U.S. Slavery: Resistance & Collective Activism
Lesson Plans
Purpose: This activity teaches students about the process of how history is uncovered and the choices being made in what to teach. It then asks them to choose which events out of a list are significant and why, thereby having them participate in the process of choosing what history to teach.
This lesson is recommended as an activity to be included in a unit on colonial American history. It could also be used as part of a unit about the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Grade: 11- High school students taking a United States History course. (Side note: Colonial slavery is not part of the 11th grade curriculum in California, it is part of the 7th and 8th grade curriculums. However I feel the need to teach this in my 11th grade class. This lesson could be used for APUSH, it will need to be adjusted for lower grades).
Objective: Students will be able to answer the following questions:
Standards: See end of document
Suggested Time: 1 -2 class periods (roughly 1-2 hours of class time depending on how much time is spent in discussion. It can be made to fit in one class period if the video is omitted)
Unit context: This lesson is designed to occur within the context of lessons about the Atlantic Slave Trade. A suggested lesson to use prior to this lesson is SHEG’s lesson on the Middle Passage
Procedure:
Materials/Handouts:
Specific to this lesson: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RfJd9jxkyaZ6c_LsaLbxzJW7K7kXB-7abdMrgtyiAdY/edit?usp=sharing
Standards:California 2016 History-Social Science Framework:
7th grade:
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
5th grade:
5.4.6. Describe the introduction of slavery into America, the responses of slave families to their condition, the ongoing struggle between proponents and opponents of slavery, and the gradual institutionalization of slavery in the South.
7th grade:
7.11.2. Discuss the exchanges of plants, animals, technology, culture, and ideas among Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the major economic and social effects on each continent.
8th grade:
8.7.2. Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region’s political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey).
8.9.4. Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California’s admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850.
This lesson is recommended as an activity to be included in a unit on colonial American history. It could also be used as part of a unit about the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Grade: 11- High school students taking a United States History course. (Side note: Colonial slavery is not part of the 11th grade curriculum in California, it is part of the 7th and 8th grade curriculums. However I feel the need to teach this in my 11th grade class. This lesson could be used for APUSH, it will need to be adjusted for lower grades).
Objective: Students will be able to answer the following questions:
- How do we as a society know what we know about the past?
- How do historians decide what is important to include in their histories?
- What were the revolutionary and everyday ways enslaved people resisted the efforts of their enslavers to reduce them to commodities?
- How was slavery an institution of power?
Standards: See end of document
Suggested Time: 1 -2 class periods (roughly 1-2 hours of class time depending on how much time is spent in discussion. It can be made to fit in one class period if the video is omitted)
Unit context: This lesson is designed to occur within the context of lessons about the Atlantic Slave Trade. A suggested lesson to use prior to this lesson is SHEG’s lesson on the Middle Passage
Procedure:
- Do Now: There are two potential prompts:
- What do you know about slave revolts that occurred in the very early days of colonial America? Were there any? If there were, who do you think led them? Who participated?
- How do events get chosen to be included in ‘history’? What might make something important enough to study?
- First lecture slide has you explaining a graphic from a ‘Pre-evidence’ lesson plan by U.C. Berkeley’s History Social Science Project to help students understand that available sources and understanding of significance combine to determine what history is presented to students.
- Next have students read Ch. 2, pgs 29-37 of the graphic novel WAKE by Rebecca Hall and answer the following questions:
- What difficulties does Dr. Hall encounter as she is trying to tell the story of the 1712 slave revolt?
- What concrete information does she find?
- What are the limitations of historical narratives?
- What else stood out to you?
- (Optional) Students should watch the video from Teaching Hard History of Ibrahim X. Kendi talking about the freedom suit of Elizabeth Key (search: Ibram X. Kendi | Teaching Hard History: American Slavery, Key Concept 1) and then answer the text-dependent questions (pg 3) that Teaching Hard History wrote to accompany the video.
- Pass out a copy of the ‘Timeline of laws and slave revolts in mainland British colonies’ and the ‘Significance Timeline Analyzer’ to each student. Have students read over the timeline with their partner. They should pick 5 events that they think showed the greatest impact (+/-) on enslaved people. They need to explain in the chart on the front why they think these events are significant. On the back they plot these events on the timeline, then evaluate their impact on the enslaved (progress for some can be decline for others) by placing them higher or lower on the graph. They then need to answer the question: “How do the events you picked alter the history that is taught?”
- Exit ticket. Answer the question: What were the revolutionary and everyday ways enslaved people resisted the efforts of their enslavers to reduce them to commodities?
Materials/Handouts:
- Google Slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gyyfHQDtmgxV8dXPeRSH-Dp6-EtiX9-okB2jc27ZkCY/edit?usp=sharing
- WAKE by Rebecca Hall, Ch. 2, pgs 29-37. Either class copies of the graphic novel or photocopies of the relevant pages
- Timeline of laws and slave revolts in mainland British colonies: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1trF_QXcJ0EsifaRnpBD7Vw_wvQZlpoWqIS813WW73D4/edit?usp=sharing
- Significance Timeline Analyzer from U.C. Berkeley History-Social Science Project:
Specific to this lesson: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RfJd9jxkyaZ6c_LsaLbxzJW7K7kXB-7abdMrgtyiAdY/edit?usp=sharing
Standards:California 2016 History-Social Science Framework:
7th grade:
- What impact did human expansion in the voyages of exploration have on the environment, trade networks, and global interconnection?
- What were slaves’ lives like?
- How did people work to end slavery?
- What opposition did they face?
- How have American freedom and slavery coexisted in the nation’s past?
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
5th grade:
5.4.6. Describe the introduction of slavery into America, the responses of slave families to their condition, the ongoing struggle between proponents and opponents of slavery, and the gradual institutionalization of slavery in the South.
7th grade:
7.11.2. Discuss the exchanges of plants, animals, technology, culture, and ideas among Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the major economic and social effects on each continent.
8th grade:
8.7.2. Trace the origins and development of slavery; its effects on black Americans and on the region’s political, social, religious, economic, and cultural development; and identify the strategies that were tried to both overturn and preserve it (e.g., through the writings and historical documents on Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey).
8.9.4. Discuss the importance of the slavery issue as raised by the annexation of Texas and California’s admission to the union as a free state under the Compromise of 1850.
For other lesson plans, primary source documents, and additional content, visit e4sjf.org
