Teaching Black Tudors as a window into Tudor England

I am ashamed to admit that, until recently, my teaching of black history did not go beyond schemes of work on the transatlantic slave trade and the civil rights movement in the USA. This all changed in November 2017 when I heard Dr Miranda Kaufmann on the ‘BBC History Extra’ podcast talking about black Tudors. I was immediately hooked, read her book Black Tudors: the untold story, and am proud to say I am now collaborating with Dr Kaufmann and a group of fantastic people to introduce black Tudors into classrooms across the country.

Inspired by Kaufmann’s book, I set about constructing a short enquiry to introduce my pupils to life in Tudor England using four individuals from Black Tudors as the core of the scheme of work. I shared these lessons at the workshop and a summary of the lessons can be found in the accompanying ‘Cunning Plan’ in this edition of Teaching History.