KS2:2 What should we put in an online biography of Olaudah Equiano?
Enquiry question
2. What was the Transatlantic Triangular Slave Trade?
Having introduced Olaudah Equiano, the Scheme of Work continues with the evidence-based approach, using interactive resources to place Equiano within the history of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
History Learning Objective
To understand the basic economic pattern of the Transatlantic Triangular Slave Trade.
Activities
Prepare sufficient computers for pupils to share one between two.
Be ready to display the online interactive map of the Transatlantic
Triangular Slave Trade (Resource G) from
www.nmm.ac.uk/freedom/viewTheme.cfm/theme/triangular
For the
follow-up activity, you will need world atlases, pencils and paper.
Starter
Arrange pairs of pupils at computers. Ask for silence and for pupils
to close their eyes. Then read out the following visualisation script:
"You are a time traveller again, back in the dark basement room, picking your way among the wreckage of scattered papers, broken glass, timber and objects. Your torch falls on a large box sticking out from the wall. It is made from black plastic. You sweep away the cobwebs with your hand and find a glass screen covered in dust. Below are some push buttons. You press them at random, yellow, blue, red, and then finally green. To your amazement the screen suddenly lights up and this is what you see…"
Ask pupils to open their eyes and ensure that they can all see the
interactive map of the Transatlantic Slave Trade from
www.nmm.ac.uk/freedom/viewTheme.cfm/theme/triangular
Activity 1
Give pairs a strict time limit to skim and scan the text, including the
resource’s animated features. Although this resource is aimed at
KS3, Y5 & 6 pupils should be able to follow the text.
Use the pupils’ completed versions of the evidence table (Resource F) and invite comments on whether/how this newly discovered evidence has confirmed what they thought or changed their minds.
Reveal that the identity of the building the time travellers discovered was a museum, The National Maritime Museum, which created the electronic map. The devastated room was once a gallery devoted to Olaudah Equiano, an African who had been enslaved.
Activity 2
The following activity could be used to reinforce the learning about
the Triangular Trade from the museum website.
Ask pupils to work in pairs again, and sketch a map of the North
Atlantic coastline using an atlas. Then, to transfer details of the Transatlantic Slave Ttrade from the electronic interactive map and description
onto their sketch. As a form of peer assessment, put pairs of pupils
together with other pairs and get them to advise each other about
what details they might have missed.
Collect their drawings and then display the interactive map. Invite three different pairs to offer details from memory as to what happened on each of the stages of the British Transatlantic Triangular Slave Trade; Stage 1: Britain to Africa, Stage 2: Africa to West Indies and Stage 3: West Indies to Britain. As you do this, set the relevant part of the animation sequence on the map going so that the pupils can gauge whether the details have been recalled accurately/in full.
When referring to the details on the interactive resource, draw attention to the greed of British traders and African rulers, the cruelty of the Middle Passage conditions for enslaved Africans and the massive scale of profits that could be made. Wherever possible refer to Africans as “Africans” rather than “slaves”, as this description emphasises their humanity. The overuse of the term “slave” conveys the impression that enslaved Africans were all helpless victims of the trade when in practice there was much resistance. Further guidelines on why language matters can be found at www.understandingslavery.com.
Outcomes
- To have participated in a
drama visualisation
exercise.
- To have skimmed and
scanned an interactive
map of the Transatlantic Triangular Slave Trade
and accompanying print
text.
- To have revised their
conclusions on resource
sheet F in the light of the
map.
- To have sketched and
annotated their own map
of the trade.
- To have participated in a
recall exercise based on
details of the
Triangular Slave Trade.