Should students role-play being enslaved?

The answer

No. Role-play simulations of enslavement can trivialise suffering, humiliate students, reinforce stereotypes and invite flippant behaviour, and they teach less than careful analysis of sources and discussion. Better alternatives include working with primary sources, mapping routes, timelines, creative responses that do not require impersonating victims, and reflective writing. Educators and historians widely criticise simulations for these reasons, and the same applies to games that treat people as cargo. Choose activities that keep the enslaved at the centre as people with names and histories.