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• West African History
• Triangular Trade
• Middle Passage
• Slavery
• Resistance & Rebellion
• Abolition
• Emancipation
• Legacy
• Diaspora

The history of the
transatlantic slave trade has been
divided into nine themes on this website,
describing key elements in chronological order.

Understanding Slavery has focused specifically on the role the British played in this history and how slavery functioned in the Caribbean. The ninth theme Diaspora supports teaching around the impact this history had on British and Caribbean society and culture in the 20th century. It also includes some material on the North and South American elements of the history of the transatlantic slave trade.

Understand social and cultural aspects of West Africa in the 1500s to contextualize the impact of the transatlantic slave trade on this part of the continent Find out more about West African History

Understand how the demand for luxury goods and the Industrial Revolution fuelled the transatlantic slave trade, and how the British economic power base enabled the trade in people to continue Find out more about Triangular Trade

Understand how people were treated on the slave ships and the extent to which they suffered on the journey across the Atlantic Ocean Find out more about Middle Passage

Understand the harshness of daily life on the plantations, the oppression used to exert control, and the enormous profits made by plantation owners through the exploitation of the enslaved Find out more about Slavery

Understand how slaves actively resisted and rebelled at every stage of slavery including uprisings on board ship, forming free communities in Jamaica and successful revolts on the plantations Find out more about Resistance & Rebellion

Understand the forces that led to abolition, the resistance and rebellion on the part of the enslaved, and the influences of the anti-Abolitionists that prolonged slavery Find out more about Abolition

Understand how the 1807 Abolition Act ended the British involvement in the slave trade but not slavery, how British women pushed for full emancipation, and how the apprenticeship and indentured labour systems followed in the Caribbean Find out more about Emancipation

Understand how the transatlantic slave trade shifted notions of race and cultural identity, fuelled racism and inequality, and normalized notions of superiority amongst Europeans Find out more about Legacy

Understand how the transatlantic slave trade was the largest forced migration of people in history Find out more about Diaspora