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THE SIMULATION LAB
Free printable · APUSH Topic 2.6

Colonial Slavery Development Cards

Sixteen cards and a causal-ranking board. Students explain how slavery in the British colonies hardened from custom into hereditary racial law — and rank the causes rather than reciting them.

Why this page exists: the lesson names demographic evidence cards and a causal-ranking board that never shipped as files.

Nothing to download, no email, no account. Print straight from this page. Built for Lesson 2.6 of APUSH Launch Control, and it works in any course that teaches the same ground.

How to print it

Each button opens your browser's normal print box with only that one piece selected — the website navigation, this text, and the teacher key never come out of the printer by accident. Choose your printer, press Print. Nothing downloads.

  1. The 16 cards — 3 pages, 6 per page. Cut on the dashed lines; one set per group of three or four.
  2. The ranking board — 1 page, prints sideways. One per group. Four cause zones plus the boxes where the ranking gets defended.
  3. The teacher key — 1 page, for you only. What each card establishes and the three corrections this topic needs most.

16 cards · 3 pages at 6 per page · cut on the dashed lines

Colonial Slavery Development CardsCut on the dashed lines. Sort by cause, then rank. thesimulationlabedu.com

The cards

Economic pressure, labor supply, law, and race each did part of the work. The lesson is deciding how much each did — and saying why.

Causal Ranking Board — Development of SlaveryOne per group. Sort, rank, then defend. thesimulationlabedu.com

The causal-ranking board

Four causes. Ranking them is the assessment — and the defense matters more than the order.

Economic pressure

Cards here.

Labor supply

Cards here.

Law

Cards here.

Racial ideology

Cards here.

Our ranking, in order
Why our first outranks our second
The cause that had to come first for the others to work
What changed between the earliest decades and the slave codes
Teacher key — what each card establishes, and the three corrections (click to open)
Teacher Key — Colonial Slavery Development CardsDo not hand to students. thesimulationlabedu.com

Kept closed by default so it is not on the board behind you.

Free from The Simulation Lab · https://thesimulationlabedu.com/history/apush/tools/colonial-slavery-development-cards/

Run it in one class period

  1. Opener, 5 minutes. Ask when slavery "became" racial and hereditary in the English colonies. Take a guess from each group and hold it.
  2. Sort, 15 minutes. All 16 cards into the four causes, with a defense for any contested placement.
  3. Rank, 15 minutes. Order the four causes and write why the first outranks the second.
  4. The hard box, 8 minutes. Which cause had to come first for the others to work? Expect and reward disagreement.
  5. Exit, 5 minutes. One sentence naming something that changed between the earliest decades and the slave codes.

Handle this material as what it is. These cards describe the construction of a system that held human beings as property. The deck names beneficiaries, mechanisms, and resistance deliberately — students should leave able to say who built it and who profited.

The "Not always so fixed" card is not a softening. It exists so students can see that the hardened system was made, not inherited — which is what makes the law cards matter.

These are teacher-authored cards, not primary sources. Colonial statutes are quoted in the lesson kit's Evidence and Source Guide, not here.

All free printable card sets · Back to the APUSH Skills Lab

Written and reviewed by Josh, classroom history teacher and Simulation Lab creator. Published and reviewed August 19, 2026. Print and copy freely for your own classroom. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board.