Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The First Slave Auction at New Amsterdam in 1655

For Students 9th - 10th
This website contains a general description of the time and reason for the first large slave auction held in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Click on Teacher's Guide for teaching resources.
Unit Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: African Immigration: Africans in America: Life in a Slave Society

For Students 9th - 10th
An excellent overview of the African American experience in America beginning with West Africa during the slave trade, through emancipation and reconstruction, to "New beginnings."
Primary
University of Virginia

University of Virginia Electronic Text Center: African American Resources

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of primary source materials on African American history. Much of it is about slavery and racism. There are many slave narratives here, letters, essays, and biographical materials, and some of the names are well known ones,...
Handout
Understanding Slavery Initiative

Understanding Slavery: The Campaign for Abolition: Campaigning Against Slavery

For Students 9th - 10th
Find out about the first mass human rights movement in history when African monarchs, enslaved Africans, freed slaves, and millions of other ordinary people campaigned against the slave trade and fought for the abolition of slavery.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: African Voices: History

For Students 6th - 8th
Trace Africa's history from the earliest humans to modern times using this thematic timeline. Learn about African trade, religion, empires, and technology. Vibrant pictures are included for each time period showcasing the African culture.
Unit Plan
Yale University

Yale University: Citizens All: African Americans in Connecticut 1750 1850

For Students 9th - 10th
This learning module provides an in-depth examination of the African-American struggle for freedom in 17th- and 18th-century Connecticut. It focuses on five localities and themes accompanied by personal stories as it explores the journey...
Interactive
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History: African Voices

For Students 9th - 10th
This site is the web presence of "African Voices," a permanent exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History. It explores the "diversity, dynamism, and global influence of Africa's peoples and cultures." Includes art, texts, and...
Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: Us History: The Middle Passage

For Students 9th - 10th
A detailed look at the trans-Atlantic slave trade that lasted from the 1500s to the 1800s.
Handout
Understanding Slavery Initiative

Understanding Slavery Initiative: Africa Before Transatlantic Enslavement

For Students 9th - 10th
The history of West Africa provides a context for learning about the transatlantic slave trade. Discover the rich cultural traditions and economic networks that existed in the West African empires such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhay long...
Website
British Library

British Library: Discovering Literature: African Writers and Black Thought in 18th Century Britain

For Students 9th - 10th
This article describes how four writers, taken from Africa as children and sold into slavery, grew up to write works that challenged British ideas about race, called for African brotherhood, and demanded the abolition of the slave trade.
Article
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: African Immigration to Colonial America

For Students 9th - 10th
An interesting essay on the forced migration of Africans to America by way of the Middle Passage. Read where the slaves were off-loaded, how the population of slaves increased, and the inhumanities inflicted on the slaves both on the...
Unit Plan
National Museums Liverpool

International Slavery Museum: Slaves' Stories

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
An intriguing resource that gives first hand accounts of four Africans being taken from their homes and forced into slavery. Click on the pictures of the people to read their unbelievable stories and see artifacts about slavery.
Primary
University of North Carolina

Documenting the American South: Olaudah Equiano

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents the full text of "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano detailing the cruelty of the slave trade in the...
Primary
Ibis Communications

Eyewitness to History: Aboard a Slave Ship, 1829

For Students 9th - 10th
A historically significant account of what Reverend Robert Walsh observed on a slave ship off the African coast in 1829.
Unit Plan
PBS

Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Middle Passage

For Students 9th - 10th
This website contains pictures and descriptions of the Middle Passage voyage. Click on Teacher's Guide for teacher resources.
eBook
Other

United States History: Ch. 3 Sec. 1: The Southern Colonies [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
A chapter from a history text that looks at the development of the Southern Colonies. It discusses the Southern agricultural economy that relied on slave labor, tobacco as a cash crop, Southern society, indentured servitude, Bacon's...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: Ancient Manuscripts: From the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu

For Students 9th - 10th
This is a collection of primary, historical documents from Timbuktu, Mali during the the 16th through 18th century. The documents cover all aspects of this advanced African civilization.
Primary
PBS

Pbs: Cet: Africans in America: The Threat of Fasting During the Middle Passage

For Students 9th - 10th
Description of how slaves tried to starve themselves to death on slave ships as a form of resistance, and how the slave traders forced them to eat so they would not lose money. Click on Teacher's Guide for teaching resources.
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Capture, Making of African American Identity: V. 1

For Students 9th - 10th
Several narratives of the capture of West Africans, including the famous autobiography of Venture Smith, from the eighteenth century, two accounts of conditions on slave ships, and an audio recording of the memories of the descendants of...
Lesson Plan
Ohio State University

Osu History Teaching Institute: Slave Ships

For Teachers 7th - 8th
After analyzing the engraving and accompanying text, students will discuss the point of view of the resources using a compare and contrast diagram.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Cotton and African American Life

For Students 6th - 8th
But for the invention of the cotton gin, slavery perhaps would have died out in the United States in the early 19th century. Read about why technological advances caused the spread of slavery in the South and read about how slaves clung...
Website
British Library

British Library: Discovering Literature: Travel, Colonialism and Slavery

For Students 9th - 10th
From Robinson Crusoe to the anti-slavery activism of Olaudah Equiano and the letters of Ignatius Sancho: explore a range of writing produced during an age of travel, trade and colonial conquest, in which Britain vastly expanded its...
Graphic
Curated OER

Anti Slavery International: Slave Trade: Captured African People

For Students 9th - 10th
Depiction of the Transatlantic slave trade.
Website
World Atlas

World Atlas: Africa

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about the history of Africa including Ancient Africa, African colonization, slave trade, and Post-Colonial Africa. Also covers maps, geography, countries, and interesting facts.