Hello, and welcome to today's lesson on the British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

This lesson is part of a broader inquiry answering the question, how did transatlantic slavery impact West African societies? As part of this inquiry, we will look at the kingdoms of the Sahel, the arrival of the Europeans, the structure of the slave trade, the expansion of it, British involvement, and then finally putting that all together to look at how the transatlantic slave trade impacted West African societies.

But for this lesson, we are just going to be focusing on the British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

Now for this lesson, you're going to need a piece of paper and a pen.

Now, if you don't have that, absolutely fine.

Just pause the video now, get everything you need, and when you're ready to go, come back and press play.

Great.

Now we're ready to go, we can have a look at our lesson outcome, which you can see on the slide here.

So by the end of the lesson, you'll be able to explain the role of Britain in the transatlantic slave trade.

However, for us to achieve this outcome, we're going to need some keywords, and for this lesson, we've got five keywords, colonisation, plantations, enslaved people, indentured labour, and slave holders.

Now, it's great having keywords 'cause it gives us words that we can focus on and try really hard to use in our practise tasks.

But what would be really helpful is to see some definitions for these words before we see them in the context of the lesson.

So, colonisation is the process of one person or a group of people taking control of another country or state and settling on that land.

Plantations are areas of land on which certain crops are grown, usually using forced labour.

Enslaved people are people who have been forced to work, lose their freedom, and become the property of another person.

Indentured labour is a system where someone is made to work without pay for a set period of time.

And then finally, a slave holder is someone who owns an enslaved person.

Now we've got our keywords and the definition, we can get started on today's lesson.

In the first part of our lesson, we're going to be looking at the British Caribbean, and in order for us to understand how the Caribbean came to be British, well, at least some of it, we have to go back to 1492.

You'll see on the slide here a map of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in the 1500s.

Now, in order for us to understand how the Spanish and Portuguese were able to claim so much land and set up colonies in North but mostly South America, we have to go back to that date I just mentioned, 1492.

Because we know that Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, and this marks the beginning of the rapid colonisation of the Americas, because he arrived in the Caribbean on behalf of the Spanish rulers.

Now, this rapid colonisation of the Americas didn't just involve the Spanish, like I already said.

It involved the Spanish and the Portuguese, and they very quickly established colonies in and around the Caribbean and Central America.

And these colonies very quickly made them very, very wealthy.

Their wealth came from enslaving the indigenous people, forcing them to work in gold mines and on plantations.

However, large numbers of indigenous communities were killed by the arrival of European diseases and the horrific working conditions.

In some cases, entire communities of indigenous people ceased to exist.

Now, we might expect that that would bring an end to the colonisation of Central and South America, but it didn't.

This in no way deterred the Spanish or Portuguese merchants, as they then chose to use enslaved people from West Africa to continue the labour.

So just because the indigenous communities had begun to shrink rapidly as a result of European diseases, horrific working conditions, and other issues brought by the Spanish and Portuguese to the Americas.

Instead of using the indigenous to work on these plantations, they began to use enslaved people.

Now, before we go on to find out what that has to do with the establishment of the British Caribbean, we're going to pause for a moment and check our understanding so far.

I would like you to tell me which of the following statements best describes the impact of Spanish and Portuguese colonisation on indigenous people? Is it, A, indigenous people were recruited and offered low wages for their work in mines and on plantations, B, indigenous people were enslaved on plantations and in gold mines, but only for a set period of time, or C, indigenous people were enslaved on plantations, and the horrific conditions led to huge numbers of deaths? Pause the video now.

You've made a decision, come back and press play.

Good work.

We know that the answer is C, indigenous people were enslaved on plantations, and the horrific conditions led to huge numbers of deaths.

As we already know, some communities ceased to exist as a result of the arrival of European diseases, but specifically the horrific conditions on plantations that they were forced to work in.

Now we've had a look at the early colonisation of Central and South America by the Spanish and Portuguese, let's find out what that's got to do with the British Caribbean.

So on the slide here, you can see a map of the Caribbean from the 1600s.

It looks largely similar to a map that you would see of the Caribbean today.

Now, as a result of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisation of the Caribbean and Central America, these Spanish and Portuguese merchants had become incredibly wealthy.

And this wealth attracted the attention of British merchants in the 1500s, who had already begun to take part in the transatlantic slave trade.

