In this word relay activity, you’ll practice matching definitions to words. This is a fun, active way to reinforce unit vocabulary, and it will help you become even more familiar with the words you need to know to engage with the content in Unit 3.

You’re going to play a word relay game with the vocab from Unit 3. You’ll get one vocab card and two blank index cards. Here’s how you’ll play the two-part game:

Part 1

1. On one of the blank cards, write the definition of the word on your vocab card.
2. Once everyone is ready, swap words with another student.
3. Write a definition for your new word on your remaining blank card.

Part 2

1. Your teacher will split you into teams of four or five. Once you’re in your team, line up single file.
2. Now, you’re going to have a relay race to see which team can match the most cards to the most definitions. Your teacher will have set up vocab cards in one part of the room and definitions cards in another.
3. The first student in line will pick up a vocab card, then move as quickly as possible to find the definition of that word. Remember, there are two definitions for each word, but you only need one.

The first team that has a word and definition matched for each team member wins!

Slavery has existed since some of the earliest human societies, but the transatlantic slave trade was unprecedented in its scale and violence. Rather than being part of a different social class, enslaved people were considered property. This was justified using ideas about race and religion, but the motives fueling the trade were mainly European economic interests. Looking for sources of inexpensive labor to produce cash crops and raw materials, Europeans created a transatlantic slave trade which enabled Europe to amass a lot of wealth—to the serious detriment of societies in Africa and the Americas.

This article builds on previous lessons about the Columbian Exchange by focusing in further on the forced migration of millions of people through the transatlantic slave trade. You’ll learn about how the transatlantic slave trade was unprecedented, but you’ll also be able to see why and how people were enslaved in other places and times. This will prepare you to think about the economic motivations behind the transatlantic slave trade, which will be important in later articles, videos, and activities in this lesson.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. According to the article, what was the status of enslaved people in some parts of Africa prior to the involvement of the Europeans?
2. What was the status of enslaved people in the medieval Muslim world?
3. In what context did Europeans start the transatlantic slave trade?
4. How did the transatlantic slave trade cause an increase in wars in Africa?
5. What goods moved across the triangular trade?
6. According to the article, how did the transatlantic slave trade contribute to the Industrial Revolution?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following question:

1. What is slavery? Given the range of types of slavery in different societies discussed in this article, is it useful to use the same term for all of these different kinds of status? Why or why not?

Around 12.5 million human beings were enslaved in Africa and forcibly transported to the Americas. There, they and their descendants were subjected to a system of perpetual slavery. It was a system with great diversity across the Americas, but also some shared characteristics between regions. In this system, enslaved people were defined as property. It was also a system in which status was determined by racial hierarchy. In this article, we study these two elements. In a following article, we will discover a third shared characteristic.

The Unit 3 Problem asks you to explore how global connections promoted change. Such change is not always positive. The growth of the Atlantic slaving system is one example of a transformation in this era that has had a long, negative legacy. This article explores two elements of this system—the categorization of people as property and the centrality of a racial hierarchy. Although slavery has existed elsewhere in history, these two elements help to distinguish modern slavery in the Americas.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What was the legal status of enslaved people of African descent in the Americas?
2. How did this legal status impact enslaved people’s experiences?
3. What information does the advertisement announcing the escape of an enslaved person in Jamaica give us about the person named York?
4. How did laws and beliefs around race impact enslaved people and free people of color?
5. What information do the articles from the French Code Noir give us about the way race worked in the French colonies in the Americas?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. Using the evidence in this article, write a definition of “slavery” that fits the time and place described in the article.
2. Under the system of slavery in the Americas, what kinds of communities do you think enslaved people could form? What challenges might they have faced in forming communities?

Around 12.5 million human beings were enslaved in Africa and forcibly transported to the Americas. There, they and their descendants were subjected to a system of violent, perpetual slavery. But this same Atlantic region was also experiencing an era of liberalization that promoted individual rights and sovereignty. How could these two things go together? We can find some answers in economic motivations and racial and religion justifications.

