American Centuries

Pocumtuck Valley
Memorial Association

American Centuries > Lessons > Lessons About African Americans > In Exchange for Rum

In Exchange for Rum

Details

Author
Deerfield Teachers' Center
Topic/Subject Area
African American, Black Life; Commerce, Business, Trade, Consumerism; Slavery, Indenture
Historical Era
Colonial settlement, 1620–1762
Grade Level
Elementary (K–5), Middle School (6–8)
Creation Date
2017
Last Revision Date
2024

Related items

About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Students will:

Materials & Resources

Reading
Maps and images to print
Miscellaneous materials

Teaching Plan

  1. Print one copy of the Import/Export Images page and cut out each image.
  2. Ask the class the following questions:
    • What does it mean to be a colony?
    • What are imports? Exports?
    • What do you know about the Triangular Trade?
  3. Using the North Atlantic Ocean map, review with students the major areas involved in the Triangular Trade. Include England, the west coast of Africa, the Caribbean and the American colonies.
  4. Set out the 4 maps of Triangular Trade destinations (British Isles, Africa, Caribbean, 13 American colonies). It helps to group the American and Caribbean colonies maps together. Tell students they will be finding out about how some items fit into the Triangular Trade. Hand out the items and images, using all but the image of enslaved people. Students can either take turns placing their item on the map where they think it originated and tell you where it went, or they can tell you where it originated and place it on the destination map. It might be helpful to ask the students with the sugar and molasses to report out first. Possible topics to discuss:
    • Observe the types of items (i.e. finished goods VS raw materials) imported or exported to or from the various destinations.
    • Discuss the purpose of a colony (to supply the mother country with raw materials and purchase finished goods from her).
    • Why didn’t people in the Caribbean islands grow more food? Why did they need to import items such as peas and livestock? (They devoted all possible farmland to growing sugarcane, which would bring in more income than other foodstuffs.)
  5. Hand a child the picture of the enslaved people. Where were they from? Where did they go? (Explain that some enslaved people were taken to the Caribbean, and some went straight to the American colonies.) Examine again the Triangular Trade items and discuss what might have been used to purchase a person, aside from money. (Cloth, rum) The enslaved were “commodities” of the Triangular Trade. What does that mean? (A trade item-the term is often used regarding shipping; also, something of use)
  6. Think about the use and value of each thing on the list of Triangular Trade items you examined. Read Excerpts from “Northern Profits from Slavery” and Excerpts from “Triangular trade”. What do you think is the most important trade item? Why? Explain how it might be said that sugar ran or fueled the Triangular Trade economy. Aside from using it in cooking, what was sugar good for? (It was used in making rum, which brought in money for buying enslaved people and finished goods.)

See Answers to Step 4 of “In Exchange for Rum”