+
Graphic
Other

Rothman and Burdumy: Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Visualization

For Students 9th - 10th
Time-lapsed heatmap visualization of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Data from Transatlantic Slave Trade Database mapped in a three-part depiction of voyages, ship disembarkment location and ship arrival location in the Americas.
+
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: West Africa and the Role of Slavery

For Students 11th - 12th
This section of a chapter on "The Americas, Europe, and Africa Before 1492" takes a look at the major West African empires and discusses the roles of Islam and Europe in the slave trade.
+
Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

C3 Teachers: Inquiries: Slavery

For Teachers 5th
A comprehensive learning module on slavery that includes three supporting questions accompanied by formative tasks and primary source materials, followed by a summative performance task. Students will examine the role of sugar production...
+
Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Stanford History Education Group: The Middle Passage

For Teachers 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson plan on the Middle Passage includes PowerPoint presentation and primary source documents from which students explore original material.
+
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: African Voices: History

For Students 6th - 8th
Trace Africa's history from the earliest humans to modern times using this thematic timeline. Learn about African trade, religion, empires, and technology. Vibrant pictures are included for each time period showcasing the African culture.
+
Handout
BBC

Bbc History: British History: The Civil War in Barbados

For Students 9th - 10th
An interesting and detailed look at how the Civil War in England affected the Caribbean island of Barbados. Find out how this small island influenced British navigation laws and why it was a place of political asylum during the...
+
Lesson Plan
Huntington Library

Huntington Library: Triangular Trade

For Teachers 5th
In this lesson, 5th graders learn about the many societal structures that developed in colonial days, including the conditions for self-government in America, the free-market economy, and the slavery system. Background information for...
+
eBook
Other

United States History: Ch. 3 Sec. 1: The Southern Colonies [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
A chapter from a history text that looks at the development of the Southern Colonies. It discusses the Southern agricultural economy that relied on slave labor, tobacco as a cash crop, Southern society, indentured servitude, Bacon's...
+
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Middle Passage

For Students 9th - 10th
This website contains pictures and descriptions of the Middle Passage voyage. Click on Teacher's Guide for teacher resources.
+
Website
Brown University

John Carter Brown Library: Slavery and Justice

For Students 9th - 10th
Brown University boasts ownership of one of the greatest collections of early Americana in the world. In 2007 the university's John Carter Brown Library introduced a thorough exhibit after the publication of "Report of the Brown...
+
Handout
Choices Program, Brown University

Choices: A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England

For Students 9th - 10th
Unit explores, through a series of videos from notable scholars, the effects of the trade in slaves and of slavery itself on the new Americans of the time and helps students to understand how history, and the telling of history, affects...
+
Activity
US National Archives

Nara: Charters of Freedom: Constitution of the United States

For Students 9th - 10th
Comprehensive overview of the U.S. Constitution. Places the Constitution in context with two other founding charters of American democracy and government, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Includes access to digital...
+
Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry: Aphra Behn's Oroonoko: Slavery and Race in the Atlantic World

For Students 9th - 10th
Newberry Library lesson using digitized primary source explores how Aphra Behn's novel, Oroonoko, compares to other representations of race, slavery, and colonialism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Questions to consider are...
+
Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry: Olaudah Equiano: Eighteenth Century Debate Over Africa Slave Trade

For Students 9th - 10th
Learning module uses 18th Century literature as primary source material to examine the debate over slavery and the role Olaudah Equiano played in the conversation.
+
Unit Plan
Mariners' Museum and Park

Mariners' Museum: Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade

For Students 9th - 10th
Online exhibition from the Mariners' Museum chronicles the plight of African slaves from the beginning of their journey when they are torn from their homeland all the way to the shores of the Americas. Caught up in the lucrative...
+
Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: The Transatlantic Slave Trade

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection uses primary sources to explore the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
+
Lesson Plan
British Library

British Library: Bronte's Wuthering Heights: Who Is Heathcliff?

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This activity involves an exploration of the notoriously multifaceted character of Heathcliff, drawing on a range of sources that include the visual, literary, and historical. Students will reflect on Emily Bronte's depiction of...
+
Website
Cornell University

Cornell University: Library: I Will Be Heard: A Slave's Life

For Students 9th - 10th
A brief look at how slavery in America was tied to the crops grown in the South. See how the need for skilled workers was decreased and the use of unskilled slaves increased with the introduction of the cotton gin.
+
Website
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Senegambia, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Drawings of West Africans and two accounts of Africans before enslavement, one by an African of Gambia, one by a French traveler to Senegal. They examine how Africans lived in freedom before enslavement.
+
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Sierra Leone, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
An eighteenth-century map, several illustrations by Europeans of Africans from Sierra Leone, and two eighteenth-century narratives depicting Sierra Leone natives through the eyes of two British physicians who describe the peoples they...
+
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Capture, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Several narratives of the capture of West Africans, including the famous autobiography of Venture Smith, from the eighteenth century, two accounts of conditions on slave ships, and an audio recording of the memories of the descendants of...
+
Activity
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Colonial Period of American History

For Students 9th - 10th
Comprehensive information about the colonial period of American History. Includes information about New England, colonies, government, people, The French and Indian War, and the Salem Witch Trials.
+
Website
Digital History

Digital History: The Slave Trade [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
Read Olaudah Equiano's account of being captured in his village in Africa, and placed on a slave ship to be taken to America. He describes the middle passage of the triangular trade route, as well as the leg from Europe to Africa. [pdf]
+
Website
Digital History

Digital History: Enslavement

For Students 9th - 10th
A very good description of how Africans were enslaved in Africa for sale to the Europeans. See how the introduction of European weapons changed the dynamic in West Africa.