However, their role at this point was to sell enslaved people onto Spanish and Portuguese colonies.

This would change in 1627 when 80 British colonists arrived on the uninhabited island of Barbados.

Now that the British colonists had settled in Barbados, they could establish farms and plantations of their own for them to become wealthy, just like the Spanish and Portuguese merchants.

These farms and plantations would grow sugarcane, and this sugarcane grown in Barbados made the British merchants and colonists very, very wealthy.

But things were slightly different here.

It was not the merchants growing the sugar.

They'd been using a system of indentured labour.

So where the Spanish and Portuguese were enslaving indigenous people and forcing them to work on plantations, the British were using a different system, something called indentured labour.

This system took poor prisoners from Britain, most commonly Ireland, who had been convicted of a crime or were in desperate need of work.

They'd bring them to the Caribbean to work on a plantation for a set period of time, after which they were usually given simple tools and a piece of land to live on.

So this was very different from the way that the Spanish and Portuguese had been enslaving indigenous people, because they would be enslaved from the point at which they were forced to work on plantations until they died.

The British colonists used the system of indentured labour that we know was very different to the system that the Spanish and Portuguese were using in the Americas.

So this system of indentured labour was the way that the British were growing sugarcane on the farms and plantations and becoming very, very wealthy.

However, this system would soon collapse because by the mid 1600s, it was falling apart because people in Britain were becoming more aware of the horrific conditions they would be forced to work in.

Without indentured labour, British merchants then looked to copy the Spanish and Portuguese colonists with the use of enslaved people from West Africa.

So at first they were using a system of indentured labour, but that very quickly changed when that system no longer worked, and they soon began to use the same systems that the Spanish and Portuguese had been using in their colonies in the Caribbean and in Central and South America.

We're going to pause for a moment now and check our understanding so far, and then put what we've learned in this first part of the lesson into practise.

I'd like you to tell me whether this statement is true or false.

The British were already involved in the transatlantic slave trade in the 1500s.

Pause the video when you think you know whether the statement is true or false.

Come back and press play.

Good work.

We know that this statement is true.

But with true or false questions, you need to be able to tell me more than just the statement is true.

You need to be able to tell me why.

So now I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is this statement true because at this time, British merchants were selling enslaved people to British plantations in South America, or is it because, B, at this time, British merchants were selling enslaved people to Spanish and Portuguese plantations in South America? Again, pause the video.

Have a think.

When you've got an answer, come back and press play.

Good work.

The answer is B.

We know that the British were involved in the transatlantic slave trade in the 1500s, but that was because there was selling enslaved people to the Spanish and Portuguese plantations in South America, not because they were sending them to British plantations, because that didn't start until after the colonisation of Barbados, which came after 1627 when the 80 British settlers arrived.

Let's have a look at another question.

Which of the following statements explains why British colonists began using enslaved people on plantations in Barbados? Is it because, A, it was Spanish colonists who first used enslaved people in Barbados? B, Spanish and Portuguese merchants began in selling enslaved people in Barbados to the British? Or C, the system of indentured labour used by the British in Barbados had collapsed? Pause the video.

When you think you have an answer, come back and press play.

Good work.

The answer is C.

As you know from earlier, they began using a system of indentured labour.

It was a system that took poor labourers from Britain, most commonly Ireland, who had been convicted of a crime or in desperate need of work.

But once they realised the horrific conditions they would be forced to work in, very few people were willing to go.

And so the British colonists and merchants in Barbados looked at the Spanish and Portuguese colonists in Central and South America and copied the system they had been using.

The people that they were previously trading onto Spanish and Portuguese plantations were now being sold onto plantations in Barbados, to grow the sugarcane that would make these merchants very, very wealthy.

Really good work so far in this lesson.

Let's put what we've learned so far into practise.

I'd like you, starting with the earliest, to sort these events into chronological order, with one as the earliest event.

Pause the video now.

Give yourself up to five minutes to sort these four events into chronological order, and come back and press play when you think you've got the right answer.

Really good work.

Let's have a look at what your chronological order should look like.

So first, you know that Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, then Spain and Portugal began to colonise the Americas.

Following this, Britain became involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

But remember at first in the 1500s, they were selling enslaved people onto the Spanish and Portuguese plantations.

