Lesson 2: Slavery Through Primary Sources
Lesson Essential Question:
How are primary sources valuable to our study of history, and slavery specifically?
What can we learn from primary sources that we might not be able to learn through secondary sources, and vice versa?
How are primary sources valuable to our study of history, and slavery specifically?
What can we learn from primary sources that we might not be able to learn through secondary sources, and vice versa?
NCSS Standards:
MMSD Standards:
2. Describe the struggle in our society for equal rights for all people.
3. Give examples of the importance of multiple viewpoints for understanding people, events, and issues
4. Identify the role and status of individuals and groups in the United States, past and present.
UW Teaching Standards:
Materials Needed:
Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB_dn3b6Moo)
o Sound clips from WPA interviews with former slaves
McMillan, N. (2005). WPA Slave Narratives. Mississippi History Now.
Retrieved from: http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/64/wpa-slave-narratives.
Objectives:
Lesson Context:
The students previously completed an introductory lesson about Free and Slave states during which they explored how the issue of slavery, as well as the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, lead to further conflict and division in the country. In this lesson, students will discuss slavery and discover the importance of primary sources in learning about historical events.
Lesson Opening:
Today we’re going to be talking about the issue of slavery. It’s a serious topic so I want you all to be respectful. First, we’re just going to think about what we might already know about the topic of slavery. As you share, I’m going to write down a few of the words you say on the board.
Procedures:
Closing:
If students want to, they may share their interview questions with the class. I will ask students why they wanted to ask specific questions and we will discuss what we could learn from the answers.
Assessment:
I will formally assess students by collecting their interview questions- I will look to see that they wrote thoughtful questions and provided reasons for wanted to know the answer to certain questions.
I will informally assess students understanding during group discussions. I will also note participation.
Extension- Formal Assessment:
Students are to choose one of their interview questions to research. Students will research their topic and try to find information that answers their question. The students will then chose a format to present their findings (PowerPoint, poster, written report, etc.) and share their research with their classmates.
Special Considerations:
Because many of the interviews may be difficult to hear or understand, I will provide a written transcript for the students to use to follow along.
If students have a hard time writing interview questions, we will brainstorm various question formats as a class
- Standard 3: People, Place, and Environments
- Standard 10: Civic Ideals and Practices
MMSD Standards:
- Students will:
2. Describe the struggle in our society for equal rights for all people.
3. Give examples of the importance of multiple viewpoints for understanding people, events, and issues
4. Identify the role and status of individuals and groups in the United States, past and present.
UW Teaching Standards:
- Standard 3: demonstrates sophisticated curricular knowledge
- Standard 7: understands and adapts to multiple forms of communication
- Standard 10: employs varied instructional strategies
- Standard 11: uses technologies
- Standard 12: accommodates for all students
Materials Needed:
- Book: Malone, B. & Oberle, K. (2008). Wisconsin: Our State, Our History. Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
- Laptop, projector, and speakers to play:
Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB_dn3b6Moo)
o Sound clips from WPA interviews with former slaves
McMillan, N. (2005). WPA Slave Narratives. Mississippi History Now.
Retrieved from: http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/64/wpa-slave-narratives.
- Handouts of interview transcripts
- White board and markers
Objectives:
- Students will be able to distinguish between primary and secondary sources
- Students will recognize and discuss the value of primary sources, especially historical narratives
- Students will learn about the effects that slavery had on individual lives by listening to first-hand narratives
Lesson Context:
The students previously completed an introductory lesson about Free and Slave states during which they explored how the issue of slavery, as well as the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, lead to further conflict and division in the country. In this lesson, students will discuss slavery and discover the importance of primary sources in learning about historical events.
Lesson Opening:
Today we’re going to be talking about the issue of slavery. It’s a serious topic so I want you all to be respectful. First, we’re just going to think about what we might already know about the topic of slavery. As you share, I’m going to write down a few of the words you say on the board.
Procedures:
- Discussion- how did you know all of this about slavery? Where did your information come from?
- Write down sources- tv, books, teachers, etc.
- Discuss the difference between primary and secondary sources
- This book and all of the sources we listed are secondary sources- they are written by historians or they are by people who did not experience the event firsthand
- To truly learn about an event in history, we must also look at primary sources- those made by people who experienced the event themselves.
- Can anyone think of an example of a primary source?
- Has anyone ever seen an interview on TV?
- What could we learn from primary sources that we might not be able to learn from secondary sources?
- How could we learn about slavery through primary sources?
- Next I will play them the youtube video titled “Primary vs Secondary Sources Using the Civil War”. Before I play it, I will warn students that some of the photographs may be difficult to look at because they are real images of dead soldiers. If students do not wish to look at them, they do not have to. I will pause the video at various points to explain the images and discuss why they are examples of primary or secondary sources. The end of the video has a quiz for the students to guess if the featured source is an example of a primary or secondary source.
- The end of the video also contains a warning about being aware of bias. We will discuss how both primary and secondary sources can be biased. When researching, it’s important to always use multiple sources- both primary and secondary- in order to gain a complete perspective.
- If students still need more practice distinguishing between primary and secondary sources, I will have them complete a source word sort that requires students to sort a list of sources into columns- primary source, secondary source, or both
- Next we are going to listen to some interviews of former slaves. This is a collection of more than three thousand interviews with former slaves. They are first-person accounts of slave life. It allows these people a chance to describe in their own words what it was like to be a slave in the US.
