Background Information

Grade Level: Early Elementary

Objective: Students will create a picture/poster or write a letter demonstrating their knowledge of why slavery was wrong.

Materials Needed:

Map of the world clearly showing Africa, England and the United States

Pictures of a slave ship

Procedures:

1. Ask students if they know where Africa is and have someone point it out on a map for the rest of the class. Also point out where the United States is in relationship to Africa.

2. Have students brainstorm reasons why people from Africa would have come all the way over to the United States.

3. Bring up the words slave and slavery and have the students define what they are. Make sure that they understand what a slave is and what slavery is. (Slave: a person who is owned by another person; Slavery: having no freedom, being owned by someone else and having to work hard for them; explain the conditions of slavery also.)

4. Show students a picture of a slave ship and explain to them that the slave trade was so lucrative to Europeans that Africans could be hired to war with other tribes to collect prisoners or to kidnap other Africans to sell for merchandise such as weapons, ammunition, food, etc.

5. Explain to students and show on map how in the 1600's ships would come from England, stop on the coast of West Africa where they would trade their merchandise for Africans, and then proceed to the United States where they would sell the Africans for more goods before returning to England. Show the students how this route makes a triangle on the map and that it was called "The Triangle Trade".

6. Have students describe what they think the travel was like for the Africans coming to America. After hearing their ideas, explain to them the conditions of travel (e.g., dirty, dark, only given bare necessities, packed together in bottom of ship, lots of disease).

Explain to the students that this was a very hard journey and that many never made it to the United States. Once they were here their lives were not much easier, They were sold as slaves to work on plantations and perform any other kind of hard labor that they could.

7. After many years there was a war in the United States where people fought over the right to have slaves. Those who didn't believe in having slaves won.

8. Have the students discuss reasons why they believe that slavery was and is wrong (e.g., people had no freedom, they weren't treated fairly, owners did not give good living conditions). After students have discussed a few ideas, ask them to either draw a picture or poster, or write a letter explaining why slavery was wrong.

Evaluation:

1. Assess picture/poster or letter to see if they understand why slavery was and is wrong.

Web sites of interest:

Diary of Slave Ship "Hawk"

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~sgood/cingram.html

Information on the Middle Passage and Triangle Trade

http://alberti.mit.edu/projects/mpp/Text/pg-1c.html

Summary on the movie "Amistad"

http://www.kenandted.com/tlogan/movies/amistad.html