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SavannahYear 8
← History
HistoryIndustry, empire and the slave trade30 min★★★ difficulty

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
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

britaintransatlanticeffectseventualabolition

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

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1

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Part 1 of 19

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The transatlantic slave trade in the context of empire

An English teaching video on this topic from TED-Ed. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Understand Britain's transatlantic slave trade, its effects and its eventual abolition, in the context of empire

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You should already know that empire supplied raw materials and markets for British industry.

Recap: Industry, empire and political power, 1745-1901
3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

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.
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Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

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.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

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.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

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.

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Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

The Middle Passage refers to...

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Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

Profits from the trade flowed into...

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Reset break

Part 9 of 19

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
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

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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Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

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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.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

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.

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Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Which is an example of resistance?

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Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

After 1833 compensation was paid to...

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Common mix-ups

Part 15 of 19

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.
16

Challenge round

Part 16 of 19

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

17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

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.

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: The transatlantic slave trade in the context of empire

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

  1. 1. The 1807 Act abolished...

  2. 2. Testimony by formerly enslaved writers should be treated as...

  3. 3. The Haitian revolution showed...

  4. 4. Triangular trade linked Britain, West Africa and...

  5. 5. Plantation control was maintained through...

  6. 6. A full account of abolition includes campaigners and...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

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Points this lesson

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Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

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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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