Triangular Trade: Mapping and Explaining It

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

English Language Arts
Social Studies

Grade(s)

5

Overview

Students will create a map that depicts the centers of slave trade and Triangular Trade Routes. They will write captions on the map illustrations using grade-appropriate, general academic, and domain-specific words and phrases accurately, including those that signal contrasting ideas, additional information, and other logical relationships.  This activity will take place after students have learned about the places, people, and products involved in the Triangular Trade Route used during the trade of enslaved Africans to various locations in the Western Hemisphere.

Phase

After/Explain/Elaborate
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 5

SS10.5.6

Describe colonial economic life and labor systems in the Americas.

UP:SS10.5.6

Vocabulary

  • economic
  • labor system
  • establishment
  • Triangular Trade Route
  • Hemisphere
  • Americas
  • Latin America
  • North America
  • South America
  • island

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Each colony's economic life and labor system was unique and based on the geographic location of the colony.
  • Most slaves came from a variety of countries in Africa and were brought to the Americas by slave traders using the Triangular Trade Route.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Locate each colony on a physical and political map.
  • Describe and explain the types of labor used in each colony (indentured servitude, slaves, free blacks, merchants, farmers, shipping, fishing/whaling, among others).
  • Trace, examine and evaluate the Triangular Trade Route and its impact on colonial economy and labor systems.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Different labor systems were used to build and grow each of the 13 colonies.
  • Slave labor was brought to the Americas by the Northern colonial shipping industry and purchased and used in the Caribbean islands and Southern colonies.
Social Studies (2010) Grade(s): 5

SS10.5.6.1

Recognizing centers of slave trade in the Western Hemisphere and the establishment of the Triangular Trade Route
ELA21.5.14

Learning Objectives

The students will:

  • create a map depicting centers of slave trade in the Western Hemisphere and routes used in Triangular Trade.
  • write captions on the map using general academic and domain-specific words and phrases accurately, in order to explain the establishment of the Triangular Trade.

Activity Details

The teacher will

  1. Project the Padlet map of the Places Associated With the Trade of Enslaved Persons. Students will use the projected map as a reference and guide during the remaining steps of this activity.  
  2. Distribute or have students get out their paper world maps used previously.
  3. Review the Triangular Trade process, people, places, and resources as learned in previous learning activities, and explain to students that they will now have an opportunity to depict and explain how the Triangular Trade routes worked. Use the projected map to guide the class to recall the three main areas of concentration or “points” of the Triangular Trade Route.  
  4. Instruct students to use their paper maps and colored pencils to depict the process and purpose of the Triangular Trade.    They should use arrows or other symbols to show the routes, but they must also write captions for their illustrations that tell how Triangular Trade operated, where the routes were, and what people and products were involved. 
  5. Collect the maps once the students have had time to finish their drawings and captions.

Assessment Strategies

Monitor students’ verbal responses as you review in step 3, and check their map illustrations and captions that they create during step 4 for the elements listed below.  An Idea Bank has been provided as an intervention strategy.  The Idea Bank can also be used as an answer key for the  teacher to use when checking the maps.  

Students’ completed work should demonstrate their knowledge of: 

  • The 3 main areas or points in the Triangular Trade routes. (Europe, the western coast of Africa, and the Americas)
  • The people that were involved in each of the areas. (European merchants, slave traders, ship captains, and crew members; African slave traders and captured Africans; merchants, slave traders, and plantation owners in the Americas)
  • The items/people that were traded in each phase of the triangular trade. (manufactured goods such as guns, alcoholic beverages, metals, and cloth from Europe to Africa; enslaved Africans from Africa to the Americas; raw materials such as sugar, cotton, furs, lumber, tobacco, etc. from the Americas back to Europe)
  • How these elements contributed to the establishment of the Triangular Trade.

In addition, their writing should demonstrate the skill of using general academic and domain-specific words and phrases accurately, in order to explain the establishment of the Triangular Trade.  

Acceleration

Students may be allowed to create their maps digitally.

 

Intervention

Intervention:  

  • Students may be allowed to verbalize the Triangular Trade process instead of creating the map with captions.  
  • The teacher may provide an Idea Bank of words or phrases that students can draw from as they create their illustrations and captions.  
  • Each student may keep the Padlet map open on their own device to use as a guide while they create their illustrations and captions instead of using the map projected to the entire class.  

Background / Preparation

Student Background/Preparation:

Students will need to be familiar with the three main areas associated with the Triangular Trade (Europe, Africa, and the Americas) and be able to locate those places on a map.  Students will need basic illustration and writing skills in order to create the depiction of Triangular Trade with explanatory captions.  

Teacher Background/Preparation:

Be prepared to handle the sensitive topic of the trade of enslaved people with respect for all students and follow your district's policies as they pertain to teaching slavery. Prepare to project the Padlet map the class constructed together earlier and or use the Padlet map that shows the three main areas of concentration of Triangular Trade Routes.  Help students recall the areas associated with the triangular trade and what people, resources, and steps were involved in trading enslaved persons.  If using the Idea Bank as an intervention strategy, make a copy of the document and edit it to suit your students’ needs.  If allowing some students to use a digital platform to create their illustration as an acceleration strategy, determine what online tool(s) they will have access to.

Learning Activity (Before)

The Triangular Trade: Thinking About the Places

Total Duration

16 to 30 Minutes

Learning Activity (During)

Triangular Trade: Thinking About the People and the Process

Learning Activity (After)

Triangular Trade: Mapping and Explaining It

Materials and Resources

Student Materials and Resources:

Teacher Materials and Resources:

  • Access to the completed Places Associated With the Trade of Enslaved Persons Padlet created by the class in the previous learning activity (Triangular Trade:  Thinking About the Places) or a remake of this Padlet map that shows the 3 main areas of concentration for the Triangular Trade Route
  • Projector or interactive whiteboard to project the Padlet for the entire class
  • Idea Bank that can be used as an intervention and/or as an answer key
Places Associated with the Trade of Enslaved Persons Padlet
https://padlet.com/sonyajordan/remake-of-places-associated-with-the-trade-of-en…

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

sjordan
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