Exploring the history and legacies of the transatlantic slave trade

An innovative new teaching website was launched at the National Maritime Museum in 2003 by the then Minister for Culture, David Lammy.

Produced by the Understanding Slavery Project, the website is a free resource designed to give teachers and educators a tool-kit for teaching the history of the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies.

The website offers ideas, methods and resources for teaching the history of the transatlantic slave trade through museum collections, with background information and practical activities for use in the classroom. The site is rich in primary material, and encourages a variety of teaching approaches. It includes strong visual images, video clips, sound and readings from original sources.

The site includes four sections:

• Teaching the slave trade – information on the use of artefacts, key historical data, issues to consider and teaching tools including a unique folder to store selected material
• Historical themes – historical information starting with West African History moving through to Legacy
• Learning resources – a bank of resources including images of museum artefacts, interactive white board activities, and sound and video clips
• About us – information on the partnership museums and research undertaken in the earlier development phases 1 and 2 of the Understanding Slavery project.

The Understanding Slavery project

Understanding Slavery is a national education project developed by a partnership of national and regional museums: the National Maritime Museum, the National Museums Liverpool, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, Bristol City’s Museums, Galleries and Archives, and Hull Museums and Art Gallery. It is co-ordinated by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and funded by the DCMS and DfES as part of the Strategic Commissioning National/Regional Partnerships Programme.

Understanding Slavery seeks to encourage teachers and students to examine the history of the subject, including its modern legacies, through museum collections and schemes of work within the National Curriculum, particularly History and Citizenship at key stages 3 and 4.

Consultation has been at the heart of Understanding Slavery. From its inception in April 2003 the museums have been in conversation with cultural, formal learning and community sectors to inform the development of new resources that fully reflect the many historical and contemporary perspectives on this major element of world history.

Future developments

Understanding Slavery continued to develop its programme with a particular focus on the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 2007 and the production of resources to support the Citizenship curriculum. Working through the museums’ collections both formal education and community audiences will have further opportunities to investigate the history and contemporary impact of the transatlantic slave trade.

We have been privileged to lead the partnership... We have been motivated by a belief that the subject of slavery has been skirted for too long. It is time to help a new generation to understand an inescapable feature of the history of Britain and to appreciate the legacies and consequences that shape lives in our nation every single day. Roy Clare, Director, National Maritime Museum

I am impressed with the thought and hard work that has gone into making this website meaningful and relevant to the needs of today's teachers in helping them use museums objects and archives to introduce their pupils to this complex and significant aspect of our country's history. David Lammy, Minister for Culture

The website... will provide teachers with additional support for teaching this important aspect of British History and I am delighted that the government has worked in partnership with the National Maritime Museum as well as other national and regional museums to create such a valuable resource. Andrew Adonis, Schools Minister