Lesson video

Hello and welcome to lesson four of four in the inquiry, how successful were efforts to abolish the slave trade in the 19th century? Today's lesson is going to be answering that question.

So for today's lesson, you're going to need pen or pencil, some paper and a nice, quiet room to work in.

If you need to find that room or collect any of the correct equipment, then please pause the video now.

Brill, let's go on with the lesson.

I hope you've got the title down.

But if you haven't, just pause the video for a couple of seconds so you can do.

Brilliant.

So, let's see what today's lesson is going to look like.

To start off with, we're going to look at British involvement in the enslavement of people after 1833.

Then, we're going to see who benefited most from an important act regarding the enslavement of people after 1833.

Then, what was life like for former enslaved peoples after 1833? And then, we're going to sum everything up with was slavery abolished by 1900? To start off with, let's just go over some really important key facts from last lesson.

So, when was the abolition of the slave trade act passed by parliament? So, I'm going to give you five seconds to answer this.

Five, four, three, two, one.

I can hear you shouting out the answer.

It was 1807.

Well done.

When was the Slavery Abolition Act passed by parliament? Ooh, which one was it? Five, four, three, two, I know you've got it, one.

It was of course, 1833.

How did the British government try to stop the enslavement of people from West Africa after 1833? Well.

Oh, there's a lot of possibilities there.

Which one was it? Five, four, three, two, one.

It was using the Royal Navy to hunt slave traders.

Well done for getting three out of three.

If you didn't get three out of three, doesn't matter.

I know you would have worked really hard on getting those correct.

So, start off with, let's have a look at this image.

So, this is based on the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.

And I'm asking you, how was this act seen in Britain? Am I giving you a hint? How did people in Britain think the formerly enslaved people would react to the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act? So what I'd like you to do is in a moment, pause the video, look at the picture, start to write down some ideas on how people in Britain thought this act might be received.

So, pause the video now.

Well done! I know you've got some really, really important ideas.

But just in case you haven't picked up on some things, then I'm going to go and show you some extra.

So, we have these former enslaved people are really, really happy.

In essence, almost celebrating the freedom that they've now got.

You can see the manacles or chains that they used to have to wear when they were enslaved.

And then they're digging a hole to bury those manacles in.

And you can see a whip on the floor.

And that is what used to punish them if they didn't work hard enough.

So, how ashe act seen in Britain? I've given you a writing frame.

People in Britain thought the formerly enslaved people's reaction would be.

So, what I'd like you to do is pause the video in a moment and finish off that sentence.

So pause the video now.

Well done! I know you've got a lot of the key information down.

Now I'm going to give you my answer.

You may not have written the same as me.

You may have written more than me and if you have, well done.

But let's have a look what I said.

So, people in Britain thought the formerly enslaved people's reaction was happiness and joy, hence the smiley faces.

The formerly enslaved people were celebrating their freedom.

They no longer had chains or manacles holding them and so they buried them so they were forgotten.

Okay.

So, people in Britain thought that the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act would make all of these formerly enslaved people really, really happy.

But was this the end of slavery and Britain's involvements in it throughout the empire? Well, unfortunately not.

The 1833 Slavery Abolition Act really only focused on the Caribbean, Canada and some of the islands that Britain owned.

Unfortunately, slavery continued and the enslavement of people continued throughout other parts of the British empire.

So, one place where slavery continued into the 1840s was in India.

The East India company who created the British empire in India and ruled and governed India, they continue slavery until they outlawed it in the 1840s.

In Australia, which was part of the British empire, they continued slavery in some form of another for many, many years.

And actually, other countries, the Americans, the French, the Spanish, Portuguese, all continued enslaving people well after 1833.

So, Britain's involvement in slavery or enslaving people did not end with the 1833 act.

And it would take further acts by parliament to fully abolish and get rid of enslavement of people throughout all of Britain's colonies.

It's important to remember as well though, that Britain was using the Royal Navy to try and stop the enslavement of West Africans initially and then eventually, East Africans as well.

And you can see a photograph here of children that have been rescued by a British warship in the Indian ocean.

Because once the transatlantic slave trade had finished, there were other slave trades that continued.

And therefore, this image shows these people that have been rescued and set free.

So, let's have a think.

Who benefited from the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act? And I've given you a hint, 'cause I used this image in lesson one, if you think really hard, you might remember about this place.

So, pause the video for about 30 seconds to think about who benefited most from the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.

Well done.

Now, the people that benefited most were not the enslaved and formerly enslaved people.

They barely benefited from the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act.

Who did benefit were the plantation owners.

In 1833, the British government paid the plantation owners 20 million pound in compensation as a result of being told that they had to free their enslaved people.

In today's money, that was 20 billion pounds.

The loan that the British government took out to pay the plantation owners for their loss of enslaved people only finished being paid in, I think it was 2015.

So, that shows how much money it took to pay for this act.

