Prepared by Introduction This unit is designed to acquaint you with some of the important events, people and legislation concerning one of the darkest chapters in American history -- that of slavery. For the purposes of this assignment, you may be asked to assume the role of a slave, plantation mistress, free black person, abolitionist, etc. Please feel free to use your imagination in this capacity, but always provide documentation (footnotes and bibliography) for all subject content. If, for example, you are asked to describe the life of a former slave, you must accurately depict his/her life based upon written sources. As part of this assignment, you will complete the following: 1. Look up information in the library on your topic. Remember, this writing may take the form of a letter, videotaped interview, narrative, report or even a whispered conversation. It must be footnoted and include a bibliography. Syllabus Mon. Introduction to the unit. Research reserve materials in the library. Hand in authors and titles of two books or two electronic sources that you intend to use to complete your written assignment. Tue. Continue research in the library. Hand in an outline of your assignment to Ms.Morrison-Taylor by the end of the period. Wed. Continue research in the library. Thr. Continue research in the library and classroom Fri. Continue research in the library and classroom. Mon.-Wed. Give oral classroom presentations. Research Hints 1. Highlight or underline the key search terms in your assignment. Questions 1. You are Octavia Butler. You have granted a reporter an interview about your book Kindred which you have called a "grim fantasy." It has just been included in Masterpieces of African American Literature . You have agreed to answer questions about key events, experiences, traumas and successes that may have influenced your writing career. Although you are not particularly enamored of new technology, you have agreed to a "no restrictions" clause concerning the interview format. The interview may be published in a magazine, videotaped, tape recorded, broadcast live (person to person) or involve the use of some electronic resource such as the Internet. Sources: Notable Black American Women , pp. 144-147; Black Writers pp. 86-87; Black Women in America Vol. 1 pp. 208-210; Masterpieces of African American Literature pp. 249-252 and The Feminist Companion to Literature in English , p. 164. Internet Sites: "Octavia Butler" "Unofficial Octavia Butler Page" 2. You are a medical historian trying to document whether slave owners received better medical treatment than did their slaves for an article to be published in The New England Journal of Medicine . To write the article, you must research the diseases that afflicted people of this period. Did each group use the same medicines or herbs as treatments for these diseases? Did slaves see physicians as regularly as slave owners? What was the average life span of a slave versus that of a free black person? Were the diseases "dysaethesia aethiopica" and "drapetomania" special diseases confined only to slaves? Remember: Consider childbirth a disease since so many women became seriously ill or died from it. Sources: Eyewitness: The Negro in American History p. 100 for the definition of the two listed diseases; American Negro Slavery A Documentary History , p. 164 (Contains record of physician visits to slaves); Time on the Cross: The Economies of American Negro Slavery , pp. 117-126; Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl p. 275 (swelling remedy); Roll, Jordan, Roll pp. 62, 224-228, 459-6, 507-508, 542, 603-604, 692-693; American Slavery 1619-1877 . pp. 8,21, 23, 38, 72, 113-155, 105, 146-147 and Life in Black and White pp. 101-105, 192-193. Internet Site: "Slave Health" 3. Your name is Henry Clay. You are the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1819. You are charged with resolving the issue of whether slavery should be permitted in the land acquired by the Louisiana Purchase . With the help of other legislators, you have fashioned a document called "The Missouri Compromise." Using maps of the states and new territories in 1820, statistics on the number of slaves in the new state of Missouri and arguments that acknowledge slave holders' and abolitionists' positions, persuade your fellow Congressmen, in an oral argument, to pass this legislation. Sources: Henry Clay , pp. 31-32, 147-150; Historical Atlas of the United States p. 117; Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History Vol. 4 p. 1829+; The Awakening of American Nationalism , pp. 97-140; Freedom Now: The