10b Triangular Trade Stories
Pages 47-48, 59-61

🎯 Instructional Goal:

Students will understand the emotional and physical impact of the transatlantic slave trade
(by analyzing historical images and writing reflective journal entries from multiple points of view.)

📘 Vocabulary Words:

Middle Passage – The dangerous journey enslaved Africans were forced to take across the Atlantic Ocean.
Enslaved – A person who is treated as property and forced to work without freedom.
Separation – Being taken away or kept apart from others, especially family or loved ones.

❓ Essential Questions:

What do these images teach us about the experiences of enslaved Africans during the Middle Passage?
Why is it important to understand how people felt—not just what happened—in history?

⛓️ Olaudah Equiano:
A Voice from the Middle Passage

Olaudah Equiano was born in West Africa around 1745. As a child, he was kidnapped from his village and sold into slavery. He was only about 11 years old when he was taken from his home.

His story is one of the most important first-hand accounts of the Middle Passage, the brutal journey enslaved Africans took across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

Equiano was forced onto a slave ship crowded with hundreds of others. He described the ship as hot, dirty, and full of suffering. People were chained together with no room to move.

Many got sick from the terrible smells and lack of air. Equiano remembered the screams and cries of other Africans and how some tried to jump overboard rather than face what was ahead.

He later wrote, “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, made the whole a scene of horror almost too much to bear.”

After arriving in the Americas, Equiano was sold and worked as a slave in different places. Over time, he learned to read and write. After many years, he earned his freedom by buying it.

Equiano later wrote a book about his life called The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, which helped people in Europe and America understand how cruel slavery truly was.

His story became an important part of the movement to end the slave trade. Equiano’s voice helped show the world the truth about the Middle Passage and the pain slavery caused.

1) Where was Olaudah Equiano born, and what happened to him when he was a child?

2) What was the Middle Passage, and how did Equiano describe it?

3) What were some of the horrible conditions on the slave ship, according to Equiano?

4) How did Equiano gain his freedom?

5) Why is Equiano’s story important in the history of slavery and the slave trade?

📷 Image Analysis #1: Slave Ship Diagram
Page 59

📷 Image Analysis: Slave Ship Diagram

What do you notice about how the enslaved people were placed on the ship?
Why do you think they were packed so tightly with little space to move?
How might it have felt to be on this ship during the Middle Passage?
Self-Reflection:
If you were forced to live in those conditions for weeks or months, how do you think it would affect you—physically and emotionally?

Captive Africans being transferred to ships

The image below depicts several factors that would have weakened immune systems and spread epidemics and other diseases among enslaved Africans.

Image #2

"The Africans of the Slave Bark Wildfire –
Brought into Key West, Florida, by U.S. Authorities in 1860."

This image is a historical drawing that shows enslaved Africans rescued from the illegal slave ship Wildfire.
It was used in abolitionist publications to show the harsh and inhumane conditions enslaved people faced.

1) What emotions do you feel when you look at this image?

2) What emotions do you think the men and boys in the picture are feeling? Why?

3) Why do you think the women and children are kept in a separate area?

List of some emotions you can use:

Sad

Scared

Angry

Confused

Lonely

Hopeless

Nervous

Trapped

Worried

Helpless

Journal Prompt # 10 - The Middle Passage

Prompt 1: The Ship Diagram

This prompt uses the , which was a historical document showing how to pack the maximum number of people onto the ship, treating them as 'cargo.'

Look closely at the details: What do you see in the diagram? How are the people arranged?
Analyze the conditions: What do these details tell you about the physical conditions (like space, air, and movement) that people were forced to endure?
Analyze the creators: What does this diagram show us about the point of view of the people who created and used it?
⭐ Main Question: Based on the evidence of these conditions, what can we infer about the emotional suffering people experienced, such as fear, confusion, or the loss of dignity?
Your Reaction: What is a question you would ask someone on this ship?

Prompt 2: The Wildfire Image

Survivors of the Middle Passage.

Observe the evidence: Look closely at the faces, body language, and expressions of the men, women, and boys.
Focus on a person: Choose one person or a small group to focus on. What specific details do you observe about them? (Think about their expression, where they are looking, or how they are positioned).
⭐ Main Question: What does this person's expression or posture suggest to you about what they might be thinking or feeling after surviving this journey?
Ask questions: What questions does this image make you ask? What do you wish you could know about the people shown?
Your Reaction: What is a question you would ask someone on this ship?

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10b Triangular Trade StoriesPages 47-48, 59-61