Year 8 · History · Industry, empire and slavery · Lesson 2

The transatlantic slave trade

The transatlantic slave trade: the triangular trade, the Middle Passage, plantations, Britain's role and profits, and resistance including the Haitian Revolution.

19-minute video lesson

Teaching, worked examples and 20 practice questions solved step by step.

Watch free for a month

What your child will learn

Describe the transatlantic slave trade
Explain the triangular trade
Describe the Middle Passage
Explain how Britain profited
Describe resistance by enslaved people

The method

Who made it, and why?
What does it show?
What can't it show?
How useful?

Key words: enslaved, triangular trade, Middle Passage, plantation, resistance, Haitian Revolution, abolition.

Worked examples

The first three practice questions from the lesson, with every step.

Question 1

Roughly how many Africans were taken across the Atlantic?

Step 1: Millions

Answer: About 12.5 million

Question 2

What was a plantation?

Step 1: A large farm growing one crop

Answer: A large farm growing crops like sugar or cotton

Question 3

Name two crops grown on plantations.

Step 1: Sweet and soft

Answer: Sugar and cotton (also tobacco)