“Journeys:
Forced & Voluntary”
Sara M. Thomas Alexander
Index:
Overview
Rationale
Objectives
Strategies
Classroom Activities
Lesson Plans
Annotated Bibliography/Resources
Appendices
Standards
Lincoln
is a neighborhood school located in the Lincoln/Larimar area of East Liberty.
The student population is 100% African American. My job title at Lincoln
Elementary Technology Academy is “Different Ways of Knowing
Cognitive/Affective Coach”. Part
of my job description is to coordinate the extended school year program, as well
as participate in the supervision and sometimes the instruction of the extended
school day program. I shall strive to enhance the program further with the
implementation of “Journeys: Forced and Voluntary” curriculum, which is an
interdisciplinary and technological unit.
Both
the extended school day and extended school year programs range from tutorial to
enrichment in scope. This year’s
extended school year program will begin a partnership with the Children’s
Defense Fund’s Freedom School program. Lincoln
is also determined to “Leave No Child Behind”.
Introducing students to and reminding them of their ancestors’ journeys
will, hopefully, motivate them further academically and enlighten them further
culturally.
I am often asked what brought me to Pittsburgh.
This question causes me to recall my journey from Alabama to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania back to Alabama, and finally to Pittsburgh.
Although I am living in Pittsburgh, I travel almost weekly to Cleveland,
Ohio because of my husband’s residence and job.
My journeys often cause me to think of the journeys of African Americans.
The
most profound journey of African Americans was forced.
As a result of this forced journey, there have been other forced and
voluntary journeys and resettlements. Each
journey had major affects on various sections of the country and the history of
America as a whole.
In
this unit, students will trace the major forced and voluntary journeys of
African Americans, namely:
·
The Middle
Passage
·
The
Underground Railroad
·
The Great
Migration
This
tracking will provide the student with a blueprint of these journeys.
It will chart the path of African to African American.
Section
one will trace the unwanted
voyage of African Americans through the Middle Passage.
It will acquaint the student with incidents that occurred prior to the
Africans boarding the slave ships, detail the trip to America, and list
destinations of the slave ships.
Section
two will trace the African Americans’ voyage
in their escape from slavery to freedom via the Underground Railroad.
It will show the life of the slaves on the plantation, introduce the
Underground Railroad, list major railroad conductors, and follow the routes
traveled.
Section
three will show that although a new century has arrived, the African American is
still searching for equality. This
quest will lead to yet another major journey for African Americans.
It will trace the chosen voyage of the African Americans from their homes and farms
of the South to the industrial cities of the North, via the Great Migration.
These
three journeys were also a metamorphic experience for African Americans:
from the cocoons of 1) the slave ships’ holds of the Middle Passage, 2)
hiding out in cellars, under cargo, etc. in the Underground Railroad, 3) packed
in the Colored Only section of the trains during the Great Migration – to a
flight stage in a new world of –
1) the unwanted plantations, 2) freedom of the North, 3) the North and West in
search of jobs and prosperity, and an unfound franchisement.
Migrations/journeys
have often been brutal and hazardous. The
journeys of the African Americans were made for the purposes of enslaving or
avoiding captivity. These migrations were freedom related, whether the loss of
freedom or the maintenance/regaining of freedom.
When
embarking on these journeys the migrants traveled lightly and left much behind.
They left families, friends, homes, love, and respect of loved ones.
Because these journeys were emotional as well as physical, they distanced
themselves from the disrespect, brutality, enemies, and economical and social
inequality of the master, plantation, and the South.
This curriculum unit will be taught to students in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades using fiction, non-fiction, songs, and music as a means of imparting this material to the students. This curriculum will be taught on a weekly basis. Class time will be one hour and twenty minutes in length. This unit will show why, how, when, and where the journeys were made. The results of the journeys will also be discussed. Students will not only visit, via literature, music, and technology, areas their ancestors traveled, they will also communicate with adults as to the motives of their families’ journeys.
The
Middle Passage was a term used to describe the triangular route of trade that
brought Africans to the Americas and rum and sugar cane to Europe.
The first passage was from Europe to Africa with trading goods –
brandy, cloth, iron, guns, and weapons. The
second passage was from Africa to the Americas/West Indies with merchandise for
sell – the human cargo. The third passage was from the Americas/West Indies with
money, sugar and tobacco –earned from the sell of the human cargo.
