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Lesson 9: How did depictions
of African Americans and the nature of slavery reflect the national debate over slavery?
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Possible Tasks
1. Identify positive vs negative positions on slavery
2. Connect elements in documents to position on slavery
3. Develop and pro - anti slavery poster
4. Write a letter challenging the depiction of blacks in one of the documents
5. "Document My World" - Imagine
a time when you felt that you faced discrimination due to being a teenager
6. "Document my world" - Have students search contemporary media and identify stereotypes in depictions of teenagers today
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Documents
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Format |
Subject |
|
White views of
oppressed slaves / abolition perspectives |
| Doc 2 Journey of a slave from the plantation to the
battlefield - trading cards |
image |
Use some of first 8 views |
|
Doc 3 Am I not a man and a brother?
|
image |
Slave as victim |
| Doc 4 Effects of the
Fugitive-Slave-Law. |
image |
Hunting down runaways and shooting them |
| Doc 6 Stowage of the British slave ship |
image |
packed into ship |
| Doc 12 The Resurrection Of Henry
Box Brown At Philadelphia |
image |
slave who escapes in a box |
| Doc 17 A Tread-Mill Scene In Jamaica |
image |
inhumane work for slaves - gives new meaning to "I went to
the gym to work out on the treadmill" |
| Doc 22 The Bloodhound Business |
image |
from
The Suppressed Book about Slavery 1864 |
| Doc 23 Flogging the Negro |
image |
The Suppressed Book about Slavery 1864 |
| Doc 24 Image of leg shackles c. 1850 |
Image
|
Link
to Chicago historical Society |
| Doc 25 Slave sale broadside 1852 |
image
|
Link
to Chicago historical Society |
|
Institution of slavery |
| Doc 13 A Slave Auction in
Virginia. |
image |
|
| Doc 14
Legal status of offspring of slaves and livestock |
text |
The children of slaves legally
equated with the offspring of animals, South Carolina, 1809 |
| Doc 31 Prices
offered for Negro children |
text |
Virginia, 1683 |
| Doc 32
To be Sold, a Very likely Negro boy |
text |
|
| Doc 46 Social Classes
among the slaves |
text |
3
distinct groups - by intelligence |
|
Runaways |
| Doc 36 Newspaper ad for runaway
Bill |
text
|
clever mulatto slave who pretends to be free |
| Doc 35 Newspaper ad for a
skilled slave who ran away. |
text
|
skilled slave - ran off to join his wife? |
| Doc 47 Slaves don’t try to
run away |
text |
|
| Doc 45
Drapetomania - a "disease" of slaves |
text |
Frederick Law Olmsted quotes a southern doctor |
| Doc 48 Jefferson's ad for
runaway |
newsprint |
|
| Doc 50 Run away notice |
newsprint |
The Ulster Plebeian. 1823 Old Senate House, Kingston, N.Y. |
|
Black
views of oppressed slaves |
| Doc 37 Maria Stewart
attacks the idea that Blacks are lazy |
text
|
Free African American woman speak out as lecturer
in 1832 |
| Doc 44 Fredrick Douglass
in sent to a slave breaker |
text |
Douglass is broken |
|
Happy
and well-cared for slaves |
| Doc 18 Winter Holiday in the Southern
states |
image |
happy slaves |
| Doc 19 The old plantation home |
image |
happy slaves by Currier and Ives
alt image |
| Doc 21
The
Breakdown |
image |
Group of Afro-Americans dancing |
| Doc 30 Olmstead on a Plantation work |
text |
"happy" slaves - hard workers |
| Doc 33 Ad for Wheat Whisky |
image
|
Blacks dancing |
| Doc 39 Tobacco Ad - "Old
Virginny" |
image |
Happy Slaves |
|
Negative White
views of
blacks as inferiors |
| Doc 5 Life in Philadelphia |
image |
Satire of Free Blacks -"Have you any flesh coloured
stocking, young man?" |
| Doc 7 A dream caused by the perusal of Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin |
image |
An imaginative and biting satire on Harriet Beecher Stowe
and her recently published antislavery novel "Uncle Tom's
Cabin." Printed serially beginning in June 1851 |
Doc 9 Horrid massacre in
Virginia
(Nat Turner) 1831 |
image |
Shows violence of slaves |
| Doc 16 The aristocracy of color |
image |
satire on blacks and animals |
| Doc 34 Newspaper notice
about Bess |
text
|
slave cheating in business |
| Doc 38 Olmsted
witnesses the whipping of a female slave
|
text |