But it was then that Britain established the colony of Barbados.

And when the system of indenture fell apart, they were very quick to copy the same system that the Spanish and Portuguese used to ensure that they were able to make as much money as possible from these plantations, no matter what the cost, even if that cost was human life.

Now that we've had a look at what was happening in the British Caribbean in the early 1600s, let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

Now, if you remember, at the beginning of this lesson, I told you that this lesson is part of a bigger unit looking at the impact of transatlantic slavery on West African society.

So now that we have an understanding of what was happening in the British Caribbean in the early 1600s, we're going to shift our focus across the Atlantic back to West Africa.

And in the second part of the lesson, we'll be looking at the arrival of British traders in West Africa.

So if we have a look at the slide here, we can see a royal charter.

It's kind of like a letter from a royal person, usually a king or queen.

And this is a royal charter written by King Charles II to English merchants in the Royal Africa Company.

Now, the Royal Africa Company was founded in 1660, and it was initially set up as a society for British merchants who wanted to gain access to West Africa's gold mines.

However, this company very quickly became connected with the transatlantic slave trade after James Stuart, brother to King Charles II, was made governor of the company in 1664.

So remember in 1627, we've got British settlers arriving in and colonising Barbados.

In 1660, we now have the Royal Africa Company founded, and this company, although it was set up to try and trade more with West Africa's gold mines, we know that they actually very quickly became connected with the transatlantic slave trade.

And like I said already, that's because in 1664, James Stuart becomes governor of the Royal Africa Company.

This is the brother to the king, so we can assume that he was very, very wealthy, and that wealth would've gone to Royal Africa Company to help them trade more enslaved people to trade in the British Caribbean, to make more goods, produce more sugarcane to sell back in England, making even more wealth.

And with the support of the monarch, we can assume that this is going to have a massive impact.

And it did because by 1673, the British merchants had built a strong enough relationship with local African kingdoms to be granted permission to build a fort on the Gold Coast.

The fort was named Fort James, after James Stuart.

In 1685, he would become King James II of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

So now we're not just talking about having the support of the brother of the king, we're talking about having the support of the King of England himself.

And after he becomes king in 1685, we can now talk about the Royal Africa Company having the complete support of the King of England, and British merchants quickly take a leading role in the transatlantic slave trade.

Now, before we move on to the next part of the lesson, we're just going to stop so far and check our understanding of the Royal Africa Company, the changes that happened in the late 1600s, but also start to think about the impact in West Africa.

What was the Royal Africa Company initially set up in 1660 to do? Was it set up to build colonies in West Africa by encouraging wars among West African kingdoms? Was it set up to help British merchants gain access to West Africa's goldmines? Or was it set up to make sure Britain had a leading role in the transatlantic slave trade? Pause the video now, have a think.

When you've got an answer, come back and press play.

Really good work.

We learned earlier that the Royal Africa Company was initially set up in 1660 to help British merchants gain access to West Africa's gold mines.

However, we know that very quickly, this company became connected with the transatlantic slave trade, especially after James Stuart became governor of the company in 1664, and even more so once he became the King of England, Ireland, and Scotland.

Let's have a look at another question just to check our understanding a little more.

Why did the Royal Africa Company become so powerful in the late 1600s? Now, I hope you were listening to my feedback from the last question, 'cause that'll be really helpful now.

Was it because, A, the company had James Stuart as its governor from 1664, who became King James II in 1685? Was it because the company had King Charles II as its governor from 1664, whose brother, James Stuart, later became king? Was it because the company had successfully built colonies on the West African coast, all commanded by Fort James? Pause the video now.

Have a think and when you've got the answer, come back and press play.

Good work.

You should have put A, the company had James Stuart as its governor from 1664, who became King James II in 1685.

That letter from King Charles was just permission to set up the Royal Company, but it was James Stuart who became the governor, and oversaw the company becoming very quickly connected with the transatlantic slave trade.

Now let's look a little more about how this impacted different kingdoms in West Africa.

Now if you have a look at the slide here, you'll see a map of West African kingdoms from around 1200 to 1700, and some of these names might already be familiar to you.

When we're thinking about the impact of the arrival on British traders in West Africa, the impact was very similar to the Spanish and Portuguese merchants before them, because their presence led to war, both between African kingdoms and within African kingdoms. And one example is the Kingdom of Kongo.