And the people that benefited from it most were not the people that were actually intended to benefit from it.

This almost seemed like a very selfish act in the fact that yes, it did stop the enslavement of people in the Caribbean and in parts of the British empire but actually, that was tempered and altered by the apprenticeship system, which effectively continued enslavement, just under a different term.

So really, the only people that did benefit were people that helped pass the law, which were the British merchants and lords who funded and owned enslaved people.

So, what was life like for former enslaved people after 1833? Well, they were meant to be apprentices.

No longer enslaved, but apprentices.

Now, basically what that meant is that they still had to work for free.

Or they may, if they were lucky, get really tiny, low wages.

Some would be able to make an agreement with their former master, their former owner, to buy their freedom out of the apprentices.

But again, this was a system that was created by really, the plantation owners, because they knew at some point the apprentices would have to be set free and be allowed to work for a proper wage.

So, if you persuaded them that they could buy their freedom early, then you got money back.

So, life for these apprentices, and you're an apprentice, in theory, according to the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act, for between six and 12 years.

Remember, that's working for free.

So, actually, did life change for these people after they were made into formerly enslaved people? And the answer is virtually no.

What did happen is that there was a lot of frustration about the apprenticeship system, both in areas that had formerly enslaved people and within Britain.

And people peacefully protested, particularly in places like Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados and Jamaica, there was a lot of peaceful protests about the apprenticeship system.

so much so that in 1838, the British government decided that apprenticeships had to end.

And so, the formerly enslaved people were now officially, by 1838, free.

So, it took another five years for formerly enslaved people to actually gain their freedom.

Now, the problem with 1838 is that the formerly enslaved people were now free.

They could do as they chose.

But what happened in many places where there were formerly enslaved people is that systems were created to keep them held back.

So, they faced the possibilities of receiving poor standards of education.

In Jamaica, what happened is that due to the island being so dependent on the sugar trade, when sugar prices fell and they did quite dramatically, the owners of the plantations, because they now were employing people, they made them redundant.

They stopped them as being employed.

So you had mass unemployment.

They still faced challenges.

And this continued throughout a significant period of time, even to the modern day.

Therefore, was slavery abolished by the end of the 19th century? And there's two ways to look at this.

Yes, the transatlantic slave trade, which is what most of these lessons have focused on, did end by the end of the 19th century.

The East India company with a trade in India, that was abolished as well.

And America, who played a significant role, towards the end of the transatlantic slave trade, they had a civil war where the North and the South fought each other over the enslavement of people.

And the North won.

So, the enslavement of people in America was made illegal.

And that was a big factor in the transatlantic slave trade ending.

However, if we look at slavery as a whole then actually, slavery did not end in the 19th century.

And indeed, we still have different versions of slavery to this very day.

So actually, can we say that slavery was abolished by the end of the 19th century? Well, in certain forms, yes.

But if we are to say slavery as a single word, then no, it was not abolished.

So, our glossary.

The East India company, a company that traded the goods but then built an empire in India for the British.

Indigenous, people who are native or originally from that country.

Blackbirding, tricking or kidnapping people to force them to work for little or no pay.

Diplomacy, when two countries, or it could be more, discuss things with each other and reach an agreement.

A treaty, agreement signed between countries, so generally, diplomacy will lead to a treaty.

American Civil War, a war between the North, the United States of America and the South, the Confederacy, mainly over the continued use of enslaved people.

And segregation, when people are kept apart due to the race of them.

So, comprehension questions.

How did plantation owners benefit from the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act? How did apprenticeships help continue certain aspects of certain parts of enslavement? Which war helped end the transatlantic slave trade? And did life of formerly enslaved people improve after 1833? Now, by all means, please have a go at those questions and I look forward to going through them with you.

You can attempt the extension question if you're feeling really, really confident.

But obviously, we are going to go and plan it to make sure that you do a really outstanding piece of work for that.

So, pause the video, read the worksheet and answer the comprehension questions.

So pause the video now.

Well done! I'm really impressed with how hard you've worked.

So, how did the plantation owners benefit from the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act? Now, you can read the acceptable answers but I'm only going to go through the good answers, because I know by now that you are using full sentences and key words in the question to help answer them.

So, a good answer may look like something like this.

You may not have written the same thing as me, but I know you would have got the key information.

So this was what I said a good answer may look like.

Plantation owners were paid compensation for having their enslaved workers set free.

Now, I could've improved that answer by saying the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act benefited plantation owners, as they were paid compensation for having their enslaved workers set free.

So, I know you would've done that 'cause you will have used the key words.

The British government spent 20 million pounds, which was 40% of the spending in 1833, as compensation.

Some plantation owners used the money to build expensive mansions, such as Harewood House.

How did apprenticeships help continue certain aspects of enslavement? Well, apprenticeships allowed certain aspects of enslavement to continue as the formerly enslaved people were expected to work for free.

