Getting deep with Tara Roberts!

Before studying the transatlantic slave trade, students benefit from geography, economy, indigenous presence, identity of African Americans before slavery. We can help students make connections by using Roberts’s work to highlight that enslaved Africans were not passive victims.

One of the big issues that I have noticed when teaching about the transatlantic slave trade is how hard it can be for students to grasp the size of the it. Even when showing them pictures/images of the ships and how many people were crammed into them it is hard for them to extrapolate that information. I feel the virtual field trip will be a good help to get students really thinking about it and exploring. 

When covering the slave trade it can be easy to lose the human element because of the enormity of the event. Storytelling, like Robert’s, humanizes and makes this more real for students. It was interesting to think how most students (and educators) cannot name a single slave ship. I’m interested in sharing these stories and trying to adapt more of the OER curriculum within my classroom.

I would love to do a virtual trip with my students as well!

I loved Tara Robert's emphasis on the rich lives of enslaved people as PEOPLE, not statistics. The statistics are staggering, but each of those numbers is a person, and that is how we humanize history. Her emphasis on naming the ships and using common African names is important - reminding us that we do know the names of the European colonizers and their ships, and we should know the names of the slave ships and the enslaved.

It also gets at the importance of storytelling in history. I am so glad that we teach history now so differently from the way I was taught. For me, it was disconnected facts and dates (not to mention the traditional "dead white guys"). Stories are inherently compelling, not only in history but in our daily lives. They build connections and empathy and make us better people. I start my year in world history with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story" each year, and continually return to that theme throughout the year. We tell the story of history. We identify missing narratives. Students conduct interviews of family and community members.  And classmates tell their stories to their peers. All of these make a difference in who each of us chooses to become. That is the beauty of teaching history. 

Teaching slavery starts with teaching students that every culture had slavery. The deeper meaning in history is finding the people who fought against slavery and changed our view of slavery (Gregory of Nyssa). This presentation reinforced the same old story: The transatlantic slave trade was the only slave trade. Why is the Arab Muslim slave trade also known as the trans-Saharan trade or Eastern slave trade always ignored? It is billed as the longest, having happened for more than 1300 years while taking at least 12 million Africans away from their continent to work in foreign land in the most inhumane conditions. Students are very familiar with the transatlantic slave trade because that is all they are taught. Why not go deeper into what caused the world to fight against slavery?

One of the most interesting things she spoke about- beyond the slave trade and the historical significance- was finding her desire to learn more about her own history.  I feel like if we can help students tap into their innate desire to know more and understand more about their own histories, we can fuel a passion for history and help them better connect with the human experiences.

Ms. Roberts' intent was not to teach about slavery, it was to add to our understanding of THIS slavery. Her expertise is specifically what shipwrecks can tell us about the Atlantic Slave Trade. I found her presentation interesting and it added to my understanding of the Atlantic Slave Trade. More importantly, it made me think about what different kinds of evidence I might want to seek out/use with my students, and it reinforced the power of storytelling in the teaching of history. 

In a one hour webinar, no one could teach the entire history of slavery. To discount Ms. Roberts' expertise because it does not give a complete account of the history of slavery would be a mistake.

OER (Big History) claims to have a global perspective yet when you type slavery into their search engine it only focuses on the Atlantic Slave Trade.  What are the first two options that come up?

This is not a global perspective. That is the problem with the presentation, it focuses on one type of slavery which makes students believe that other types of slavery didn't exist or were not as horrible. The first five pages of searches don't mention the Muslim Slave Trade. OER has an agenda when it comes to slavery and global perspective is not part of that agenda.

The most salient idea that I took away from Tara Roberts' session was that names and representation matter.  Naming the ships and people involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade both honors and vocalizes the enslaved peoples and their experiences, despite the awful circumstances they were forced into.  As she was speaking about this particular topic, I was reminded of the sugar skulls that are created in Mexican culture to honor those who have passed and how both practices empower an often silenced narrative.

I primarily work with MLs who often struggle to see themselves in spaces beyond those that have been assigned to them.  Ms. Roberts mentioned the exact life-changing moment that she saw scuba drivers that looked like her for the first time.  This singular moment has altered her entire career trajectory.  While it isn't realistic for my students to all have this "aha" moment, it is worth spending time on the fact that representation matters.  From a historical lens, this could be encapsulated as the effect of breaking out of the box a person has been assigned and doing what feels right/natural/best in that moment.  Highlighting historical and/or current people who rebelled against a system not built for them (such as during Reconstruction or the Civil Rights Movement in the US) is one possible way to bring this concept into the classroom.