Worksheet: What role did the Royal Navy play in suppressing the slave trade 1808 - 1867?

This worksheet is designed for either a KS3 or KS4 class looking at the role played by Britain’s West African Squadron in suppressing the Transatlantic Slave Trade from 1807 - 1867. This forgotten period of our history tells the story of how 36 Royal Navy ships with 4,000 men and just under half of the countries military budget successfully stopped and freed just over 150,000 human beings who was destined for a life of misery in the Americas as slaves. During this time, 76,000 British sailors heroically died trying to stop of slave trade. Many today are calling for the statues of slave traders to be pulled down and instead replaced with a memorial to these brave British sailors.

When you purchase this two resource, you will be able to download a two page worksheet, which has been slaved as both a Word document and a PDF. It contains information on why the West African Squadron was setup, their tactics, strategies and the impact that they had on the slave trade. This is followed up by seven questions to help students consolidate their knowledge. I have also uploaded a word search an additional single page sheet with differentiated tasks including a heads and tails task and a missing word task.

This lesson is suitable for middle to higher ability students, if you are looking for a PowerPoint with fun and interactive activities to accompany this resource, then please check out my resource with the same title on the TES which can be purchased along with this worksheet for an extra £1.

The aims and objectives of this lesson are:

Theme: Britain and the slave trade
Know: Why was the West African Squadron created in 1808?
Understand: What role did the Royal Navy play in stopping the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?
Evaluate: How successful were Britain’s efforts to abolish the slave trade?
Skills: Cause, Consequence, Change and Continuity

WILF – What Am I Looking For?
Can You Describe: Why the West African Squadron created in 1808?
Can You Explain: : What role did the Royal Navy play in stopping the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?
Can You Evaluate: How successful were Britain’s efforts to abolish the slave trade?

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Kind Regards

Roy