Slave Markets 

According to Nielsen (2025), Slave markets were places where enslaved Africans were sold to plantation owners, farmers, and businesspeople in the Americas. These markets operated in public spaces like:

• Town squares

• Warehouses

• Ships docked at harbours

Buyers examined enslaved people like property checking their teeth, muscles, and age to see if they could do hard labour. Many were sold at auctions, where the highest bidder won the “right” to own a person.

Families Were Separated

• Children were often sold away from their parents.

• Husbands and wives were split apart.

• Families could be broken up in minutes.

• Most never saw each other again.

This was one of the cruelest parts of slavery—enslaved people were treated as objects, not humans.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/T6TFR7/the-parting-buy-us-too-shows-a-slave-family-with-male-slave-being-separated-from-wife-and-child-and-sold-at-market-slave-trade-engravingprint-by-henry-louis-stephens-1863-T6TFR7.jpg

The Role of Traders and Buyers (Nielsen, 2025)

• Slave traders brought enslaved people from Africa and sold them for profit.

• Buyers included plantation owners, house servants, miners, and factory bosses.

• Traders made money by buying low and selling high, with no concern for human suffering.

Activity 4 

Instructions to Learners

Work in groups for 3 learners, imagine you are attending a slave auction in the 1700s. Create a short role-play script that shows a conversation between these three people:

• A slave trader

• A buyer

• An enslaved person

Include what each person might be saying or thinking. Try to show different perspectives and feelings fear, greed, sadness, hope, confusion.

Your script must be at least 10 lines and show that you understand what happened at slave markets.

Assessment Rubric (Out of 10 marks)