Understanding Slavery Initiative: Legacies

This comprehensive guide for teaching the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade contains suggestions for educators such as using sensitive language in classrooms, unlocking common misconceptions, working with artifact...

This article spotlights the National Party of Africa's role in the creation of apartheid, and its reuse as a tool of white supremacy, enforced by successive white minority governments in the Republic of South Africa in the 20th century.

Sound bites from historical slaveowner Thomas Thistlewood and former slave Olaudah Equiano regarding trade and commerce, plantation life, the riches of Africa, and resistance and rebellion. Also featured, a rap by Soweto Kinch, entitled...

The transatlantic slave trade lay at the heart of a complex global commerce system between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Learn about the clash over possessions, and the disputes over each others' presence in the seas.

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...

Learn how the anti-slavery movement mobilized the British population to stage the campaign for the abolition of slave trade.

Although the British Parliament passed the Abolition of Slavery Act in August 1833, the trade continued, and for many years there were exceptions to abolition. Learn how the British government attempted to prevent the slave trade from...

Read first-hand accounts of former slaves, and learn about the devastating realities of the Transatlantic slave trade in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Enslaved Africans fought hard to win back their freedom through resistance, rebellions, and uprisings. Rebellions along the Middle Passage and in places like the Caribbean were important to the retention of African culture.

Discover the period some refer to as "Middle Passage," when enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean or America. Read first-hand accounts of the torture and deprivation experienced by thousands of...