This lesson explores our right to freedom, and how this right comes with responsibilities.

Most people are free to make choices, for example:

• What kind of work we do• Where we live• Where we travel • How we get there• Who our friends are• What we eat• How we decorate our homes.

However, the amount of freedom we have to make choices is limited by our responsibilities to others.

For example when we go out into the playground there are places where we are not allowed to tear about or kick a football. If we did, younger children might get hurt, or we would deny the pleasure of children who want to play quieter games.

Children who break the playground rules are using their rights to choose, but are forgetting their responsibilities to others.

RIGHTS

RESPONSIBILITIES

The wider world works in much the same way.

When a group of people or a nation becomes too self-centred and greedy, it may impose its will on another, ignoring the other’s rights. At its worst we call this war or civil war.

If a group of people is overpowered they experience a loss of freedom. Just like children in a playground dominated by bullies, their movement becomes restricted, and their choices more limited.

When people are completely deprived of choice we call it slavery.

Sadly, history shows us that groups of people have often abused their power.

They have deprived others of their freedom, and forced them to work, in order to gain riches.

Over a 400 year period 15 million people were taken from Africa to work as slaves in the Americas, mostly on plantations.

Can you begin to imagine how it might feel to have your name changed, to be separated from your family, and to be treated as property to be bought and sold?

In 2007 we marked the 200th anniversary of the end of the shameful trade in slaves across the British Empire. William Wilberforce was the

conscience of parliament in 1807

Toussaint L’Ouverture

The black hero was born into slavery in 1743.

He is famous for his fight to free his people from slavery on the island of San Domingo, now known as Haiti.

Toussaint was given his first name because he was born on All Saints Day.

When he joined the black army he quickly rose through the ranks and earned the name L’Ouverture because he could always find openings in enemy lines.

He fought with the Spanish against the French. The French were losing, because they were poorly led and weakened by fever.

The French realised that they would be defeated without Toussaint and his army on their side.

In 1793 Toussaint made a deal with them. Any slaves who fought for France would be allowed their freedom.

Toussaint was made a General in the French army. With him on side the French forced the Spanish, and later the British, to flee from the island, but in 1801 Toussaint took control, and drew up new laws making himself the most powerful person in San Domingo.

Napoleon, the emperor of France, was furious, and vowed to get the rich island back under French control. In 1802 he sent his brother-in-law, Charles Leclerc, with a more powerful force, to attack Toussaint’s army.

Fearing the power of the French army, many of Toussaint’s officers deserted. Eventually Toussaint was forced to sign a treaty with Leclerc, but he did so only on condition that slavery was to be made illegal on the island.

Leclerc knew that Toussaint would always be a threat to his power. Three weeks after the treaty was signed he sent troops to seize him. Toussaint and his family were shipped to France on a warship.

Brave Toussaint was taken to a damp dungeon in Fort de Joux, France, where he died of pneumonia within a few months.

…. but his sacrifice had won his people’s freedom!

However, freedom can be easily swept away - and many people remain enslaved, even today.

Have you ever had your freedom taken away, even for a short time?

How did it make you feel?

Can you begin to imagine how it might feel to have your freedom taken away completely – perhaps for ever?

If you were denied the things you enjoyed the most what would these be?People Activities Other

Write a poem celebrating the everyday actions and things we might take for granted. You might write it in verses, 3 lines about an action, the fourth line about something special:

Splashing in puddles on a winter’s day,Tickling my brother’s wriggling toes,Tumbling down a soft grassy bank,

My grandma’s reassuring cuddle.

Glossary

Dominate – control, take over

Deprive – take away, leave without

Restrict – limit

Limit – boundary, edge

Civil war – war between two groups within the same country

Activities to complete this lesson include:

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Click on the image above to view and/or download learning activities.

• creative writing about the things you would

miss if denied freedom • reading an

historical account of being taken

into slavery

If you enjoyed this lesson, why not try:

Sacrificing All for the DreamHow Martin Luther King achieved change through peaceful protest. The nature of prejudice.

Pioneering Nurses

How Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale overcame prejudice in order to help others. The importance of good hygiene, particularly in hospitals.

Useful Web Links

• http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/snapshots/snapshot27/snapshot27.htm - a resource on the impact of the abolition of slavery in the U.K

• http://www.antislavery.org/english/what_we_do/education/teachers/default.aspx - Ideas on integrating slavery into the curriculum

• http://www.antislavery.org/ - Anti-Slavery International – the World’s oldest human rights organisation dedicated to fighting slavery around the World today and since 1839 – the website also contains classroom activities and resources on slavery

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/citizenship_11_14/subject_areas/human_rights/newsid_2441000/2441033.stm - Lesson plan based on case stud y Argentina exploring children’s rights

• http://www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice/rights.asp - Everyone under the age of 18 has rights no matter who they are, where they live or what they believe in – youth voice is a site for children about their rights and how they can take action to protect the rights of others.

More Useful Links

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wilberforce_william.shtml - profile on William Wilberforce

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/tx/slavery.shtml - is it time to say sorry for slavery in the U.K?

• http://www.historywiz.com/toussaint.htm - profile on Touissant L’Ouverture

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/forkids/ - life with the Celts, the Romans, the Greeks – find out about slavery through the ages

• http://www.savethechildren.org.uk – Save the Children – resources and information on campaigns to protect children’s rights

• http://www.unicef.org.uk/campaigns/campaign_detail.asp?campaign=16 – Unicef campaigns for the rights of children and the battle to end child exploitation

Around 6800 B.C. The world’s first city was established in Mesopotamia. The people began to own their own land. Enemies captured in battle were forced to work.

Around 2575 B.C. Egyptians sent expeditions down the Nile River to capture slaves.

Around 550 B.C. The mighty Greek city-state of Athens used up to 30,000 slaves in the silver mines.

Around 120 AD thousands of slaves were taken in Roman military campaigns, some think that about half the population of Rome were slaves.

Around 500 AD native Britons were enslaved after the invasion by Anglo-Saxons.