| Slavery in America
The first slaves arrived in Virginia around 1619, and slavery existed
in America for the next 250 years. Africans made up the largest number
of migrants to the New World during the colonial era, especially during
the eighteenth century. During the four centuries of the Atlantic slave
trade, an estimated 11 million Africans were transported to North and
South America.
In the United States, slaves had no rights. According to the Constitution,
a slave was considered three-fifths of a person--so every 5 slaves were
counted as 3 people. A slave could be bought and sold just like a cow
or horse. Slaves had no say in where they lived or who they worked for.
They had no representation in government. Slaves could not own property
and were not allowed to learn or be taught how to read and write.
Even the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 did not end slavery. Slavery
continued in the states that were part of the Union forces. Slavery came
to an end in 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified after the end of
the Civil War.
Sample some of the following activities to learn more about slavery in
America.
Places To Go | People To See | Things To Do | Teacher Resources | Bibliography
Places To Go
The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out
about slavery in America.
Exploring
Amistad
Virtually visit the Spanish slave
schooner, the Amistad.
On July 2, 1839, fifty-three African slaves on board the Amistad revolted
against their captors, killing everyone except the navigator of the ship.
The navigator sailed them to Long Island where they were put on trial for murder.
The
Underground Railroad
Virtually travel underground
railroad routes. These routes were a series of paths, trails, safe
homes, and routes leading slaves to freedom in northern states or Canada.
Liberia
Travel to Liberia on the west coast of Africa. This country was founded
in 1821 by freed American slaves.
Levi
Coffin House
Levi
Coffin was a Quaker abolitionist who has often been termed the “president”
of the Underground Railroad.." It is believed that Coffin and his
wife Catherine helped more than 2,000 fugitive slaves escape to freedom,
using this house as a principal depot.
National
Geographic: The Underground Railroad
Assuming the role of a slave, students use this site to take a guided
tour of the Underground Railroad. Highlighted keywords along the way explain
concepts and code words used. Also included are thumbnail biographies
of many key black figures in the movement such as William Still and Josiah
Henson.
National
Underground Railroad Freedom Center
The mission of the National Underground Freedom Center is to educate people
on enslavement everywhere. Students can explore the Underground Railroad
and see how the fight for freedom continues today.
People To See
The
Confessions of Nat Turner
Meet Nat Turner. In 1831, he was the leader of the Southampton Insurrection.
A slave in Virginia, Nat Turner, along with about 60 other slaves, planned
an unsuccessful slave uprising. Nat Turner was captured and hanged for
his role.
Frederick
Douglass
Meet Frederick
Douglass. He was born in 1817 in Maryland, the son of a slave and
an unknown white father. He escaped from slavery in 1838 and took the
last name of Douglass
from Sir Walter Scott's hero in The Lady of the Lake. He worked in Massachusetts
as a laborer, learned to read and write, and then fearing capture as a
fugitive slave, he spent several years in England and Ireland and returned
to the United States in 1847 after English friends had purchased his freedom.
He was a skilled
orator and worked tirelessly to further the abolitionist cause.
Harriet:
The Moses of Her People
Meet Harriet Tubman. She escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849 and
became one of the most famous conductors on the underground railroad,
leading more than 300 slaves to freedom.
Dred
Scott's Fight for Freedom
Become acquainted with Dred
Scott. He was a slave to Dr. John Emerson, a U.S. army surgeon. In
1834, Dred
Scott went with Dr. Emerson from Missouri which was a slave state
to Illinois which was a free state and then to Fort Snelling which was
part of Wisconsin Territory where slavery was prohibited by the Missouri
Compromise. He was married in Wisconsin Territory and then went back to
Missouri with his master. When Dr. Emerson died in 1846, Dred Scott sued
Dr. Emerson's widow for freedom for himself and his wife and children.
He claimed that having lived in a free state for a period of time and
then in a free territory had ended his bondage. Have students research
the results of the famous Dred
Scott Case and learn about the consequences of the legal decision.
Harriet
Beecher Stowe
Meet Harriet Beecher
Stowe. She wrote the antislavery book, Uncle
Tom's Cabin. It was first
published in 1851-1852 as a serial in an abolitionist newspaper called
the National Era. Ms.
Stowe was a New Englander and was from a family of preachers and educators
who were involved in the abolitionist movement.
Things To Do
American
Slave Narratives : An Online Anthology
Read first-hand accounts of the experiences of former slaves who lived
and worked on plantations, in cities, and on small farms. These narratives
were gathered by writers and journalists under the Works Progress Administration
in the 1930s.
