The Slave Trade - Other Worlds

The Slave Trade: Exploitation, Resistance, and Legacy in the Caribbean and South America

Educators explore the transatlantic slave trade as a system of racial capitalism, forced labor, and cultural transformation. This lesson provides historical grounding in the trade routes, labor systems, and human impact of the slave trade in the Caribbean and South America, while emphasizing the resistance, survival strategies, and legacies of enslaved Africans and their descendants.

Critical Points for Reflection

  • Forced Migration and the Middle Passage: Examine how millions of Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic to labor in Caribbean and South American plantations, mines, and ports.

  • Racial Capitalism and Sugar Economies: Analyze how slavery underpinned global capitalism, with Caribbean sugar, coffee, and Brazil’s gold and sugar economies enriching European empires.

  • Cultural Resistance and Retention: Explore how enslaved Africans maintained elements of African identity—language, religion, music—despite brutal conditions.

  • Revolt and Rebellion: Highlight major uprisings (e.g., Palmares in Brazil, Tacky’s War in Jamaica, Haitian Revolution) that challenged the system and inspired future liberation struggles.

  • Enduring Legacies: Discuss how slavery’s legacy shapes Caribbean and South American societies today—from race relations to economic inequality to diaspora culture.

Disclaimer for Use in Florida Classrooms

Teachers using this lesson in Florida must comply with HB 7 (“Stop WOKE Act”):

  • Align with State Standards: Confirm lesson content adheres to Florida DOE’s guidelines for teaching world history and economic systems.

  • Balanced Presentation: Contextualize resistance and survival as central to African agency.

  • Encourage Open Dialogue: Foster respectful inquiry without prescribing political interpretations.

  • Review Materials: Ensure primary sources and supporting texts are historically verifiable and compliant.

Lesson Plan

Lesson Activities

Day 1: Mapping the Trade and the Human Toll (60 minutes)

Opening Discussion (10 minutes)
Warm-up Question: “What do you know about the slave trade, and where did most enslaved Africans go?”
Think-Pair-Share and Map Analysis. Teacher introduces focus areas: West Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, and the Middle Passage.

Mini-Lecture with Primary Source Analysis (20 minutes)
Key Topics Covered:

  • The Triangle Trade: Goods exchanged for people and labor.

  • The Middle Passage: Conditions aboard slave ships.

  • Brazil and the Caribbean: Why they received 90% of enslaved Africans.

  • Plantation Labor: Sugar, coffee, mining, and the creation of wealth through unpaid labor.

Primary Source Integration:
Students read a slave ship manifest and a plantation ledger from Jamaica or Bahia.
Discussion: What do these documents reveal about how enslaved people were viewed and treated?

Group Activity & Exit Reflection (30 minutes)
Group Questions:

  • What does the map of the slave trade reveal about global economics?

  • How did the Middle Passage dehumanize and commodify Africans?

  • Why were Brazil and the Caribbean central destinations for enslaved labor?

Exit Reflection (5 minutes):
"What is one thing that surprised or moved you in today’s lesson?"

Day 2: Culture, Resistance, and Legacies (60 minutes)

Opening Activity: Resistance Profiles (15 minutes)
Students receive cards detailing different rebellions or cultural retention strategies (e.g., Haitian Vodou, Quilombos in Brazil, Maroon societies).
Prompt: “What forms did resistance take, and how did Africans preserve their humanity?”

Mini-Lecture & Guest Insight (15 minutes)
Topics:

  • Haiti: The only successful slave revolt leading to independence.

  • Brazil’s Quilombos: Autonomous Black settlements resisting re-enslavement.

  • Cultural survival through language, music, food, and faith.

Optional Guest: Local historian or descendant from the Caribbean diaspora to share oral history or family story.

Structured Debate: Survival vs. Rebellion (25 minutes)
Group 1: Argue that cultural survival (religion, kinship, art) was the most powerful form of resistance.
Group 2: Argue that open rebellion and escape were the most transformative.
Use CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1 and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.9.

Exit Reflection & Homework (5 minutes)
“How did enslaved people resist beyond violence, and why does that matter today?”

Homework:
Write a 1-page reflection on how Caribbean or South American descendants of slavery have preserved culture, using at least one historical and one contemporary example.

Assessment & Evaluation

🔹 Formative Assessment

  • Class discussion on trade routes and economic impacts.

  • Student analysis of primary documents and cultural expressions.

🔹 Summative Assessment

  • Final written reflection graded on clarity, historical depth, and use of sources.

Extension Activities (Optional)

🔹 Diaspora Interview: Students interview a Caribbean or South American family member/community elder about cultural legacies of slavery.
🔹 Music and Identity: Analyze the evolution of Afro-Caribbean or Afro-Brazilian music (e.g., Reggae, Samba) as a form of cultural resistance.
🔹 Mathematics in History: Calculate how much wealth a plantation owner might have extracted per enslaved laborer vs. wages denied.

Conclusion

By teaching the slave trade as a system of economic exploitation and cultural survival, this lesson centers African agency and highlights the resilience that laid the foundation for vibrant Caribbean and South American Black cultures. Students gain a critical lens on historical injustice and a greater appreciation for diasporic strength and legacy.