What are we learning about?

Before beginning this coursework, it’s important to begin to develop our knowledge of what Transatlantic Slavery was and how it developed. By engaging in these resources you are NOT required to commit to memory every single key detail. Instead it is hoped you are given more confidence to build on what you’ve picked up here in future lessons.

_{Learning Objectives}

• To begin to develop our knowledge of the complexities of Transatlantic Slavery

Suggested Tasks

• Task A: Read through the LBS Introduction to Transatlantic Slavery Booklet and use the reading comprehension questions to take guided notes.
• Task B: Watch David Lammy’s Windrush speech.
• Task C: Stretch yourself by dipping into either Marcus Rediker’s short introduction or an extract of Adam Hochschild’s painfully visceral description of enslaved work on a sugar plantation.

Essential Resources

LBS Introduction to Transatlantic Slavery Booklet
Adapted from a concise summary of the history of Transatlantic Slavery and it’s legacies, produced by the LBS Project, this resource includes basic reading comprehension for students to recap and build on knowledge they hopefully will have retained from KS3.

David Lammy 2018 Windrush Speech – “We need to know our history…”
David Lammy has been a Labour Member of Parliament for Tottenham since 2000. As an opposition MP, and descendant of Caribbean migrants, he was heavily critical of the Conservative Government’s policy of detaining and deporting people who had come to Britain after 1945 at the behest of the British Government. His speech evokes the significance of learning the history of Transatlantic Slavery for UK citizens today.

Extra Resources

Introduction – Rediker, M. The Slave Ship
A gripping introductory chapter from the brilliant Atlantic historian Marcus Rediker, who sets out a moral and political case for engaging with the history of the Transatlantic Slavery

Chapter 4 – Hochschild, A. Bury the Chains (Extract)
In this powerfully written passage, Hochschild provides a painful description of the ‘brutal’ work regime used to produce sugar under Transatlantic Slavery. This is useful for students to get a picture of the industrial nature of the plantation as well as the toll it took upon the enslaved.