This was meant to last between six and 12 years.

So, well done and make sure you've got that.

Which war ended the transatlantic slave trade? The American Civil War helped end the transatlantic slave trade because it abolished slavery in the United States of America.

They finally ended the last major demand for enslaved labour in the Americas and so the transportation of enslaved people from the West African coast ended.

Now by all means, if you want to improve your answers, please pause the video at any point if you need to rewind and make sure you correct and improve your work.

But well done, 'cause I know you've done really well so far.

So, our last question for the comprehension.

Did the life of formerly enslaved people improve after 1833? And the good answer looks like, for the majority of formerly enslaved people, life did not improve.

They had to wait until 1838 to gain their full freedom from the apprenticeships.

After this, they continued to face hardships through low wages, lack of education and high unemployment rates.

You could also include things like segregation in there, especially for a place like America.

Okay.

So, well done on completing those questions.

How about the extension one? How were efforts to abolish slavery in the 19th century? Now, I want you to pause the video, in a moment, for a few seconds to think, how can I answer this question? How can we go about answering it? So pause the video now.

Oh, I know you got some really, really good ideas about how you would answer this question.

I know you're thinking back to my slide where you had a simple yes or no.

But if you look at a simple yes or no, then you can't really say how successful something was, because yes and no are definites.

They are set in stone.

It's either 100% yes or 100% no.

And I'm giving you a hint here.

So, how about we look at this as a line? You might want to look at it as a pair of scales as well.

You've got not successful for the efforts to abolish slavery and completely successful.

And what I'd like you to do is think about what we've covered in these last four lessons.

If you wish to, you can pause the video and just jot down some ideas and put them on the line where you think they fit.

So if you think, and I'm going to give you a hint here, the 1807 abolition of the slave trade act was not very successful at all in abolishing slavery in the 19th century, then obviously you're going to put it towards or at the not successful end.

If you think it was partly useful and successful in abolishing slavery, then you would move it along the line towards the completely successful parts.

So, what I'd like you to do is in a moment, pause the video and write down as many things as you can think of that can help us and plot where on the line you think they go.

Remember, there's no right-on place for these categories that you come up with.

So pause the video now.

Well done! This is quite a complicated task.

So, I want to give you a little bit more help, so I've given you some ideas here.

The abolition of the Slave Trade Act, 1807.

The Slavery Abolition Act, you could have, 1833.

Transatlantic slave trade ended.

Slavery still happens today.

Apprenticeships, West Africa squadron with the Royal Navy.

If you've already plotted these on your scale, then really, really well done.

If you haven't, then I'd like you to pause the video in a moment and write down on your scale where you think they fit.

So pause the video now.

Well done! I know that's taken a lot of effort and I'm really, really pleased at how hard you're working.

So now, if you look at your scale, you should have a range of successes, in terms of the abolition of slavery in the 19th century.

You should have some towards the not successful end and some towards the completely successful end.

Now if you look at your scale, you can sort of work out how successful efforts were to abolish slavery in the 19th century.

Have you got more towards the not successful end? Have you got them all at one end? Have you got them all at the other end? Have you got more towards the completely successful or are they somewhere in the middle? And what you do is you look at your scale now and you can start to decide how successful it was.

And to help you with that, here's a writing frame.

So, the abolition of slavery was wholly, wholly means completely, totally, mostly? So actually, there was quite a few things that move towards being successful in abolishing slavery.

But there were also some things that didn't.

Partially, so you're now somewhere around the middle, towards the not very successful end.

And the not, it just, nothing worked.

So, you could pick one of those words to complete that part of the sentence.

So, you may wish to say the abolition of slavery was wholly successful, was mostly successful, partially successful or not successful, due to, and then you'll put your reason.

Then you've got your detail, can be introduced by this, can be shown by, illustrated by, highlighted by.

You've got this meant that or you could use because.

And then you've got the abolition of slavery in the 19th century was, and then you can reuse the word you've used above, in the brackets, or you can come up with your own version in that underlined space, because, as your concluding sentence, And I've given you some keywords that you may wish to include in your answer.

Now, a truly, truly, monumentally brilliant answer will show that actually, there were things that were really successful and some things that were not very successful.

And then you'd have a conclusion that sums up just how far it was successful in abolishing slavery.

I want to remind you, there is no right or wrong answer for this.

It's entirely what you think and what you have built up in your mind over these last four lessons.

So, for the last time in this unit, I would like you to pause the video and complete the work now.

Well done, I'm so impressed with that! You have been outstanding in this inquiry and it's been quite a difficult and challenging inquiry.

And at times, it could have been quite upsetting with some of the content that we have covered.

But well done with sticking with it.

If you wish to share your work tonight, then please get your parents, carer or guardian to do so.

And well done for your hard work in today's lesson.

And one last final thing from me is can you please complete the exit quiz at the end of this lesson? Thank you.