Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade: Lesson Ideas

Here is a terrific site that features biographical stories of specific slaves, slave owners, and traders. It comes from the same people who created the "Slave Biographies: The Atlantic Database Network."

You can read dozens of short sketches about specific slaves like Felisberta who was born in 1820 in Central West Africa. She was a household slave and wet nurse who served a wealthy family in Southeastern Brazil. Readers learn about the work of a wet nurse. 

The majority of materials on child care during the Brazilian Empire recommended the exclusive care of one wet nurse to protect the health of the baby. The child’s parents were to guarantee that the wet nurse maintain proper eating and sleeping habits to safeguard the future health and character of their children.

The sketches are short and ideal for a jigsaw activity.

In addition to stories about specific slaves, you can read about specific events like the Simón Voyage.  The link will take you to the Atlantic slave database where you will learn that the voyage left Portugal for Cartagena in 1600 with 255 slaves.

Finally, you can explore some of the sample lessons by clicking the dashboard link called "Learn." In one lesson,  students read about the lives of "two enslaved women named Celia--one who lived in Florida and the other who lived in Missouri." 

In another lesson, students create an interactive timeline of the key events in the life of an emancipated slave named Albina "who challenged her illegal re-enslavement in nineteenth-century Brazil."