Documenting
the American South
One of the sections is called On
The Old Plantation: Reminiscences of His Childhood by John George
Clinkscales (1855-1942). Read his remembrances of his childhood on a plantation
in South Carolina where his father owned many slaves. The author wrote
this account in 1916 when he would have been about 61 years old. In the
foreward of his account, he indicates that he wrote it for the benefit
of his children and grandchildren to let them know that "Slavery was not
all bad. It had its evils, God knows; but, on the dark picture, there
were many bright spots: our children should be allowed to see them." Read
his account and have students decide if this remembrance really does show
that "slavery was not all bad" or if it has a different message.
Africans
in America
From PBS, this series calls itself "America's journey through slavery".
The website and the PBS series is in four parts, each with a historical
narrative, a resource bank, and a teacher's guide.
Missouri
Compromise
Explore how the Missouri
Compromise, which admitted Missouri to the Union as a slave state,
really addressed the issue of slavery.
Visit your school or public library and check out Pink and Say by Patricia
Polacco. It tells the true story of Pinkus Aylee and Sheldon Russell,
Union soldiers. Pink was a former slave and Say was an Ohio farm boy.
Black
Resistance : Slavery in the United States
Learn about the various places where slave traders captured slaves, how
they resisted, and about the major revolts and insurrections by slaves
in America.
The
Thirteenth Amendment
Learn about the ammendment that abolished slavery as a legal institution.
It was ratified on December 6, 1865.
Middle
Passages : Slaveship Database
Find a listing of slave ships. Right now, the listing only covers the
time from 1817 to 1843. You can view the names of the ships that sailed
under the flags of America, Portugual, and Spain. The information also
includes the place in Africa where the slaves were captured, how many
voyages the particular ship made, and the country in which the slaves
were sold. Interestingly, during this 1817 to 1843 time period, most of
the captured Africans were sold to Cuba and Brazil. Have students find
out when more slaves began being sold in America.
Juneteenth
Learn about the history of the celebration called Juneteenth.
The
District of Columbia Emancipation Act
Learn about the law that came before the Emancipation Proclamation. "On
April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery
in the District of Columbia. Passage of this act came 9 months before
President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought
to conclusion decades of agitation aimed at ending what antislavery advocates
called "the national shame" of slavery in the nation's capital."
The
Emancipation Proclamation
Virtually view the original Emancipation Proclamation which was issued
on January 1, 1863.
History
Happens : Stories from American History on Music Video
Listen to an audio file or watch a music video about the underground railroad.
Harriett
Tubman and the Underground Railroad
Follow along with this second grade class in Sleepy Hollow, New York as
they learn about the underground railroad.
Chronology
on the History of Slavery and Racism
Learn about the history of slavery in America. "A Dutch slave trader exchanged
his cargo of Africans for food in 1619. The Africans became indentured
servants, similar in legal position to many poor Englishmen who traded
several years labor in exchange for passage to America. The popular conception
of a racial-based slave system did not develop until the 1680's."
Remembering
Slavery : Those Who Survived Tell Their Story
Listen to actual audio clips of interviews with former slaves. The interviews
mostly took place in the 1940s.
Addy's
Escape to Freedom
From this site, based on the American Girls books, students can virtually
follow a family as they travel on the underground railroad to freedom.
Secret
Codes
Learn about the secret codes used by slaves to help them escape from slavery.
Underground
Railroad Special Resource Study
In 1990, Congress authorized the National Park Service to conduct a study
of the Underground Railroad, its routes and operations in order to preserve
and interpret this aspect of United States history. You can view the results
of that study here.
Teacher Resources
Online activities are a listing of internet
sites with fun, interesting, and educational tasks attached to each one.
(You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Lesson Plans/Webquests
Bibliography
- Altman, Linda Jacobs. Slavery and Abolition : In American History.
Berkeley Heights, N.J. : Enslow Publishers, c1999.
- Collier, Christopher. Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War, 1831-1861.
Tarrytown, New York : Benchmark Books, c2000.
- Greene, Meg. Slave Young, Slave Long : The American Slave Experience.
Minneapolis, Minn. : Lerner Publications Co., c1999.
- Haskins, James. Bound for America : The Forced Migration of Africans
to the New World. New York : Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1999.
- King, Wilma. Children of the Emancipation. Minneapolis : Carolrhoda
Books, c2000.
- Macht, Norman L. The History of Slavery.San Diego, CA : Lucent Books,
c1997.
- Meltzer, Milton. They Came in Chains : The Story of the Slave Ships.
New York : Benchmark Books, 2000.
- Naden, Corinne J. Why fight? : The Causes of the American Civil War.
Austin, TX : Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1999.
- Roberts, Russell. Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery. San Diego,
CA : Lucent Books, c2000.
- Tackach, James.The Emancipation Proclamation : Abolishing Slavery
in the South. San Diego, CA : Lucent Books, c1999.
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