Bringing slave trade history to life

UCLan academic and students present dramatic portrayal of the slave trade in Leeds primary school.

Earlier this month, Dr Alan Rice, Reader in American Cultural Studies, took eight of his year 2 & 3 American Studies students for a two-day field trip in Leeds. The students are helping to develop a learning resource Alan has been developing for ten years – an interactive dramatic tableau of the slave trade.

This resource is particularly useful for helping school children to visualise the ‘Triangular Trade’ and get to grips with its complexity. As part of the trip, timed to coincide with events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the ex-slave Frederick Douglass’s visit to Leeds in 1859, Alan and the students presented the tableau to 29, year 6 students at Carr Manor Primary School in Leeds.

The students, who had just completed biography projects for Black History Month, were very excited to be take part in the drama and were totally engaged for the whole two hours. They each were given character cards while Dr Rice and the students told their individual and collective stories as they moved between, Africa, Europe and the Americas around a representation of the Atlantic Ocean.

The school children learnt about famous and obscure characters, about slavers and enslaved, heroes and villains, about immense and overwhelming tragedy and triumphant survival against the odds.

The teacher, Inderjeet Panesar, was very impressed with the resource and has invited Dr Rice and his students back to present to the rest of the year 6 pupils at the school. The UCLan students were very impressed by the engagement of the school children whose attention never faltered and it has inspired them to develop extra characters for the next UCLan visit in the New Year.

The project has attracted funding from CETH at UCLan and from CILASS in Sheffield and will culminate in added student-developed characters and resources which will make the tableau an even better pedagogic resource.