The transatlantic slave trade in the context of empire
Britain's empire and its economy were bound up with the forced transportation of millions of enslaved Africans. Studying it means handling difficult evidence carefully and accurately.
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition, in the context of empire
Key learning points
- • How the system worked
- • The Middle Passage and plantation life
- • Resistance
- • Abolition and its limits
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 25 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
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Part 1 of 25
Visual introductionPicture this
The transatlantic slave trade in the context of empire
Britain's empire and its economy were bound up with the forced transportation of millions of enslaved Africans. Studying it means handling difficult evidence carefully and accurately.
In a nutshell
Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition, in the context of empire
What you already know
Part 2 of 25
Before we start
What you already know
You should already know that empire supplied raw materials and markets for British industry.
Key words
Part 3 of 25
Key words
Words you'll need today
- Triangular trade
- The three-legged Atlantic trading pattern involving enslaved people.
- Middle Passage
- The forced Atlantic crossing endured by enslaved Africans.
- Plantation
- A large estate producing cash crops using forced labour.
- Abolition
- The ending of the slave trade and of slavery.
Reset break
Part 4 of 25
Pause
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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.
Learning cycle
Part 5 of 25
Learning cycle 1 of 2
The system and its human cost
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 6 of 25
Learn
How the system worked
Ships carried manufactured goods from British ports to West Africa, transported enslaved people across the Atlantic, and returned with sugar, tobacco and cotton. Profits flowed into ports, banks and country estates. Presenting this as ordinary commerce obscures the central fact: the trade depended on treating human beings as property.
Explore the idea
Part 7 of 25
Learn
The Middle Passage and plantation life
The Atlantic crossing involved extreme overcrowding, disease and violence, and many did not survive. On plantations, forced labour was maintained through legal codes and brutal punishment, and families were separated by sale. Contemporary written testimony by formerly enslaved people is essential evidence, and should be read as central rather than supplementary.
Reset break
Part 8 of 25
Pause
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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.
Quick check
Part 9 of 25
Quick check
Part 10 of 25
Learning cycle
Part 11 of 25
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Resistance and abolition
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
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Part 12 of 25
Pause
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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.
Explore the idea
Part 13 of 25
Learn
Resistance
Enslaved people resisted constantly: through escape, sabotage, maintaining culture and language, and organised rebellion, including the revolution in Saint-Domingue that created Haiti. Any account that presents abolition as something granted by British campaigners alone leaves out the pressure created by that resistance.
Explore the idea
Part 14 of 25
Learn
Abolition and its limits
Campaigners including formerly enslaved writers, Quaker organisers and mass petitioners pressed Parliament, which abolished the trade in 1807 and slavery in most British territories from 1833. Compensation was paid to slave owners, not to those enslaved. The economic and social consequences of the system persisted long after the laws changed.
Quick check
Part 15 of 25
Reset break
Part 16 of 25
Pause
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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.
Quick check
Part 17 of 25
Common mix-ups
Part 18 of 25
Common mix-ups
Things people often get wrong
- People often frame abolition as a gift from campaigners. Resistance by enslaved people was a major cause.
- People often think 1807 ended slavery. It ended the British trade; slavery continued until the 1830s.
Challenge round
Part 19 of 25
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
Reset break
Part 20 of 25
Pause
That's sitting 5 of 6 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.
Challenge round
Part 21 of 25
Game · Fill the gaps
Finish the sentences
Choose the word that belongs in each gap.
Any account that presents ____ as something granted by British campaigners alone leaves out the pressure created by that resistance.
Challenge round
Part 22 of 25
Game · Recall cards
The Middle Passage refers to...
Card 1 of 4
Exit quiz
Part 23 of 25
Exit quiz
Show what you've learned
6 questions, marked together at the end. Nothing is timed.
1. The 1807 Act abolished...
2. Testimony by formerly enslaved writers should be treated as...
3. The Haitian revolution showed...
4. Triangular trade linked Britain, West Africa and...
5. Plantation control was maintained through...
6. A full account of abolition includes campaigners and...
Mastery quiz
Part 24 of 25
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: The transatlantic slave trade in the context of empire
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. The Middle Passage refers to...
2. Profits from the trade flowed into...
3. Which is an example of resistance?
4. After 1833 compensation was paid to...
Lesson round-up
Part 25 of 25
Lesson round-up
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