Lesson 4: The Atlantic slave trade
Duration of Days: 4
Lesson Objective
Students will analyze the Atlantic slave trade as a global system and explain how economic demand and power structures sustained it.
Why did the Atlantic slave trade develop and expand?
How did economic systems depend on human exploitation?
How do historians evaluate responsibility within systems?
Forced migration
Economic system
Dehumanization
HIS.9-12.4 Analyze the causes and consequences of historical events on a global scale.
HIS.9-12.8 Analyze how economic systems and labor systems shape historical development.
Students analyze systems, evaluate cause and effect, and write explanatory responses.
Students examine the Atlantic slave trade as an interconnected global system rather than isolated events. Primary DOK level: 4.
Connections to modern labor systems, global inequality, and human rights issues.
Students may focus only on numbers rather than systems.
Students may assign blame too narrowly or too broadly.
Guided source analysis.
Reflective writing options and discussion scaffolds.
Analytical reflection explaining how the system functioned and why it persisted.
Primary narratives, maps, economic visuals.