The Unit 3 Problem asks you to explore how global connections promoted change. But change is not always positive. The growth of the Atlantic slaving system is one example of a transformation in this era that has had a long, negative legacy, seemingly in contradiction to the rise of ideas of personal sovereignty and citizenship in this same region and era. This article explores what motives drove this system of enslavement, and how people tried to justify it.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What contradiction does the system of slavery in the Americas highlight, according to the author?
2. What was the principle motive for using enslaved labor?
3. How were the people in William Clark’s 1823 painting Cutting the Sugar Cane, Antigua economically related to Harewood House in Leeds?
4. In what ways did people use religion to justify slavery?
5. In what way did people mis-use science to argue in favor of slavery? Were these arguments sustained by evidence?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. What is the difference between a “motive” and a “justification”, as the author uses them in this article?
2. How is it possible that the same society could create both important ideas about individual sovereignty and the rights of citizens, and a system of perpetual, violent enslavement? What particular set of ideas made it possible in this context?

Make sure you have the UP Notebook worksheets that you partially filled out earlier in the unit.

This is a continuation of the UP Notebook activity that you started in this unit. As part of WHP, you are asked to revisit the Unit Problems in order to maintain a connection to the core themes of the course. Because this is the second time you’re working with this unit’s problems, you are asked to explain how your understanding of the unit’s core concepts has changed over the unit. Make sure you use evidence from this unit and sound reasoning in your answers.

Fill out the second table on your partially completed worksheet from earlier in the unit. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

This set of primary sources describes the horrific realities of the transatlantic slave trade. These sources provide first-hand accounts of conditions aboard slaving ships and the experiences of those who were abducted from their homes. Accounts like these helped to end the slave trade. This collection prepares you for the reform movements you will encounter later in the course. In addition, you’ll work on your sourcing skills using the Quick-Sourcing Tool.

This primary source collection includes first-hand accounts of the Atlantic slaving system and can be difficult for students to read. Please note that these are important sources that explain the experiences of the enslaved, which include kidnapping, torture, murder, and sexual violence.

We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.

The primary source excerpts in this collection provide a glimpse into the journey of African captives to the New World, including the harsh and dangerous conditions they experienced. It shows that enslaved people dealt with these horrific conditions in diverse ways, often finding ways to resist, strategize, and adapt to these intense circumstances.

This set of primary sources describes the horrific realities of the transatlantic slave trade. These sources provide first-hand accounts of conditions aboard slaving ships and the experiences of those who were abducted from their homes. Accounts like these helped to end the slave trade. This collection prepares you for the reform movements you will encounter later in the course. In addition, you’ll work on your sourcing skills using the Quick-Sourcing Tool.

This primary source collection includes first-hand accounts of the Atlantic slaving system and can be difficult for students to read. Please note that these are important sources that explain the experiences of the enslaved, which include kidnapping, torture, murder, and sexual violence.

We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.

As a priest and healer, Domingos Álvares was dedicated to building communities and networks wherever he went. He continued to do this despite being sold to European slavers and forcibly transported to Brazil. Álvares was imprisoned twice due to suspicions surrounding his healing practices.

This biography provides a unique insight into the impacts of global connections taking place during Unit 3. Told from the perspective of an enslaved African man, it provides a new perspective as you consider the Unit 3 Problem: How did transoceanic connections transform global economic systems and societies in different parts of the world? Álvares’ biography will also help you evaluate claims about the networks and communities frame.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. When and where was Domingos Álvares born?
2. What was Álvares’ occupation, and why did this lead to his capture and sale to European enslavers by the King of Dahomey?
3. Why was Álvares imprisoned in 1733?
4. Why did the Catholic Church try to imprison Álvares in 1742?
5. How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate the importance of community to Álvares?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. How is Álvares’ biography evidence of the kinds of networks people built across regions, and the transfer of ideas from one region to another in this era? How does this evidence support, extend, or challenge your understanding of the impact of the Columbian Exchange?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

The Atlantic slave trade removed 12.5 million people from Africa and probably resulted in the death of millions more. This violence and forced migration caused long-term suffering at the individual and societal levels. Three Ghanaian scholars give us a sense of its impact on the coast, the interior, and the far north of this region.