- I want you to be good listeners and as respectful of these people as if they were really here. This is a difficult subject, and you all need to take it seriously.
- Next we will listen to various interview clips. Students are to listen silently.
- Think for a minute about which interview stood out to you the most and why. Think about the voices you heard- what they sounded like, if you could tell what the person was feeling.
- Does anyone want to share out about what they heard?
- Conduct a brief discussion about the interviews. More reflection questions include:
- Which of these interviews stood out to you the most? Why?
- What did you learn about slavery from these interviews?
- What did they sound like- how do you think they feel?
- Why might a former slave not want to talk about their experiences?
- Why do you think these people wanted to be interviewed?
- Why are primary sources (first hand accounts) so valuable?
- What can/did we learn from these interviews that we might not be able to learn from text books?
- Next I will ask students to imagine that they were given the opportunity to interview one of these former slaves.
- I will ask them to write down a list of questions that they would ask- what would you want to know and why?
Closing:
If students want to, they may share their interview questions with the class. I will ask students why they wanted to ask specific questions and we will discuss what we could learn from the answers.
Assessment:
I will formally assess students by collecting their interview questions- I will look to see that they wrote thoughtful questions and provided reasons for wanted to know the answer to certain questions.
I will informally assess students understanding during group discussions. I will also note participation.
Extension- Formal Assessment:
Students are to choose one of their interview questions to research. Students will research their topic and try to find information that answers their question. The students will then chose a format to present their findings (PowerPoint, poster, written report, etc.) and share their research with their classmates.
Special Considerations:
Because many of the interviews may be difficult to hear or understand, I will provide a written transcript for the students to use to follow along.
If students have a hard time writing interview questions, we will brainstorm various question formats as a class
Interview Transcript
1: They brought me from Africa. I was a child, a boy.
2: We were slaves. We belonged to people. They’d sell us like you’d sell horses and cows and hogs and all of that.
3: I used to hear them talk about, you know, putting them on stumps, you know. Or something high, you know, and bidding them off like they did cattle.
4: The Northern people bought colored folks, put you on a block, and bid you off. The highest bidder gets you. The highest bidder gets you.
5. Skip
6. I remember all our white folks and all the names of them, all the children. Called every one of those children’s names.
7: Skip
8: Skip
9. Night never comed out. You had nothing to do but time to cut tobacco. If they want you to cut all night long out in the field, you cut. And if they want you to hang all night long, you hang, hang tobacco. It didn’t matter about you being tired. You’re afraid to say you’re tired.
10. I washed and ironed. Some days I’d wash a hundred pieces. Some, every morning I’d have five beds to make up, five fires to mix…
11: But I know mama and all them used to go to church in all the trees, you know. Out there under the trees. Didn’t have no church houses much then. Just like you know you get a big old tree and clean it all out and make benches on it, you know. Then we’d have church.
12: I can plow and lay off a corn row as good as any man.
13: Well, we been slaves all our lives. My mother was a slave, my sisters was slaves, my father was a slave.
14: Born right there and stayed there until I was about 9-10 years old, maybe even more. Stay right there. We didn’t know where to go. Mama and them didn’t know where to go. You know, after freedom broke we were just turned right out. Didn’t know where to go.
15: I can remember when the Yankees come through and they carried my father away and carried away my two sisters and one brother. And they left me.
16: If I thought, had any idea that I’d ever be a slave again, I’d take a gun and just end it all right away. Because you’re nothing but a dog. Not a thing but a dog.
2: We were slaves. We belonged to people. They’d sell us like you’d sell horses and cows and hogs and all of that.
3: I used to hear them talk about, you know, putting them on stumps, you know. Or something high, you know, and bidding them off like they did cattle.
4: The Northern people bought colored folks, put you on a block, and bid you off. The highest bidder gets you. The highest bidder gets you.
5. Skip
6. I remember all our white folks and all the names of them, all the children. Called every one of those children’s names.
7: Skip
8: Skip
9. Night never comed out. You had nothing to do but time to cut tobacco. If they want you to cut all night long out in the field, you cut. And if they want you to hang all night long, you hang, hang tobacco. It didn’t matter about you being tired. You’re afraid to say you’re tired.
10. I washed and ironed. Some days I’d wash a hundred pieces. Some, every morning I’d have five beds to make up, five fires to mix…
11: But I know mama and all them used to go to church in all the trees, you know. Out there under the trees. Didn’t have no church houses much then. Just like you know you get a big old tree and clean it all out and make benches on it, you know. Then we’d have church.
12: I can plow and lay off a corn row as good as any man.
13: Well, we been slaves all our lives. My mother was a slave, my sisters was slaves, my father was a slave.
14: Born right there and stayed there until I was about 9-10 years old, maybe even more. Stay right there. We didn’t know where to go. Mama and them didn’t know where to go. You know, after freedom broke we were just turned right out. Didn’t know where to go.
15: I can remember when the Yankees come through and they carried my father away and carried away my two sisters and one brother. And they left me.
16: If I thought, had any idea that I’d ever be a slave again, I’d take a gun and just end it all right away. Because you’re nothing but a dog. Not a thing but a dog.
