Slavery and Identity Maps

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Date:

Historical map showing the transatlantic slave trade routes

📚 Part 1: Understanding Identity and Slavery

1. What is identity? Circle the best definition:

Only your name and age

Who you are, including your culture, family, beliefs, and experiences

Just where you were born

Your job or role in society

2. Which of these were ways that slavery affected people's identities? Tick all that apply:

Names were often changed by enslavers

Families were separated

People lost their freedom to make choices

Cultural traditions were disrupted

People were forced to work without pay

3. Despite the horrors of slavery, enslaved people found ways to maintain parts of their identity. Circle two examples:

Keeping cultural traditions alive in secret

Creating new communities and families

Always following all the rules

Forgetting their past completely

4. Fill in the blanks using the words below:

Words: resilience, identity, freedom, communities

Slavery had a devastating impact on people's _____________, but enslaved individuals showed incredible _____________ by forming new _____________ and fighting for their _____________.

🗺️ Part 2: Planning Your Identity Map

5. You will create an identity map for a fictional enslaved person. First, choose your character's background:

Character A: Kwame, aged 16, taken from Ghana, separated from his family

Character B: Amara, aged 25, born into slavery in Virginia, has two young children

Character C: Kofi, aged 30, taken from Senegal, skilled metalworker

I choose Character: _______

6. List four aspects of identity that your character would have had before/during slavery:

1. _________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________

4. _________________________________________________

7. How might slavery have changed or challenged each of these aspects? Write one sentence for each:

8. What are two ways your character might have tried to preserve or rebuild their identity despite slavery?

1. _________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________

✏️ Part 3: Reflection and Analysis

9. In your own words, explain how slavery affected people's sense of identity:

10. Why is it important to understand how historical events like slavery affected people's identities?

11. Complete this sentence: "I have learned that identity is important because..."

_________________________________________________

Slavery and Identity Maps

Slavery and Identity Maps

📚 Part 1: Understanding Identity and Slavery

🗺️ Part 2: Planning Your Identity Map

✏️ Part 3: Reflection and Analysis

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