In 1670, the people of Kongo began to revolt against their rulers for their continued role in the transatlantic slave trade.

By continuing to provide European merchants with people to enslave in the Americas, the rulers of Kongo had become very unpopular.

So in this case, we see the presence of British traders in West Africa, and the increasing power of the Royal Africa Company causing wars within kingdoms. It's not just about different kingdoms going to war, but it's about the breakdown of power within these kingdoms in West Africa.

But Kongo wasn't the only place that was impacted.

We can also look at the Kingdom of Benin as one example, because one of the few kingdoms that continued to withstand growing British power in West Africa was the Kingdom of Benin.

The Obas of Benin, so the rulers, were strongly opposed to the trading of enslaved people with Europeans.

And although they could not stop the trade entirely, they limited their involvement and were able to maintain their power for longer than other West African kingdoms. So we can see that the arrival of British traders in West Africa had a mixed impact.

For some, it led to a decline of power within kingdoms, because of wars between people and their rulers.

And for some, they were able to withstand the trade and maintain their power for much longer than others.

Now, before we move on to the final part of the lesson, we're just gonna check our understanding for the second bit that talks about the British traders in West Africa, and then we're gonna put what we've learned in the second part into practise.

I'd like you to tell me whether this statement is true or false.

The arrival of British traders led to the immediate collapse of all West African kingdoms. Pause the video, have a think, and tell me whether you think this statement is true or false.

Good work.

We know this answer is false.

But again, with true or false statements, we need to be doing a little bit more than just telling me whether you think it's true or not.

I need you to justify why this statement is false.

So is this statement false, because most West African kingdoms were unaffected by the arrival of British traders? Or is it false because some kingdoms faced revolts against rulers, however others withstood British power for longer? Again, pause the video, and when you've made a decision, come back and press play.

Good work.

We know the answer is B, because some kingdoms like the Kingdom of Kongo faced revolts against their rulers, however, others like the Kingdom of Benin, were able to withstand British power for longer.

Now, let's put what we've learned into practise.

I'd like you to fill in the blanks to describe the impact of the arrival of British traders in West Africa.

The words to use are listed underneath the paragraph.

So pause the video now.

Give yourself 5 to 10 minutes to complete this task, and when you're done, come back and press play.

Excellent work.

Let's have a look at what your completed paragraph should have looked like.

"After James Stuart became governor of the Royal Africa Company in 1664, the company very quickly became involved in the transatlantic slave trade.

As British merchants built relationships with local African kingdoms, they were given permission to build a fort on the West African coast.

Their presence led to revolt against the rulers of Kongo, who had become unpopular as they continued to sell enslaved people to British merchants.

However, kingdoms like Benin were able to withstand the growing British power for longer." Hopefully you got all of those correct.

If not, take a minute to make those corrections.

But really well done for your work so far.

Once you've made those corrections, we can move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today.

In this third and final part of our lesson, we're going to be looking at the creation of slave societies.

You'll notice that phrase is in quotation marks, because for historians this has meant something quite specific.

And in this last part of the lesson, you're going to find out just exactly what is usually meant by the term slave societies and how they were created.

So here on the map, we can see Barbados has been annotated again, because Barbados quickly became known as a slave society.

Now the reason for this was as Britain had transported nearly half a million enslaved people in the 1600s, Barbados had become one of their richest colonies, and their wealth came almost entirely from enslaved labour on plantations, mostly sugar plantations, and this is why Barbados became known as a slave society.

What that phrase means is that the society had become structured around a system of slave holders and enslaved people.

So it wasn't just a society that had enslaved people.

It was a society that was the depended on and completely shaped around the labour of enslaved people, and would likely collapse without it.

Now, the way that this was enforced and maintained was with laws known as slave codes, and these were put in place to ensure that African people remained enslaved and white European remained slave holders.

So like I already said, things are slightly different here in a slave society, rather than a society that has enslaved people.

Because in places like Barbados, there were laws put in place to ensure that particular people, in this case African people or specifically West African people remained enslaved, whereas white Europeans remained slave holders.

And so long as that system could be maintained, then their society would not collapse.

Because remember, it depended on the labour of enslaved people because that's where pretty much all their wealth came from.

But here we can see an artist's impression of the founding of the colony of St.

