Year 8
3 sections
16 topics
Empire, Slavery and Civil Rights
A Year 8 course on three linked stories: how Britain built an empire that covered a quarter of the world, how millions of people were bought, sold and enslaved and how abolition was won, and why the fight for civil rights in the USA carried on long after slavery ended. Written for KS3 students who are learning to ask who gained, who paid and whose voices are missing.
These are difficult subjects, and the course treats them seriously: it uses the words and evidence of the people who lived them, and asks you to explain and judge rather than to memorise. There are no marks and no exam language, just the habit of asking what happened, why, and who was affected.
A question you will meetWhy did it take so long to end the slave trade, when so many people knew it was wrong?
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The British Empire
1600 - 1947
How did one small island come to rule a quarter of the world?
Why Britain Wanted an Empire
How Britain Built Its Empire
Slavery and Abolition
1500 - 1833
How could people buy and sell other human beings - and what finally stopped them?
The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Civil Rights in the USA
1865 - Present
Why did the fight for equality continue long after slavery ended?
From Slavery to 'Freedom', 1865-1877
The Civil Rights Campaigns, 1950s-60s
How Far Has Equality Been Achieved?
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