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Educational Resources


Recovered Histories Education Pack
Teaching enslavement and its legacies across the curriculum

This is a cross-curricular resource to encourage community cohesion and citizenship through teaching about enslavement. The Education and Inspections Act 2006 introduced a duty on all maintained schools in England to promote community cohesion and this education pack can help teachers deliver this. It provides activities that engage students in the history of Britain and its involvement in the slave trade, the role of ordinary British people in fighting for the abolition of the slave trade, the role of both black, white, female and male abolitionists and promoting the agency of the enslaved Africans in gaining their freedom as well as their contribution to the industrialisation of Britain.
Produced to accompany the website and exhibition of the same name, its aim is to encourage educators and students alike to undertake research on the Transatlantic Slave Trade using primary sources consisting of narratives and images from enslaved Africans, anti-slavery campaigners, plantation owners, ship's captains and freedom fighters and African leaders. These narratives bring the history to life using the voices of those present at the time.

The resource is aimed at educators teaching students at Key Stage 3. It will enable students to discuss; interpret and evaluate issues relating to the Transatlantic Slave Trade within historical contexts and the impact of the legacies on modern life. The resource tackles the subject sensitively and accurately and encourages students to grapple with the subject in the same way, while also ensuring that they meet learning objectives within different subject areas, primarily History, but also across Citizenship, Geography and also utilising skills in English and ICT. Whilst aimed primarily at Key Stage 3 subjects, they can also be adapted for other Key Stages, as well as use for informal education (youth clubs and Sunday schools) and to fit the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland curricular.

Michaela Alfred-Kamara
Anti-Slavery International 2008
ISBN: IS 9780 900918 67 5
Price: £6 plus postage

To buy go to our education page

Download a PDF version


Breaking the Silence

Anti-Slavery International has produced educational resources as part of its work on the Breaking the Silence project. Go to the site www.antislavery.org/breakingthesilence to find lesson plans, classroom activities and further recommended sites.


Recovered Histories Exhibition

This 17-panel A2 (42cm x 59.4 cm) exhibition looks at the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the enslavement of Africans in the Caribbean, and their fight for liberation and their emancipation. It focuses on the narratives of the enslaved, enslavers, abolotionists, parlimentarians, clergy, planters and rebels. To borrow this exhibition please contact Jeff Howarth on 020 7501 8937 or email j.howarth@antislavery.org


Imagined Voices : Creative Education Pack

http://slavetrade.parliament.uk/slavetrade/learning/projectideahistoryks3/imaginedvoices.html
A teachers' pack for use with KS3/4 students of English, Drama and Citizenship. The creative educational exercises and activities detailed in the pack were developed for use within outreach workshops attached to the British Slave Trade: Abolition, Parliament and People exhibition by poet and writer Rommi Smith.


Recovered Histories Education Project

The education aspect of the project consisted of a series of four teacher training days, schools outreach, a conference and the production of an education resource. This report provides details.

Recovered Histories Education Project Final Report April 2009, PDF download


Book List

  • Follarin Shyllon, Black People in Britain 1555-1833 (Oxford University Press 1977)
  • S I Martin, Britain’s Slave Trade (Channel 4 Books 1999)
  • David Dabydeen, Hogarth’s Blacks: Images of Blacks in 18th Century English Art (Manchester University Press 1987)
  • Simon Schama, Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (BBC Books 2006)
  • Peter Fryer, Staying Power: The history of Black people in Britain (Pluto books 1984)
  • Paul Edwards and James Walvin, Black Personalities in the Era of the Slave Trade (Palgrave Macmillan 1983)
  • Melinda Elder, The Slave Trade and the economic development of 18th Century Lancaster (Keele University Press 1992)
  • James Walvin, Black Ivory: Slavery in the British Empire (Blackwell 2001)
  • Nigel File and Chris Power, Black Settlers in Britain 1555-1958 (Heinemann 1981)
  • Olaudah Equiano, ed. Vincent Carretta, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African and other writings (Penguin Classics 2003)
  • Ottobah Cugoano, ed. Vincent Carretta, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evils of Slavery (Penguin Classics 1999)
  • Ignatius Sancho, the Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, the African (Penguin Classics 1998)
  • Vincent Carretta, Equiano the African: A Biography of a Self Made Man (University of Georgia Press 2005)
  • Gretchen Gerzina, Black England: Life before Emancipation (John Murray 1995)
  • Michael Jordan, The Great Abolition Sham: The true story of the end of the British slave trade (Sutton 2005)
  • Emma Christopher, Slave ships, sailors and their captive cargoes 1730-1807 (Cambridge University Press 2006)
  • William St. Clair, The Grand Slave Emporium: Cape Coast Castle and the British slave trade (Profile Books 2006)
  • Paul Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A history of slavery in Africa (Cambridge University Press)
  • Madge Dresser and Sue Giles, Bristol and transatlantic slavery
  • Gail Cameron and Stan Crooke, Liverpool: Capital of the slave trade (Picton Press 1992)
  • Clare Midgley, Women against Slavery: The British Campaigns 1780-1870 (London 1992)
  • Mary Prince, the History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave (ed. Sarah Salih, Penguin Classics 2000)
  • Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to abolish Slavery (Pan 2006)