Essential Question: How did enslaved Africans shape colonial America?
The first five lessons develop scholars’ understanding of the origins and consequences of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on the peoples of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Lesson 1 introduces scholars to the concept of a “triangular trade” and the vast scope and scale
of this economic system after 1450. Lessons 2 through 4 develop an understanding of the economic factors that drove this rapid expansion of the slave system, particularly the booming sugar trade between the Americas and Europe. Lesson 5 explains the economic, social, and political forces that transformed slavery in the Americas into a lifelong, heritable, and racialized institution. By the end of these lessons, scholars will be prepared to transition from investigating the large-scale forces that drove the slave trade to understanding the experiences and contributions of enslaved individuals under this system.
Lesson 1: The Transatlantic Slave Trade (Video Analysis and Map Study)
- Central Question: How did the Transatlantic Slave Trade affect the peoples of Africa, Europe, and the Americas?
Lessons 2–4: Expansion of the Slave Trade (DBQ Writing)
- Central Question: Why did the Transatlantic Slave Trade expand so rapidly in the Americas?
Lesson 5: The Terrible Transformation (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: Why did lifelong slavery based on race develop in colonial America?
Lesson 6 and the DBQ that follows in Lessons 7 through 9 develop scholars’ understanding of the experience of enslaved people around the Americas and how, despite almost unimaginable obstacles, enslaved Africans and African Americans continuously resisted enslavement and sustained a community in the New World. Lesson 6 draws from accounts from white passengers and enslaved individuals aboard slave ships to give insight into the nearly incomprehensible experience along the Atlantic’s Middle Passage. In Lessons 7 through 9, scholars will learn about the various methods of resistance — cultural, covert, and overt; individual and collective — employed by enslaved peoples to resist their oppression. Scholars should end these lessons with a greater understanding of and empathy for the experience of enslaved people and will be prepared to better understand slavery in New York specifically.
Lesson 6: The Middle Passage (Source Analysis)
- Central Question: How did individuals experience the Middle Passage to the Americas?
Lessons 7–9: Resistance (DBQ Writing)
- Central Question: How did Africans and African Americans resist slavery throughout the Americas?
The final series of lessons in this unit bring the study of slavery closer to home, focusing on the development of the institution and experience of individuals specifically in colonial New York.
These lessons dispel the myth that American slavery was a uniquely Southern phenomenon. Lesson 10 introduces scholars to the discovery of the African Burial Ground in downtown Manhattan and challenges scholars to draw inferences about the lives of New York’s enslaved people using artifacts unearthed at this site. Lessons 11 and 12 develop a deeper understanding of the contributions Africans and African Americans, enslaved and free, made to colonial New York and the experience of enslaved individuals in the city. And finally, scholars apply their knowledge of slavery and resistance from throughout this unit to create their own piece of memorial artwork in Lessons 13 through 15 to celebrate the lives and legacy of New York’s enslaved Africans.
- Central Question: How did Africans and African Americans shape colonial New York?
Lesson 11: Slavery and Resistance in New York (Jigsaw)
- Central Question: How did Africans and African Americans respond to the conditions of slavery in New York?
Lessons 12–14: African Burial Ground Memorial Artwork (PBL)
- Central Question: How should the legacy of the enslaved Africans of New York be memorialized?