Story of the Abolitionists , pp. 13-16; The Other South , pp. 18-19; Life in Black and White , p. 115; Time on the Cross , p. 25 (Contains U.S. Imports page of Slaves per Decade)and American Slavery 1619-1877 , pp. 239-245 (Contains statistical tables). Internet Site: " Missouri Compromise" 4. The year is 1890 and you are surrounded by your great grandchildren at a family reunion in the Chesapeake Bay area. The children beg you for stories about your former life as a slave on a nearby plantation. They are especially interested in how slaves got married. Did they ever divorce? Were there funerals held when slaves died? How did they raise their own children when they were working all of the time? How did they teach their children to behave towards their owners and other white people? You may tell your story in a series of vignettes and/or some personal narrative form. It may be interspersed with songs, poetry, laments, etc. It may reflect anger, sorrow, fear, hope or whatever emotions you infer from your research. Sources: Roll, Jordan, Roll pp. 32, 194-202, 463-82, 508-519, 566-84; Time on the Cross , pp. 126-144; American Negro Slavery , pp. 175-177; Life in Black and White pp. 226-257; The Slave Community , pp. 77-103; funerals - 35-40; The Peculiar Institution , pp.162-170, 342, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl , pp.37-40, 146-147. Internet Site: "Slave Narratives" Then scroll down to "Go Home to My Lord and Be Free," "Like a Motherless Child," "Nobody Knows De Trouble I See," and "Oppressed So Hard They Could Not Stand" Question for a student with an interest in drama. Sources: Black Abolitionists , 3-89 + the index; The Crusade Against Slavery 28-47 + index; Narrative of Sojourner Truth , Introduction, 86-87, index; Freedom Now! 17-54; Let My People Go (Contains Walker and Garrison information 43 + and index.) Internet Sites: "African-American Mosaic: Abolition" "African-American Mosaic: Conflict of Abolition & Slavery" "African-American Mosaic: Influence of Prominent Abolitionists" 6. You are a free black who has been smuggled into a plantation's slave quarters to talk to a group of slaves who wish to become free. They want to know what their options are. Here are just some of the questions that they will probably ask you. Should they run away, try to buy their freedom or ask their master for manumission? Will their job on the plantation or relationship to the slave-owner affect their master's decision to free them? Where might they go if they become free? Can they be kidnapped and resold into slavery? Once free, may they travel freely about the country? Is it true that slaves live longer than free persons? You may use a question and answer format or a format of your own design to convey this information. Sources: Slaves Without Masters 135-181; Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History , Vol. 2 1059-1062; Free Men All 33-93; Slave and Citizen , 96-97; From Slavery to Freedom , 213-238; Roll, Jordan, Roll 398-413 plus other pages and American Slavery 1619-1877 80-85, 165-166, 177-179, 181-185+. Internet Site: "Slave Narratives" Then scroll down to "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd" 7. Your name is Linda Brent A.K.A. Harriett A. Jacobs. You have been invited by a group of antislavery activists to describe your personal experience with the Underground Railroad. Several members of the audience are newcomers. They have some very basic questions about the Underground Railroad. Your plan is to provide some background information about the Underground Railroad before you relate your own story. Here are some questions you intend to answer. Where did the name, terminology and the original location of the Underground Railroad come from? How are people disguised for travel on the railroad? What are the penalties for harboring an escaped slave? What are the most common modes of travel? Who are the conductors? Are they all white people? What are Vigilance Committees? When do slaves tend to travel on the Underground Railroad? Be sure to relate your own story of escape. Sources: The Underground Railroad , 45, 60-62, 68-69+, 120. Let My People Go , 178-220; Eyewitness: The Negro in American History , 166-168, 179-180 + the index; The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad , Chapter 7; Smithsonian article October 1996; Black Abolitionists 143-167; Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History Vol. 5 2699-2700. Internet Sites: "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" "History & Geography of the Underground Railroad” 8. Despite being members of the upper