Kitts in 1600s.

Now, you might wonder why I'm showing you a picture of St.

Kitts if I've been talking about Barbados.

St.

Kitts is another island in the Caribbean.

Now, the reason that I'm showing you a picture or an illustration of the founding of the colony of St.

Kitts is because by 1700, Britain had colonised other Caribbean islands.

St.

Kitts is one of them, and another example is Jamaica, and they were also run as slave societies.

At this point, half of West African people who had been enslaved and taken to the Americas had been taken on British ships.

Britain now played a major role in the transatlantic slave trade.

This is very different from the beginning of the lesson, where I told you that Britain's role was to trade enslaved people onto Spanish and Portuguese colonies.

But over the course of this lesson, we've seen their involvement rapidly increase.

We've seen the founding of Barbados lead to the trading of enslaved people directly into plantations in Barbados.

We've seen the establishment of a slave society, that's a society in which the labour of enslaved people is central.

The society depends on it.

The wealth of colony depends on it.

And it wasn't just in Barbados, as we've seen here, when the British merchants and colonists started to colonise other places in the Caribbean, like St.

Kitts and Jamaica, these places were also set up as slave societies, explaining how Britain came to take such a central role in the transatlantic slave trade, despite the beginning being very much dominated by Spanish and Portuguese merchants.

Now we're going to stop there for today and check our understanding so far, before putting everything into practise with our final task for today.

First, I would like you to decide which statement best describes a slave society.

Is it, A, a society made up entirely of enslaved people, B, a society structure around a system of slave holders and enslaved people, or C, a society with a large number of enslaved people? Again, pause the video, have a think, and when you know the answer or you're fairly sure, come back and press play.

Good work.

The answer is B.

The best definition of a slave society is a society structured around a system of slave holders and enslaved people.

Because a society with a large number of enslaved people isn't necessarily structured around the slave holders and enslaved people, and making sure that system is maintained.

And a society made up entirely of enslaved people is a different story altogether.

Let's have a look at a second question.

Laws known as slave codes were used to maintain slave societies.

Is this statement true or false? I'd like you to make a decision, and when you have, come back and press play.

Good work.

We know that this statement is true.

Laws known as slave codes were used to maintain slave societies.

But again, we need to think about why.

Is it because slave codes were introduced to keep African people enslaved and white Europeans as slave holders? Or because slave codes were introduced to protect the rights of enslaved African people and to prevent rebellions? Have a think about why this statement is true.

When you've got an idea or you're sure you know the answer, come back and press play.

Great work.

The answer is A.

We know that this statement is true because slave codes were introduced to keep African people enslaved and white Europeans as slave holders.

Now let's put what we've learned into practise.

I'd like you to write a paragraph explaining how Barbados became a slave society under the British.

When you're doing this, I'd like you to make sure that you include at least three of the following in your response, uninhabited island, indentured labour or labourers, Royal Africa Company, enslaved people, slave holders, or slave codes.

And remember, it's at least three.

So if you can get more in, absolutely fantastic.

Pause the video now.

I'd like you to pause the video now.

Give yourself up to 10 minutes to complete this paragraph, and then we can come back and have a look at what your answer could have included.

Great work so far.

You've done fantastically this lesson.

Let's just take a quick look at what your answer could have included.

"80 British colonists arrived on the uninhabited island of Barbados in 1627.

At first, they used indentured labourers from Britain, but when the system collapsed, they began using enslaved people from West Africa.

As the Royal Africa Company became more powerful, British merchants were able to sell more enslaved people to plantations in Barbados.

The label of enslaved people made Barbados one of the richest British colonies.

Slave codes were introduced to keep African people enslaved and white Europeans as slave holders.

This led to Barbados under the British becoming known as a slave society." If you managed to get those words in, really well done.

If you were able to get even more key words in, absolutely fantastic.

Like I said, great work this lesson.

Let's just end the lesson by looking at a quick summary of what we've learned.

So across this lesson, we've seen the British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade move from British merchants trading enslaved people to Spanish and Portuguese merchants, to the establishment of several colonies in the British Caribbean that became known as slave societies.

And as a result of their rapidly increasing role, by the 1700s, nearly half of all enslaved people taken from West Africa to the Americas were sold onto British colonies and then onto work in British plantations, with wealth going back to Britain.