I explain the laws to the students about slavery in the United States. I also explain that while something may be legal is may not be fair or moral. In the United States, slavery was NEVER moral. Nor was it fair. However, it was legal from 1789-1865. The role of the American Supreme Court in this (Sanford v. Scott, the Dred Scott case) was disgraceful. The famous Emancipation Proclamation was a Presidential Executive Order that only freed the slaves in the States of the Confederacy. It did not free the slaves in the states of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Tennessee. It took a civil war and an the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to end it. However, the blame is not on the United States alone many other countries participated in the slave trade and are equally to blame.

Roll play will help learners understand it better because they will visualize what happened during the slave trade time

I explain the laws to the students about slavery in the United States. I also explain that while something may be legal is may not be fair or moral. In the United States, slavery was NEVER moral. Nor was it fair. However, it was legal from 1789-1865. The role of the American Supreme Court in this (Sanford v. Scott, the Dred Scott case) was disgraceful. The famous Emancipation Proclamation was a Presidential Executive Order that only freed the slaves in the States of the Confederacy. It did not free the slaves in the states of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, or Tennessee. It took a civil war and an the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to end it. However, the blame is not on the United States alone many other countries participated in the slave trade and are equally to blame.

Hello Eric - I share a number of good teaching and learning ideas for teaching about the Slave Trade in the attached review of two resources published in England to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Slave Trade. I hope that these are of interest to you. I thought that both resources - published to support history education and citizenship education learning objectives - were good. Following Kusi's answer there are two different well-developed and structured suggestion for role play activities. I concluded that: "It is important that study of the slave trade and its abolition is both historically authentic and linked dynamically to early Twenty First Century concerns. Both the resources under review provide support for teachers in achieving this positive synthesis."

I mentioned another great teaching idea which has students creating their own virtual museums. Young people are placed in teams in the role of museum curators who have been asked to create a new display for their local museum. They can only use 10-15 sources of information, each with captions of no more than 50 words. The activity could also incorporate the use of ICT and film. The final display needs to get the balance right between :

• Local, national and international perspectives

• Explaining the trade system itself

• Balancing the need for engagement against sensationalism

• Using different types of sources

• Portraying men, women and children from African countries with dignity even though many of the sources tend not to do so

• Explaining the legacy and how slavery still affects us today

This is a good, challenging History activity but also develops key elements of students’ political literacy – selectivity, justifying opinions, evaluation, comparison, synthesis and hypothesis to name just a few of the higher order thinking skills being applied in this activity.

I hope that this helps and is of interest. Best wishes.

Peter

One of the things is I try to do when I approach the subject of slavery, which I do in my homeland security course, is try to stress to the students that slavery has not ended from a global perspective. I try to use reliable information that brings to the an awareness of that it is not just a subject that is only historical in nature.

The 21st Century learners and teachers requires digital learning environment. The use of Blackboard and mobile learning technology can accommodate change in learning environment.

Just for the sake of context, I teach criminal justice at a university in the United States. Thus my answers on this subject are geared toward U.S. law. I teach students that the decisions of the Supreme Court often have unintended consequences. For example: the infamous Stanford v. Scott or Dred Scott case affirmed the legality of slavery in the United States. The unintended consequences of this ruling were that the United States Marshal's Service was forced to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act (They had previously declined citing it as a state matter) until 1865 and that it took an Amendment to the Constitution to end slavery (13th Amendment, 1865).

Teaching slavery and the slave trade in a contemporary world setting is very complex but the impact on how it can be measured is to decipher their conceptual perception of it and guided by individual reflection of the learners. This should be followed by pair brainstorming. They should proceed with group work and role play with much emphasis on the present continuous dimension of the concept.

Good answers above. If this is for High School, I think face to class initially. The subject is so emotive I'd first arrive at a class definition of what slavery is, then go to your own country's laws about it as a start. Explain briefly what these are, and why and when they were enacted and how the law is interpreted today (see if you can find a recent court case). PLEASE DON"T get a Hollywood film re African slavery in the Americas. Then perhaps go back to the Egyptians, (or the Greeks or the Romans BC) and set some exploratory tasks on that history. Once some sort of understanding has been reached about the issue, ask your class which more recent slavery issues and history they'd prefer to work at researching as a digital collective. Domestic slavery in some marriages is another thing to look at; many women and their less favoured female children have suffered that over the centuries-ask why this has persisted. Or, have a look at indigenous populations made slaves. War time prisoner slaves. Then have a look at global organisations working at reducing slavery. Taking good care to avoid this last one with refugee populations: ask your class to imagine themselves being taken prisoner on their way home and smuggled as a captive to the foreign country they'd least like to visit, forced to work as a slave at something (probably unspeakable) there, for.... Get them to write a message in a bottle entry about their duties as a modern slave, giving an address and asking for help,

Emotional topics need discourse analysis that allow students to engage in debates robust discussions.

I support the excellent and comprehensive teaching approaches suggested by Dr. Peter Brett

great views

cs

Creo que la metodología a emplear debe poner el pasado en conexión con el futuro. Con el conocimiento del pasado se logra la empatía histórica pero debe ser servir para solucionar los conflictos actuales como el racismo o la xenofobia. Creo que se debe partir de evaluar sus conocimientos sobre este tema y conseguir una definición que tenga en cuenta los derechos humanos. Me parece interesante lo que afirma G.W Etter sobre lo que es legal no tiene porque ser justo ni moral. Seixas y Morton nos hablan de las competencias que debemos trabajar en el aprendizaje de la historia en su obra : "the big six historical thinking concepts".

Espero que sea inteligible el texto pues estoy redactando en castellano y la web lo traduce al inglés. Un saludo.

Thank you for your invitation and I say that our current research comes to bring the PBL, as a tool for building knowledge. Problem-based learning is an adequate methodology, by making the academic learn to make decisions, where the construction of the thinking is modulated by real, everyday experiences.