What made Thomas Clarkson so angry?

L/O – You will need to guess the Learning objective at the end of the lesson. So pay attention!

Starter – Quickly copy down the title and date. Simple!

Who was Thomas Clarkson?• Thomas Clarkson was born in Wisbech,

Cambridgeshire, in 1760. His father was the local headmaster and died when Thomas was just six years old.

• Thomas worked hard at school and won a place at Cambridge University. His aim was to join the Church but in 1785 he entered an essay writing competition that would change his life completely.

• As Thomas carried out the research for his essay he became increasingly shocked and angry about what he was reading.

“It was but one gloomy subject from morning to night. In the daytime I

was uneasy. In the night I had little rest. I

sometimes never closed my eyelids for grief.”

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What made Thomas Clarkson so angry?• The topic for Clarkson’s essay was of course

slavery. Clarkson, like many people in Britain, knew very little about the slave trade.

• Slavery had existed throughout history, in many times and in most places. The ancient Greeks, the Romans and the Aztecs all had slaves.

• However, as he researched his essay, Clarkson began to learn more about the British slave trade.

• What do you know about slavery and the slave trade? Make a brainstorm of everything you know.

What did Thomas Clarkson’s research tell him?

What was being carried around the ‘Triangle’?

What was being carried round the ‘Triangle’?• The ‘Triangular Trade’ was a

hugely profitable business. Between 1500 and 1850 more than 11 million Africans arrived on European-owned plantations.

• What kinds of cargoes were taken on Voyage 1?

• What kinds of cargoes were taken on Voyage 2?

• What kinds of cargoes were taken on Voyage 3?

• The transportation of slaves was often called ‘the Middle Passage’. Why?

What details of human misery and suffering has the artist included in the painting?

Plenary• To sum up today’s lesson, look at the following images

and match each one to a stage in the triangular trade:

Stage 2 + 3 – Slave Plantation in Caribbean

Stage 2 – Shackles for chaining slaves

Stage 3 – Tea drinkers using slave grown sugar

Stage 3 – Tobacco smokers using slave grown tobacco

Stage 1 + 2 – British slaver fort on African coast

Stage 2 – Cargo plan of slave ship ‘The Brookes’

Plenary1. Why was Thomas Clarkson so angry?

2. What was the ‘triangular trade’?3. What happened during the first stage of the voyage?

4. What happened during the second stage of the voyage?5. What happened during the third stage of the voyage?

6. How did the British Empire benefit from slavery?

What was today’s learning objective?

L/O – To…?