The Transatlantic Slave Trade
The British Library’s archives on “Britain’s involvement with New World slavery and the transatlantic slave trade” contain many inspirations for bodies of work to explore alongside literary slave narratives. Some of the works fall under the form “literary non-fiction” (such as The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African), but there are many paintings, maps, pamphlets, and letters that would be studied under the umbrella of “non-literary text”.
Teachers could do a deep dive into one or more of the works in the archives, or allow students to explore some of the texts on their own, either individually or in small groups, and then present their findings. Teachers may also choose a few short texts or images to explore in a warm-up style at the beginning of class; this approach allows students to make conceptual links with the primary course material while being introduced to different communicative forms and text types.
Example warm-up
During the abolitionist movement in the UK, there were several pamphlets, speeches, slave narratives, and campaigns for and against the abolition of slavery. One of the most powerful texts from this era is the drawing below, which was used in an effort to convince parliament to abolish slavery. You can see a facsimile of this text, alongside others, on the British Library website.
