Slavery: Resistance and Punishments

The aim of this lesson is to examine the punishments endured by enslaved people on plantations and the different strategies they used to resist and survive.

The lesson begins by exploring the harsh punishments used on plantations and then challenges students to analyse a range of historical sources. Students must distinguish fact from fiction by considering both the positive and negative claims made about plantation life and testing these against the available evidence.

Students then investigate different forms of resistance, ranging from passive resistance and everyday acts of defiance to more active forms of resistance. They are challenged to decide which form of resistance was the most effective and to justify their choice using historical evidence.

The lesson also provides an opportunity for a more interactive approach, with selected students taking on different forms of resistance while the rest of the class have to identify what is being demonstrated and consider its effectiveness.

The lesson is enquiry based, with a key question introduced using a lightbulb enquiry at the beginning and revisited at the end, allowing students to demonstrate how their thinking and understanding have developed.

Included in this lesson:
Fully editable PowerPoint
Punishments on slave plantations
Resistance and survival strategies
Passive and active resistance
Differentiated historical sources
Evaluating the effectiveness of resistance
Retrieval practice
Suggested teaching strategies
Differentiated materials
Source analysis and debate

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