The Unit 3 Problem asks you to consider the impact of transoceanic connections in this period, and the Atlantic slaving system is an important element of the changes that resulted from the Columbian Exchange. Its impact on Africa was dramatic, and we can begin to study it by scale-switching to just one region: the Gold Coast, or roughly the modern nation-state of Ghana.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. How do Ato Ashun and Trevor Getz describe society around Cape Coast prior to the Atlantic slave trade?
2. What does the physical structure of Cape Coast Castle under the British, including its dungeons, tell us about the Atlantic slave trade?
3. What, according to Ato Ashun, were some of the economic impacts of the Atlantic slaving system on the coastal region?
4. According to Akosua Perbi, how did the Atlantic slaving system affect how people lived?
5. What impacts of the Atlantic slaving system does Wilhelmina Donkoh focus on in her interview?
6. How does Ato Ashun say that the evidence of the Atlantic slave trade, in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, affected him personally?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How did the Atlantic slave trade affect Ghana, in terms of all three frames used in this course? Do you think these effects were the same in other regions of Africa? Why or why not?
2. If you were a guide for tourists visiting Cape Coast Castle, what would you want them to know?

This activity will provide additional evidence to help you respond to the Unit Problem: How did transoceanic connections transform global economic systems and societies in different parts of the world? In this activity, you will look back on what you’ve learned during this unit by comparing two political maps. And you’ll review your predictions about the changes in long-distance trade and empires from the Unit 3 Part 1 activity. Finally, you’ll examine a map showing transoceanic voyages and the silver trade as you discuss how these voyages and trade reshaped the world.

This activity begins with an identification opening in which you identify 10 political communities in the year 1750 CE. Next, you’ll compare the maps of political communities in 1550 and 1750 CE as you evaluate how communities changed and stayed the same over this 200-year period after the first transoceanic connections. Finally, you will compare your predictions from the Part 1 activity to a map of the silver trade and transoceanic voyages and write a response to a prompt about how these connections transformed economic systems and societies.

Step 1

Identify the political communities associated with the numbers on the black-and-white map of the world in 1750 CE and record your answers on the worksheet. If applicable, indicate which empire controlled the territory.

Step 2

In small groups, examine the 1750 Political Map alongside the 1550 Political Map that you saw in the Part 1 map activity at the start of the unit. Compare these two maps and identify three significant changes and continuities between the two.

Step 3

Remaining in small groups, open and review the Silver Trade and Transoceanic Voyages Thematic Map. Review the predictions you made in the Part 1 map activity for this unit. What did you get right? What did you miss? Finally, prepare a short paragraph or bullet list in response to this prompt:

The first sustained transoceanic connections that you’ve learned about in this unit reshaped life on Earth. Using the maps you encountered in this unit as evidence, explain one way that transoceanic connections transformed long-distance trade and one way that these connections reshaped one political community of your choice.

In this activity, you’ll continue to get familiar with elements of good writing by digging into the Analysis and Evidence row of the WHP rubric. Additionally, you will examine the Applying WHP Concepts row of the rubric, because those concepts are integral to using evidence in this course’s writing assignments. You’ll analyze a sample student essay, which will help you become more familiar with the specific expectations for WHP writing, as well as help you become a more skilled writer in general.

In this activity, you’ll take a close look at the Analysis and Evidence and Applying WHP Concepts rows of the WHP Writing Rubric and analyze a student essay against the criteria included in the rubric.

This activity will be similar to the one you did in Unit 2, when you analyzed the article “Cultural Consequences of Connectivity” to look for claim and focus. This time, you’ll look for analysis, evidence, and WHP concepts in a student essay that was written in response to the prompt, “Develop an argument that analyzes the growth of networks of exchange after 1200 CE.” Before starting your analysis, take out the WHP Writing Rubric and review the Analysis and Evidence and Applying WHP Concepts rows with your class.