class, plantation mistresses enjoyed few freedoms and choices and were expected to shoulder many responsibilities. Imagine you are the mistress of a large, well-to-do plantation. Your daughter has recently married the son of another wealthy plantation owner. Write a series of letters to your favorite cousin in Baltimore describing your life and your daughter's. Listed below are some points you should be sure to include: Sources: Life in Black and White , 69-83. Plantation Mistress, use index. Internet Site: "American Memory Project: Search Engine" Then type in "Emma Falconer" 9. Thanks to several oral tradition projects in the early 1900's, we are lucky to have access to many slave narratives. Read some of these first-hand accounts. Then imagine yourself as a historian presenting several different stories about what your childhood was like, and write your own slave narrative about your early years (dialect is not necessary.) For each of your stories, be sure to include information about the following: Sources: Before Freedom, When I Just Can Remember , 93-95, 57-58, 47, 77, 111. The Slave Community , 94-103. Life in Black and White , 112-113, 187-188, 221-225, 248-252. Remembering Slavery tapes. Internet Site: "Slave Narratives" Then scroll down to "Like a Motherless Child" Question for two Students with an interest in drama. Produce a video describing the events and results of the raid on Harper's Ferry, but include a first-hand account from a local Virginian with a Southern perspective as well as an abolitionist point of view from a Massachusetts activist. The local Virginian and Massachusetts abolitionists should defend and explain their positions. ** Pre-selected video clips from the series “Africans in America ,” shown on PBS, are available to use in your I-Movie digital video. Sources: Black Abolitionists , 235-245. Man on Fire , 278-320. To Purge This Land With Blood , 290-336 Internet Site: "John Brown Site from the Valley of the Shadow" Then scroll to eyewitness accounts by White and Boteler 11. James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson were President during the time span covered in Kindred . What were the views on slavery of each of these men? Were any of them slave owners? Was the slavery question a major issue during the administrations of any of these Presidents? Were there inconsistencies between their public pronouncements on slavery and their conduct in their own lives? Try to explain any inconsistencies you discover. Research tip: Remember that during this period of history, "servant" often meant "slave" and "servants' quarters" on a plantation would be slaves' quarters. Sources: The Presidents: A Reference History . Also check biographies of the Presidents. Internet sites: "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison" "Ash Lawn: Home of President James Monroe" "President Andrew Jackson's Hermitage" 12. Frederick Douglass, born a slave on the Eastern shore of Maryland in 1818, became the most prominent and revered black American leader of his century. He was renowned as an orator, the publisher of an abolitionist newspaper, a presidential advisor, and a crusader for women's suffrage. He remained active in moral causes until his death at his home in Washington , D.C. in 1895. Source: Smithsonian , Feb '95, 114-127. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass . Internet Sites: 2 called "Frederick Douglas" 13. In Kindred , Dana tried to escape from near Easton on the eastern shore of Maryland to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , a distance of about 100 miles. Imagine yourself as Dana planning an escape. To get a sense of the geography, copy a map of the area, color each of the 4 pertinent states a different color ( Maryland , Delaware , New Jersey and Pennsylvania ,) and color all the rivers, bays, and other water blue. Use the color-coded map to plan your route from Easton to Philadelphia . (Of course, as a slave in the antebellum period, you almost certainly would not have access to a map.) Why would you try to escape to Pennsylvania when Delaware and New Jersey are closer? Sources: Puttin' on Ole Massa , 17-21, 24-30. Internet Sites: "History & Geography of the Underground Railroad" Then scroll down to "Organization & Operations" "Slave Narratives" Scroll down to "Follow the Drinkin' Gourd” 14. You are a young, eager teacher who has just arrived from the North to teach in one of the new free schools opened to black and white students after the Civil War. