All pupils to learn about slavery

BBC Aug 26, 2008

Pupils will be urged to look at the long term impacts of slavery

Britain's involvement in the slave trade is to be studied by all secondary pupils in England from September.

Children will study the development of the trade, colonisation and how slavery was linked to the British empire and the industrial revolution.

Pupils will also study characters like Nigerian-born slave Olaudah Equiano, one of the prominent African figures who campaigned for abolition.

In history, World War I and WWII and the Holocaust are already compulsory.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) said all children aged 11 to 14 would be required to study the nature and effects of the slave trade, resistance to it and its abolition.

Civil Rights struggle

Children will also learn about the development of international trade and the impact of the British Empire on different people in Britain and overseas.

This will include pre-colonial civilisations and decolonisation.

Pupils will also be encouraged to look at the international and long-term impact of both Empire and slavery.

It is hoped that this will give pupils an understanding of the make-up of the UK today and put immigration, the Commonwealth and the legacy of the British Empire into a clear historical context.

The DCSF says links could be made to emancipation, racial segregation and the 20th Century civil rights movement in the US.

Topic areas suggested by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority include colonial rule in Africa, the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire, and the work of reformers such as William Wilberforce, MP, and Olaudah Equiano.