Once you’ve reviewed these criteria, your teacher will probably put you into pairs or small groups to work collaboratively on the Writing – Analysis, Evidence, and WHP Concepts Part 1 worksheet. First, identify the major claim (thesis) in the essay. While the thesis is not the focus of this activity, it’s difficult to assess the rest of the essay without being aware of the major claim, since everything in the essay should support it.

Now that you’ve found the major claim, review the essay, paying close attention to important elements of analysis and evidence. This includes the use of source material, the analysis of that material, and the connection between sources and the paper’s major claim. Annotate the essay according to the worksheet directions, provide a grade (advanced, proficient, developing, or emerging), and comment about how well this student did on analysis and evidence in their writing. Next, look for where and how well WHP concepts were used in the essay, and again, grade and comment on the use of these concepts. Be prepared to share your answers with the class!

Carefully read the DBQ essay prompt you will be responding to. Be sure to have read and analyzed the documents using historical thinking skills such as sourcing or contextualizing prior to doing this warm-up activity.

Make sure you have drafted the thesis/major claim you intend to use in response to the essay prompt.

In addition to the close reading, critical thinking, and historical thinking skills you are refining throughout the course, the process of writing a DBQ will help you build important—and useful—writing skills. This warm-up focuses on the Analysis and Evidence row of the WHP Writing Rubric and gives you the opportunity to practice choosing the best evidence to support your argument. Additionally, you will practice your analysis skills to not just connect your evidence to your thesis/major claim, but also to clearly explain why this connection is significant. These evidence and analysis skills will allow you to continue to develop your ability to respond to a writing prompt, and to generally be able to more effectively support your positions and opinions.

In this quick warm-up activity, you’ll practice engaging in analysis and using evidence to support your thesis/major claim when writing an essay. First, you’ll review the Analysis and Evidence row of the WHP Writing Rubric, and then, you’ll work through a three-step process to help you use evidence-backed supporting claims in support of your thesis/major claim. Your teacher may have you do this for one supporting claim or for many, depending on your familiarity with this process.

First, take out the WHP Writing Rubric and review the Analysis and Evidence row and discuss it with your class. Next, take out the Analysis and Evidence Prewriting Tool, and work through the tool together, using the DBQ prompt you’ll be responding to when you write your essay.

In Step 1, come up with a supporting claim—or reason—that supports the thesis/major claim statement you’ll be working on. Then, for Step 2, go back to the documents you reviewed or researched before this activity to find the best source to support the first subclaim. Once you’ve found the evidence, add the citation to the tool. Then, write down the specific evidence you’ll use from that document. Finally, write a reason why this evidence supports the supporting claim.

Now you’re ready for Step 3 (Reason). Write a sentence or two explaining how the evidence you found supports your supporting claim. Remember that if you aren’t quoting directly from the source, you should be sure to paraphrase and use your own words to describe the supporting evidence.

Once you have completed the steps, it’s time to write!

DBQ Prompt: Evaluate the extent to which the Columbian Exchange transformed the Americas from c. 1500 to 1750 CE.

Have the Comparison, CCOT, and Causation tools available (find all resources on the Student Resources page)

This assessment will help prepare you for the document-based questions (DBQs) you will probably encounter on exams. It will also give you a better understanding of your skills development and overall progress related to constructing an argument, interpreting historical documents, and employing the historical thinking practices you are using in this course.

Contextualization, sourcing, reading, writing
All DBQs require you to contextualize, source documents, and of course as part of this, read and write.

Day 1

In this activity, you are going to prepare to respond to a DBQ, or document-based question. In this course, document-based questions give you a prompt or question along with seven source documents, and you’ll use the information in those documents (and any additional knowledge you have) to respond to the prompt. Your responses will be written in essay format, and will usually be five or six paragraphs long.

This DBQ asks you to respond to the following prompt: Evaluate the extent to which the Columbian Exchange transformed the Americas from c. 1500 to 1750 CE. To make sure you’re clear on what you’re being asked, take out the Question Parsing Tool. Work with your classmates to deconstruct the prompt.

