick check

When did Britain pass the Slavery Abolition Act?

10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 18

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Resistance and legacy

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 18

Learn

Resistance and abolition

Enslaved people resisted through rebellions, such as the successful Haitian Revolution beginning in 1791. In Britain, campaigners including Olaudah Equiano and William Wilberforce pushed for abolition, achieved in stages with the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 18

Learn

Lasting interconnections

The wealth generated funded British ports and industries, while the trade's legacy shaped modern populations, cultures and inequalities across Africa, the Americas and Europe. Studying it shows how deeply connected world regions had become centuries ago.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 18

Quick check

Who led the successful Haitian Revolution beginning in 1791?

14

Common mix-ups

Part 14 of 18

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • People often treat this as only American history. Britain was central to the trade and its profits.
  • People often think the story ends with abolition. Its legacies shape societies today.
15

Challenge round

Part 15 of 18

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 18

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Historians estimate that over 12 million enslaved Africans were transported between the 1500s and 1800s, with a ____ proportion dying during the brutal crossing.

17

Mastery quiz

Part 17 of 18

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: A world issue: the transatlantic slave trade

6 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Chattel slavery means people were…

  2. 2. Around how many Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic?

  3. 3. Resistance took forms including…

  4. 4. Britain's role in the trade was…

  5. 5. A legacy of the trade is…

  6. 6. Studying this as a world issue shows how…

18

Lesson round-up

Part 18 of 18

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 3 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Source

A factory inspector's notebook, 1842

"I visited the mill at seven in the morning. The machines were already running. I counted fourteen children at the frames, the youngest no more than nine years of age. The overseer told me they work from six until seven, with forty minutes for dinner."

"The air is thick with cotton dust and the windows are kept shut so the thread does not break. Two of the children showed me hands cut by the shuttles. The owner assured me that the work is light and that the families beg him for the places, since without the children's wages the rent cannot be paid."

"I have written to the magistrates. I doubt much will follow from it."

Original source-style text written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. Who wrote this, when, and why might that make it useful to a historian?
  2. What does the source tell you about children's work — and what does it not tell you?
  3. How far does this source show that mill owners were to blame? Answer with a judgement and evidence.

  • Source work

    Reading

    Read the source closely. Write who made it, when, and what it tells you — then what it does not tell you.

    2 paragraphs

  • Essay answer

    Writing

    Answer the enquiry question with a clear judgement. Use two pieces of evidence and finish with a sentence that weighs them up.

    300–400 words

  • Timeline

    Diagram

    Draw a timeline of the events in this lesson with dates, then photograph it.

    6–8 events

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Part 1 of 18 · Watch & discover

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    Understand at least one study of a significant society or issue in world history and its interconnections with other world developments

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