Slaves are lazy and need to be whipped |
| Doc 42 Zip Coon |
Sheet music cover |
Music cover(?) showing caricature of an
extravagantly dressed African American man. |
| Doc 49 John Bull Makes a
Discovery |
cartoon |
British and inferior slave |
|
Pro-slavery criticisms of abolition |
|
Doc 1 What's sauce for the goose is sauce for
the gander |
image |
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is criticized in this
rare pro-Southern cartoon |
| Doc 8 Lincoln the Rail Candidate |
image |
satire of Lincoln -include slave - Note: too much Lincoln
and politics, not enough of a black image? |
| Doc 10 The Blessings Of Liberty. Or
How To "Hook" A "Gentleman Ob Color." |
image |
satire on abolitionists |
| Doc 11 Slavery As It Exists In
America. Slavery As It Exists In England |
image |
pro-southern |
| Doc 20 What Miscegenation is! |
image |
anti-Lincoln inter-racial kiss |
| Doc 41 Miscegenation or
the millennium of abolitionism |
political cartoon |
The
second in a series of anti-Lincoln
satires |
|
Positive Black views of
blacks |
| Doc 15 Mrs. Juliann Jane Tillman |
image |
Female preacher of the A.M.E. Church |
| Doc 26 Phyllis
Wheatley' letter |
text
|
1774
letter also George
Washington to Phillis Wheatley, February 28, 1776 >
(letter thanking Phillis for a poem she wrote for him) more on
Wheatley |
|
White minstrel shows |
| Doc 40 Whites as Minstrels
or sheet music image |
image |
Fourteenth appearance in this country of the
celebrated New Orleans Ethiopian Serenaders |
| Doc 43 Mark Twain
describes a minstrel show |
text |
notes how blacks were parodied |
| |
| Plus LOC collection of
images
Images of African-American Slavery and Freedom
Photographs of
African Americans During the Civil War |
|
LOC collection From
Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
summary and teaching resources
LOC collection Slaves
and the Courts, 1740-1860 summary
and teaching resources
One
Hundred Documents Pertaining to Africans and Slavery in America Massive
collection of primary sources regarding slavery in America.
"The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A
Visual Record"
http://gropius.lib.virginia.edu/Slavery/index.html A collection of
hundreds of images related to slavery, from Africa to the Colonies to
Emancipation. Images are culled from primary and secondary sources, contain
bibliographic citations, and are searchable by category or keyword.
From NEH Edsitement
African-American
Communities in the North Before the Civil War
Fully one-third of Patriot soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill were African
Americans. Census data also reveal that there were slaves and free Blacks living
in the North in 1790 and after. What do we know about African-American
communities in the North in the years after the American Revolution?
After
the American Revolution: Free African Americans in the North
About one-third of Patriot soldiers at the Battle of Bunker Hill were African
Americans. Census data also reveal that there were slaves and free Blacks living
in the North in 1790 and later years. What were the experiences of
African-American individuals in the North in the years between the American
Revolution and the Civil War?
Slave
Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
The realities of slavery and Reconstruction hit home in poignant oral histories
from the Library of Congress. In these activities, students research narratives
from the Federal Writers' Project and describe the lives of former African
slaves in the U.S. -- both before and after emancipation. From varied stories,
students sample the breadth of individual experiences, make generalizations
about the effects of slavery and Reconstruction on African Americans, and
evaluate primary source documents.
Perspective
on the Slave Narrative
Trace the elements of history, literature, polemic, and autobiography in the
1847 Narrative of William W. Brown, An American Slave.
Families
in Bondage
Learn how slavery shattered family life through the letters of those whose loved
ones were taken away or left behind.
Geography
of Slavery, 18th Century Runaway Slave and Indentured Servants Advertisements.
Good
source of ads, docs, essay, accounts
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