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments have been ratified recently. You want strongly to make your students aware of the importance of the amendments and the long road of struggle that led to their inclusion in the U.S. Constitution. Select important events in African-American history between 1815 and 1870 that climaxed in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and make a time line. In your timeline you will tell why each event is significant to the blacks' struggle for freedom and equal rights. Sources: Timelines of African-American History , pp. 49-96; The Timetables of African-American History , pp. 78-160; The Black People of America , 63-163; Reconstruction , Jackdaw Kit A6, Exhibit 8, 10 and Broadside 1; Landmark Documents in American History . Internet Sites: "History of American Abolition" "Timeline of African-American History" "John Brown site from the Valley of the Shadow" Then click on "Eyewitness Accounts" "Slave Narratives" Then scroll to "Nat Turner" 15. You are a young lady from Boston and the year is 1853. While traveling to Alexandria to visit your Virginia cousins, you are shocked deeply when you pass the brick building of Price, Birch, & Co., Dealers in Slaves, and when later you see the slaves toiling in the tobacco fields of your relatives' farm. You express your dismay that such a cruel system could exist in the United States of America . Upon your return to Boston , you research slavery in your local Athenaeum, a membership library, with the intention of writing an article about slavery to be published in the abolitionist newspaper The North Star . In your article include the beginnings of slavery in North America, explain the meanings of the terms "Middle Passage" and "Triangle Trade," how the slaves were sold when they arrived and how the trade continued in the United States even though the law prohibited the importation of Africans after 1808. Sources: The Black People of America , pp. 35-82; People in Bondage , pp. 35-105; Middle Passage , book of paintings by Tom Feeling; The Slave Trade and Its Abolition , Jackdaw Kit A30, Broadside 1; Historical Atlas of the United States , pp. 40-41, 50-51; Time on the Cross , pp. 13-58; The Birth of Black America , pp. 87-107; Live in Black and White , pp. 166-205. Internet Sites: "Slave Narratives" Then scroll down to "Nat Turner" "Slaves on a Georgia Plantation" "Georgia Curry Slave Data" 16. Although the United States signed the international agreement that banned the international buying and selling of slaves in 1808, the slave trade continued unabated in the United States , especially in the states of the South. You are a French businessman, Henri Leconte, who is working on the Cotton Exchange in New Orleans during the 1840's. While traveling, throughout the South, by boat, train, and horseback, you write a journal and send back observations on slavery and slave markets to your family in Bordeaux , France . Write either a travel journal or a long letter to your family, in which you indicate the main cities that had major slave auctions, how the sales were advertised and conducted, the most common reasons slaves were sold, and whether slaves were sold individually or in groups, the regions that produced the most slaves for sale and what parts of the country needed slaves and for what kind of work. Tell how the slaves were procured for the sales and how they were moved to the new areas where they would work. Sources: The Birth of Black American , pp. 99-103; Slavery in the United States , Jackdaw Kit A30, Broadside 2 (Picture of Price, Birch & Co. in Alexandria); American Slavery, 1619-1877 , pp. 93-111; Life in Black and White , pp. 177-183; Before Freedom , pp. 1-85 passim.; The Black People of America , pp. 64-73; Puttin' On Ole Massa , " Twelve Years a Slave ," pp. 228-409 (Description of slave pens); The Peculiar Institution , pp. 237-278. Internet Sites: "Georgia Curry Slave Data" "Slaves on a Georgia Plantation" " Search Valley of the Shadow" by typing keyword the keyword <Slavery> in the Excite for Web servers search box. "Slave Market Photographs" Search under "slave trade" "Slave Narratives" Then scroll to "James Martin Remembers a Slave Auction" 17. You are a fourteen-year-old African-American slave girl living with your parents and four brothers in a slave cabin on a Southern plantation. Your father is a forty-five-year-old wheelwright, and your mother is a laundress while you and your teenage brothers, sixteen and eighteen, are field hands. Your little brothers are five and seven. In addition to the food distributed to your family every week by the owner, your family is allocated a garden plot to plant. Describe your house, its construction and furnishings, the