This activity will provide you with an active demonstration of the global interconnectedness that exists in the world today, with a specific focus on the networks and production and distribution frames. Beginning the activity with a demonstration of our globalized world today and using relevant items from your daily lives will give you some context with which you can better analyze world connections that existed in previous time periods.

Contextualization, CCOT
This activity will help you contextualize the world that we live in today, but also the world in 1750 or in other periods of history. You’ll also practice establishing patterns of continuity and change over time, and developing hypotheses for reasons for these changes.

Your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Our Interconnected World Worksheet and provide you with directions for how this activity is structured. Your job is to use the narratives in the worksheet to illustrate how interconnected our world is today by tracing the production and distribution of three goods that you probably use or encounter on a daily basis. You’ll then use the yarn your teacher will supply to trace the steps in the production and distribution of these products across networks of exchange.

As your teacher walks through the narratives for each of the products, think about how these products get into your hands. Where was the product manufactured? Where were the components of the product created? Where did the natural resources used in the product originate?

At the end of the activity, think about how many of these connections existed between consumers and producers and distributors 50 or 100 years ago, during your grandparents’ lifetimes or even your great-grandparents’ lifetimes. There are three rounds to this activity. Each round will highlight some of the key goods that were traded across networks during three time periods: 1450, 1750, and today. Finally, you’ll answer the questions in Part 4 of the worksheet. Be prepared to share your answers and reasoning with your class.

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.

In the previous lesson, you learned about exchanges of people, plants, animals, and germs across the Atlantic. Then you learned about migration patterns in general. This article builds on those lessons 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?

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 Era 5 Problem asks you to consider the impact of growing interconnections 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?

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

This sourcing collection, along with the Quick-Sourcing Tool, gives you an opportunity to practice a quicker kind of sourcing than you do in the sourcing practice progression. The tool and the process for using it—specifically designed for unpacking document collections—will help you be successful when responding to DBQs.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Quick-Sourcing Tool or the process for using it, we recommend reviewing the Quick-Sourcing Introduction activity in Lesson 5.1.

The Quick-Sourcing Tool can be used any time you encounter a set of sources and are trying to respond to a prompt or question, as opposed to the deeper analysis you do when using the HAPPY tool that is part of the sourcing progression.

First, take out or download the sourcing collection and review the guiding question that appears on the first page. Then, take out or download the Quick-Sourcing Tool and review the directions. For Part 1, you’ll write a quick summary of each source in terms of how it relates to the guiding question (we recommend using one note card or scrap of paper for each source).

For Part 2, which uses the first four letters of the acronym from the HAPPY tool, you only have to respond to one of these four questions. You should always include the historical significance or “why” (the “Y” in “HAPPY”) for any of the four questions you choose to respond to.

In Part 3, you’ll gather the evidence you found in each document and add it to your note cards so you can include it in a response later. Once each document is analyzed, look at your note cards and try to categorize the cards. There might be a group of documents that support the claim you want to make in your response, and another group that will help you consider counterclaims, for example.

To wrap up, try to respond to the guiding question.

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 Era 5. Told from the perspective of an enslaved African man, it provides a new perspective as you consider the Era 5 Problem: How did the first ongoing connections between the hemispheres promote change both globally and regionally? 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!

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 Era 5 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 Era 5 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 EP Notebook worksheets that you partially filled out earlier in the era.

This is a continuation of the EP Notebook activity that you started in this era. As part of WHP, you are asked to revisit the Era 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 era’s problems, you are asked to explain how your understanding of the era’s core concepts has changed over the unit. Make sure you use evidence from this era and sound reasoning in your answers.

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

In this activity, you will continue practicing your CCOT skills by evaluating the continuities and changes in the time period from c. 200 to c. 1750 CE. With each CCOT activity in the course, you will get better at identifying and describing changes and continuities over time. This historical thinking skill will help you explain the changes as you move through the eras and also allow you to see patterns that emerge through the continuities.

Comparison, causation, contextualization, writing
In this activity, you’ll use your comparison, contextualization, and causation skills to complete the CCOT Tool and compare events and processes that took place from Era 4 (c. 200–1500 CE) through Era 5 (c. 1200–1750 CE). In addition, you’ll be writing a paragraph response to answer a CCOT prompt.

Your teacher will either hand out or have you download the CCOT – Regional Webs to the First Global Age worksheet, and will divide the class into pairs or small groups. Once you’re in groups, follow the tool directions and start by adding the timeframe. Then, you’ll identify the continuities and changes that took place across Eras 4 and 5. Remember that you can use any of the articles and videos from these eras to help you identify continuities and changes—the Eras 4 and 5 overview articles are a good place to start!

Once you’ve identified the continuities and changes, write these on sticky notes (one change or continuity per note). Then, work together to decide if the continuities and changes you identified are positive or negative and place them on the graph in the tool.

Next, work together to complete the remaining questions on the tool. Remember that you can use the acronym ADE to determine historical significance. Consider if most people’s lives were affected by these changes and continuities (amount); if people living in this time period were deeply affected by these changes and continuities (depth); or if these changes and continuities were long lasting (endurance).

Then, craft thesis statements in response to the following CCOT prompts:

• To what extent were the changes that occurred from c. 200 to c. 1750 CE positive?
• To what extent were the continuities that occurred from c. 200 to c. 1750 CE positive?

Finally, use your thesis statements to individually write a paragraph response as an exit ticket that fully answers the following question: To what extent were the changes and continuities that occurred from c. 200 to c. 1750 CE positive?

Your teacher will collect your worksheets and paragraphs to evaluate how your CCOT skills are progressing.