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The Plantation System

Driving Question: How was slavery in the Atlantic plantation system different from earlier forms of slavery?

The millions of Africans who were enslaved and forced to work in the Americas provided the labor that fueled the plantation system. This system enriched slavers as well as European empires. Enslaved people were treated as property, and the transatlantic slave trade was accompanied by the development of racial theories and ideologies that sought to justify the enslavement of Africans based on perceived racial hierarchies.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand and critique the motives and justifications for the transatlantic slave trade.
  2. Evaluate how conceptions of race affected communities and labor systems.
STEP 1

Opener: The Plantation System

Teaching Tools

Check out this topic page to learn about all the ways we approach sourcing at OER Project.

STEP 2

Enslavement in the Americas

Teaching Tools

Check out the OER Project Differentiation Guide Locked  to ensure you’re modifying materials appropriately for your students.

Slavery has existed for thousands of years. In these two articles and activity, we grapple with the unique system of enslavement that emerged in the sixteenth-century Americas.