clothes your family wears and how you get them, and the typical foods you eat and how you prepare them. Plan a menu featuring your favorite foods. Sources: Time on the Cross , pp. 109-116, 127; Life in Black and White , pp. 171, 186-189, plates [3], [11], and [16] for pictures of cabins; The Slave Community , "Plantation Realities." pp. 154-193; The American Slave , "The Black Family under Slavery," pp. 77-94; Before Freedom , pp. 1-85 passim.; From Sundown to Sunup , (American Slave, Vol.1), pp. 68-77; Roll, Jordan, Roll , pp. 550-594; American Slavery , pp. 173-178. Internet Sites: "Mrs. Lulu Bowers II: Social Customs" Then type in "Bowers" as your keyword "Slave Narratives" Then scroll to "We Raise de Wheat..." Note: This is a question for two students Sources: Life in Black and White , pp. 186-205; Roll , Jordan , Roll , pp. 327-365; From Sundown to Sunup , (The American Slave, Vol. 1), pp. 53-93; Time on the Cross , pp. 109-157. Internet Sites: "Slave Narratives" Then scroll to "We Raise de Wheat..." "Mrs. Lulu Bowers II: Social Customs" Then type in "Bowers" as your keyword. 19. You are a militant black man who bought your freedom with the money you saved from shoeing horses and making wrought-iron gates for the wealthy planters of Louisiana . Because you cannot bear any longer the tyranny of white owners over your enslaved brothers and sisters, you decide to organize a revolt of as many men as you can recruit. After murdering their white owners and burning their houses, you will flee deep into the bayous to found a maroon settlement. You know about the unsuccessful slave revolts of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner, and you do not want to repeat the mistakes that led to their undoing. Write a speech you will give to your fellow and trusted conspirators, telling them about Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey and how your revolt will succeed. Explain what a maroon settlement is in your speech. Sources: Nat Turner: Slave Revolt Leader ; Denmark Vesey: Slave Revolt Leader ; Breaking the Chains , pp. 111-124; Black Protest , pp. 35-59; Slave Community , pp. 119-131; From Sundown to Sunup (American Slave, Vol.1), pp. 112-113; The American Negro Slave , pp. 224-243; The Struggle for Freedom , pp. 75-100; Nat Turner's Slave Revolt, 1831 , Jackdaw Kit A1; The Black People of America , p.79-80; Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History , s.v. "Denmark Vesey Conspiracy" and Nat Turner's Rebellion;" Encyclopedia of Black America , pp. 766, 821. Internet Sites: "History of American Abolition" "Slave Narratives" Then scroll to "Nat Turner" 20. In Kindred , Alice gives her daughter the Biblical name Hagar and says that if the baby had been a boy she would have named him Ishmael. Look up these characters in the Bible and tell why Alice picked these names. Then assume that you are a slave mother who is deeply religious. You want to name your children after Biblical characters that will inspire them with strength and hope. Select six names you might give three boys and three girls, and tell why you picked these names and what they symbolize. Sources: A Bible Who's Who ; Bible Names: Pronunciations and Meanings , Everyone in the Bible ; Oxford Companion to the Bible ; Encyclopedia of Religion . Internet Site: "Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary" 21. As the Civil Rights Movement progressed in America , African-Americans became more assertive. It is 1976 in Kindred . Dana is a 26 year-old African American living in Los Angeles . Relate some first person accounts of the following major civil rights events that she would have read about in newspapers and magazines. Try to include how people felt at the time these events occurred. Focus upon: 1. the Watts riot (1965, 2. Black Panthers (1966 -), 3. Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968) and 4. the Washington DC Riots (1968). Sources: Voices of Freedom 349-372, 467-469, 510-538; Too Good to be Forgotten 135-139; Sixties Counterculture 23-27, 179-208 and Ten Blocks from the White House Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1968. Internet Sites: “Africana Watts Riots” “Black Panther History” “Martin Luther King Jr., Assassination” “D.C. riots of 1968” BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCE TITLES 220.3 Ham Bible Names: Pronunciations and Meanings BIOGRAPHY TITLES B813a Man on Fire NON-FICTION TITLES 301.451 B455 Slaves Without Masters JACKDAW KITS 301.44 H662 Slavery in the United States FICTION NCS Authors' Jumping the Broom 12/2001
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