Next, take out the DBQ and relevant thinking tool to help you analyze the documents. Take a look at the document library. As you do with the Three Close Reads process, quickly skim each of the documents for gist. Then, do a closer read of each one. For each document, write down the information you think you might use in your essay. If possible, also provide a source analysis for each document. Write your ideas on the relevant tool as you work through the documents. Discuss your ideas with the class.

Now, come up with a major claim or thesis statement that responds to the prompt. Use the information from your thinking tool to help you come up with an idea. What you have written should help you support your claim. One common mistake students make when responding to a DBQ is not directly answering the prompt—so, in creating your thesis, make sure that it directly answers and is relevant to the prompt.

Finally, it’s time to contextualize. Remember, that ALL historical essays require you to contextualize. If you need to refresh your memory, contextualization is the process of placing a document, an event, a person, or process within its larger historical setting, and includes situating it in time, space, and sociocultural setting. In this case, you are contextualizing the documents. Contextualization will often come at the beginning of your essay, or at least in the first paragraph, either before or after your thesis statement. As needed, you can use the Contextualization Tool for this part of the process.

Day 2

This second day is your writing day. Feel free to use your tools and notes from any prewriting work you completed as you craft your essay response. Make sure you have a copy of the WHP Writing Rubric available to remind you of what’s important to include in your essay. And don’t forget to contextualize! In doing that, think of the entire time period, not just the time immediately preceding the historical event or process you are writing about. Your teacher will give you a time limit for completing your five- to six-paragraph essay responding to the DBQ.

In order to improve your writing skills, it is important to read examples—both good and bad—written by other people. Reviewing writing samples will help you develop and practice your own skills in order to better understand what makes for a strong essay.

Your teacher will provide sample essays for this unit’s DBQ prompt and provide instructions for how you will use them to refine your writing skills. Whether you’re working with a high-level example or improving on a not-so-great essay, we recommend having the WHP Writing Rubric on hand to help better understand how you can improve your own writing. As you work to identify and improve upon aspects of a sample essay, you’ll also be developing your own historical writing skills!

Have your graded essay ready to use for annotation and revision purposes.

A good way to improve your writing skills is to analyze and edit writing samples using peer drafts or even your own essay. In this activity, you are given a tool to use that gives you a strategy for evaluating and revising the use of analysis and evidence in a piece of writing based on the WHP Writing Rubric. As you think critically about the criteria in the rubric and evaluate a piece of writing against it, you will develop a stronger understanding of all of the factors that make a piece or writing “good.”

If you have not already reviewed the Analysis and Evidence row of the WHP Writing Rubric with your class, you’ll start by taking a close look at that section. Then, you’ll review the Analysis and Evidence Revision Tool and learn how to use it to improve upon the use of analysis and evidence in an essay. Finally, you’ll use the Analysis and Evidence Revision Tool to review and revise an essay that has been graded by your teacher or peers.

If you are reviewing the Analysis and Evidence row of the WHP Writing Rubric with your class, remember that well-placed and well-explained evidence can make all the difference in making a convincing and compelling argument.

Next, take out the Analysis and Evidence Revision Tool and walk through it with your class. First, note the directions at the top, which ask you to review the feedback from an essay. This is a helpful step because it gives you a general sense of how the essay fared in terms of analysis and evidence and where improvement is needed.

Now it’s time to go through each item on the checklist to make sure all criteria related to analysis and evidence were included in the essay. Work through the list with your class, and be sure to ask questions if you aren’t clear about what an item is asking for. Then, look to see if everything in the list is included in the essay. Only check the boxes if the criteria are met. If any criteria from the checklist were not met, leave those boxes blank. The final step is to revise the essay based on all the blank checkboxes. Use the unchecked boxes as guidance for what can be done to improve the essay. You can use the Analysis and Evidence Prewriting Tool to help structure revisions.

To give you more practice with the Analysis and Evidence Revision Tool, your teacher might have you review and revise a sample graded essay.

Once you have a solid grasp on how the tool works, you’ll repeat the process on your own graded essay.