1. The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Origins, Mechanics, and Abolition

2. Opening Activity
“We make our history ourselves … [but] what each individual wills is obstructed by everyone else, and what emerges is something that no one willed.”

3. Transatlantic Slave Trade
What? The enslavement and transportation of Africans across the Atlantic to the New World
When and Where? From Africa to the New World (South America, Caribbean, and North America)
Who? Europeans (Portuguese, British, Spanish, Dutch, French, and etc) enslaved Africans
Why? Europeans used slaves to cultivate large scale agricultural products like sugar, cotton, rice, and etc.
Transatlantic Slave Trade

4. Ancient Slavery vs. Modern Slavery

5. The Significance of Sugar

6. The Significance of Sugar (Part II)

7. Slavery Begins in the New World

8. Triangular Trade

9. Slave trade through the centuries

10. Key Questions
Why did Britain abolish the slave trade when it remained profitable to them?
Why did the Chesapeake planters want to abolish the slave trade?
Why did Southern planters want to continue the slave trade?

11. Abolition Activity You will be divided into 5 groups:
British Abolitionist
British opposed to abolition
Chesapeake Planters
Deep South Planters
Northerners
Each group will have:
1) A document packet
2) 5 “Document analysis” handouts and
3) 1 “Point of view” handout for the group.

12. In your group
Divide up the documents in the set among the group members. As a group you are responsible for:
Analyzing the documents by completing the “Document Analysis” handout.
Completing the “Motivations” handout.

13. Expert Groups
You will be divided up into expert groups with a representative from each original group
As a group, you are responsible for completing the “Motivations” handout.

14. Exit Slip
Why did Britain abolish the slave trade when it remained profitable to them?
Why did the Chesapeake planters want to abolish the slave trade?
Why did Southern planters want to continue the slave trade?