Aim: If you were a reporter how would you report on the Atlantic Slave Trade?

Do Now: Answer the following questions in your notebook• Where is this place?• Who is in the picture? • What is happening in the picture?

The Atlantic Slave Trade

VideoTask – Write down three facts about the Atlantic

Slave Trade from the video.

The Atlantic Slave Trade began in Africa in 1492?

• It ran for four centuries, from the 1500’s to the 1800’s.

What else happened in 1492?

• Slaves were captured in West Africa and brought across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean and Brazil.

Slavery• Slavery is the buying and selling of human

beings, The Europeans caused an involuntary mass migration from Africa to the Americas.

• The Portuguese began the slave trade in 1441• The Spanish entered in the 1500’s • The British French and Dutch in the 1600’s• Between 10 and 20 million Africans were kidnapped

and carried to the Americas.

The Triangular Trade • From Europe, ships carried manufactured goods (guns) to

Africa.• From Africa, ships carried slaves to islands in the Caribbean

(This was the Middle Passage)• From the Caribbean, ships carried plantation goods (sugar,

coffee, cotton) to Europe

The Middle Passage: • Conditions on the ship were terrible• People were packed into tight, unsanitary spaces

on the ship for three months.• Many died from disease and heat exhaustion (10

to 20% died during the voyage.

Why did slave traders pack the Africans in so tightly?

African Captives Thrown Overboard

Sharks followed the slave ships across the Atlantic!

Revolt Aboard a Slave Ship

Shortage of Labor • The Europeans established colonies in the Americas • They established plantations (large farms) to grow sugar, coffee,

tobacco and cotton.• These crops needed a lot of labor for planting and harvesting.• There were not enough Europeans • They tried to enslave Native Americans but they were dying of

diseases like smallpox

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)

1789 wrote and published, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or

Gustavus Vassa the African.

• “One day… two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together…jumped into the sea; immediately another … followed their example… two of the wretches were drowned, but the ships crew got the other and afterwards whipped him unmercifully for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery”.

• -Olaudah Equino

Task• Use the information from the notes and the

movie to write a news article on the Atlantic Slave Trade. – Write the article addressing the 5W’s– Draw pictures (scenes) depicting the slave

trade– Show where on the map provided– Use information the first hand account of

Olaudah Equino in your article