Worksheet to accompany the interactive materials at www.activehistory.co.

uk / 1
Life on the plantations

Background
▪ The Anti-Slavery Movement wants a report about slave life on the plantations.
▪ You already know three things:
(a) Slaves do the hard work in the cotton, sugar and tobacco plantations;
(b) Overseers are responsible for the day-to-day running of the plantations
(c) Slave-owners live a life of luxury in the “Great House” on the plantation.

Task 1
▪ Your teacher has 10 genuine accounts from www.activehistory.co.uk from slaves
talking about conditions on the plantations.
▪ Each pair of people in the class will be given a different account (if there are more
than 20 people in the class, some people will work in a group of three).
▪ Use your account to fill in the first row of the evidence research sheet.

Task 2
▪ You have five minutes to read back through the testimony and decide what answer
your character would provide to each of these questions:
a. What sorts of work do slaves do on the plantations?
b. What sorts of punishments are given to slaves who try to escape?
▪ NOTE: Not all slaves can answer all three questions. Just answer those you have
evidence for.

Task 3
▪ Your teacher will now choose one person at random from each team to answer the
questions listed above “in role” as the character they have been researching.
▪ The rest of the class should use the evidence from each “slave” to complete their
evidence sheets.
▪ NOTE: You are not able to refer to your notes when you answer “in role” during the
task!

Task 4
Now produce an official report for Parliament about “Conditions on the slave
plantations” under two headings:
▪ Work on the Plantations ▪ Types of Punishments
▪ Use quotes from the slaves you interviewed to back up your points.
 Worksheet to accompany the interactive materials at www.activehistory.co.uk / 2

Evidence Research Sheet: Conditions on the Plantations

a. What sorts of work do slaves do c. What sorts of punishments are

on the plantations? given to slaves?
Moses Roper

Frederick Douglass

Lewis Clarke

Henry Clay Bruce

Francis Fredric
 Worksheet to accompany the interactive materials at www.activehistory.co.uk / 3
Olaudah Equiano

William Wells Brown

Harriet Jacobs

John Brown

Henry Bibb