The Slave Dancer

By Paula Fox

Designed by Stacey Morgan

Introduction

The Slave Dancer is a story about a young boy's experience aboard a slave ship called the Moonlight. Jessie Bollinger has been kidnapped and is forced to make the dangerous voyage across the Atlantic to bring back slaves from Africa. His job aboard the Moonlight is to dance the slaves. This dangerous voyage is known as the Middle Passage. For many years Europeans and Americans went to Africa and captured people to work on the plantation farms in the Americas. The transatlantic slave trade became a very profitable business. In the 1800's the United States passed a law forbidding ships to transport Africans across the Atlantic to be sold into slavery, however, this did not stop many ships from continuing to run the Middle Passage.

Task

In this webquest you will discover:

  1. The distance slave ships traveled during the Middle Passage.
  2. The diet and living conditions of the Africans aboard slave ships.
  3. The treatment of slaves during the Middle Passage.

The Moonlight

Jessie needs to know how long his voyage to Africa will take. He is lonely and misses his mother and sister. Find out the following:

 How many miles will Jessie travel on his voyage to Africa following the path of the Middle Passage?

How long do you think it will take him to make the voyage?

How many slaves were brought to America during the 1700 and 1800's?

 Which country or continent bought most of the slaves?

http://www.highseas.org/mpv_webpages/maps.html

http://www.uwec.edu/Academic/Geography/Ivogeler/w111/slaves.htm

 

Life aboard a Slave Ship

 

Many of the Africans never made it to America. There were many that died during the Middle Passage. From their capture in Africa, to their arrival aboard the slave ships, Africans suffered at the hands of the slave traders.

 What did the slaves eat on slave ships?

Where and how did they live aboard the slave ships?

How were they treated?

http://found.cs.nyu.edu/andruid/chainsWeb/slaveStats.html

http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm

Life as a Slave

There are very few written accounts of life aboard a slave ship actually written by slaves. The Slave Dancer is told through the eyes of Jessie, a thirteen-year-old white boy. Tell the story through a slave's perspective.

Write a letter to your parents describing your capture and your stay at a slave fortress in Africa.

Write at least three journal entries describing your voyage across the Atlantic. What was your physical condition when you were brought on board, where did you stay during the voyage, and how many fellow Africans were alive at the end of the journey. 

  http://www.highseas.org/mpv_webpages/postcards/ghana3.html

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h92.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p278.html

Evaluation

Record all of your answers and writing entries in your journal. Journals will be graded on accuracy of answers and quality of content.