The Middle Passage
Teacher Resources
Lesson 6.10 Teaching Guide
OER Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies Guide
Support for having discussions that are difficult, but meaningful.
Driving Question: What were the causes and effects of the Atlantic slaving system?
The Middle Passage was the portion of the triangular trade linking Africa to the Americas. African and European slavers kidnapped Africans, usually from the interior of the continent, and sold their captives into slavery. The journey across the Atlantic Ocean was horrific for those who were sold and profitable for the buyers and sellers. Of the 12.5 million Africans sold into slavery, only about 10 million survived the Middle Passage. For those who did survive, another type of horror awaited as the survivors were sold into slavery to spend their lives working on plantations. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the effects of this trade from those with firsthand experience of the journey across the Atlantic.
- Understand and critique the motives and justifications for the transatlantic slave trade.
- Evaluate the impact of the Atlantic slaving system on communities in Africa and the Americas.
- Utilize quick-sourcing skills to analyze primary source documents to assess first-person accounts of those involved in the transatlantic slave trade.
- Use a graphic biography as a microhistory to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives from this time period.
Opener
Article
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Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads – Introduction activity.
Skim
Before you read, you should quickly skim the article, by looking at the headings of each section and the charts. Read the questions below as well, so you know what to look for when you read!
Key Ideas
- What was the status of enslaved people in some parts of Africa prior to the involvement of Europeans?
- What was the status of enslaved people in the medieval Muslim world?
- In what context did Europeans start the transatlantic slave trade?
- How did the transatlantic slave trade cause an increase in wars in Africa?
- What goods moved across the triangular trade?
- How did the transatlantic slave trade lead to the Industrial Revolution?
Evaluate
- 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 these different kinds of status? Why or why not?
Impact of the Slave Trade: Through a Ghanaian Lens
Key Ideas
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Before you watch
Before you watch the video, it’s a good idea to open and skim the video transcript. And always read the questions below so you know what to look and listen for as you watch!
While you watch
- How do Ato Ashun and Trevor Getz describe society around Cape Coast prior to the Atlantic slave trade?
- What does the physical structure of Cape Coast Castle under the British, including its dungeons, tell us about the Atlantic slave trade?
- What, according to Ato Ashun, were some of the economic impacts of the Atlantic slaving system on the coastal region?
- According to Akosua Perbi, how did the Atlantic slaving system affect how people lived?
- What impacts of the Atlantic slaving system does Wilhelmina Donkoh focus on in her interview?
- How does Ato Ashun say that the evidence of the Atlantic slave trade, in the dungeons of Cape Coast Castle, affected him personally?
After you watch
- 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?
- If you were a guide for tourists visiting Cape Coast Castle, what would you want them to know?
As you read the primary source excerpts in this collection, use the accompanying Quick-Sourcing Tool to guide your analysis.
Article
Article
Closer
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Note: For more detailed directions on completing the three close reads below, refer to the Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios – Introduction activity.
Observe
Skim the full comic, paying attention to things like prominent colors, shapes, and types of text and fonts. How do you know where to start and which direction to read? What’s in the gutters (the space between panels)? Who is the focus of the comic? What big questions do you have?
Understand
- When and where was Domingos Álvares born?
- What was Álvares’ occupation, and why did this lead to his capture and sale to European enslavers by the King of Dahomey?
- Why was Álvares imprisoned in 1733?
- Why did the Catholic Church try to imprison Álvares in 1742?
- How does the artist use art and design to demonstrate the importance of community to Álvares?
Connect
- 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?