The ships then repeated the cycle for
over four centuries of legal and illegal slave trading.
“The Christians in Europe and America had a simple way of rationalizing
the cruel system of slavery. They argued that it was in the interest of the
pagan slave to become the property of a Christian, presumably because the
brutality of Christians was kindness compared to the spiritual hardship of the
pagan’s life” (Ofsu-Appiah, 28).
Slavery
is defined as a conquest by war, kidnapping, piracy and the custom of selling
persons unable to pay debts. This
conquest is not limited to physical subduing.
It can be emotional, mental, spiritual, and moral subjugation.
Although
in most ancient societies slaves were acquired primarily through military
conquest, in Africa, slaves were mostly acquired through raids or kidnappings.
“Most of the slaves supplied by and to the African traders were victims
of wars and raids, but some were criminals or people who had sold themselves for
debts” (Ofosu-Appiah, 25). After
the capture of Africans, African traders traded rum, guns, gunpowder and trade
goods for men, women, and children.
European
countries participating in the slave trade accrued tremendous wealth and global power from the capturing and
selling of Africans into slavery. The
Portuguese were the first Europeans to engage in the slave trade.
Initially, slaves were sold to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in
South and Central Americas to work on sugar cane plantations.
This area became know as the ‘seasoning stations’ for the northern
plantations, because of the brutal conditioning that took place there.
However, by the 1700’s, due to the high demand for African slaves, most
Africans were shipped directly from Africa to mainland America (The Middle
Passage Foundation, Inc., 1).
“The
only European colony established in West Africa during the slave trade period
was the Portuguese settlement of Angola. All
other attempts to extend the range of European control were unsuccessful.
In most of their encounters with Africans, the European invaders were
severely beaten and driven from the disputed territory…[It] was not until the
later part of the 19th century that large-scale colonization became
possible. Before that time
Europeans found the Africans to be independent minded and skilled at playing one
slave-trading nation against another” (Ofosu-Apiah, 25).
The natives showed no feeling of inferiority; instead they were
assertive, arrogant and crafty. The
Europeans respected the local kings with whom they did business or paid heavy
fines.
Those
feelings of superiority, assertiveness and arrogance would wane when subjected
to chains, unsanitary living conditions, and treatment lower than that of an
animal. During this arduous voyage,
roughly thirty to sixty million Blacks were transported from Africa to the
United States via the international slave trade. This marked the beginning of a lucrative adventure for some
and high paying horror for others. Olaudah
Equiano stated that “the White people looked and acted in so savage a manner.
I have never seen among my people such instances of brutal cruelty, and
this not only shown toward us Blacks, but also to some of the Whites
themselves” (Equiano, 1).
The
slave’s journey from forests and hills of Africa to plantations of the West
Indies and the Americas was extremely dangerous, as well as degrading.
Slavers moved captives in coffles, herding them like cattle. Slave
traders generally tied members of the coffle by the neck to poles, which they
pulled along. The slave driver would be beside them and whipped those who grew
tired, sick, or too slow to maintain the pace.
The
Middle Passage was a journey synonymous with pain and suffering.
The journey from Africa to the Americas would take as many as 30 to over
100 days. Many of the ships were
termed “loose packers” or “tight packers”, describing the maximum
capacity of the slave ship (The Middle Passage Foundation, Inc., 1).
The voyage across the Atlantic was the most dangerous part of the journey
to the New World. The slaves were
packed like sardines in the small European ships, given meager meals, and no or
very little medical attention. The
stench of diseased and decaying bodies and unruly Africans thrown overboard
lured sharks to the ships’ course.
This
voyage was a forced journey from Africa to America, from freedom to slavery,
from family and loved ones to master and hatred, from dignity to loss of
humanity. And yet, it is more.
It epitomizes psychological trauma.
The slaves were branded, restrained and placed in the hold (slave deck)
of the ship that was about 5’ high. Slaves
were chained to each other; many died of suffocation.
Sanitary conditions were nearly non-existent.
Infectious diseases were common. Infected
slaves were thrown overboard.
Estimates
for the total number of Africans lost to the slave trade range from are
difficult to compute. The average
ship lost 15% of its cargo. Death rates varied greatly from ship to ship (The
Middle Passage Foundation, Inc., 1). Disease
was the greatest killer of Africans during the journey.
The most ambitious of which were scurvy, dysentery, smallpox and other
diseases called fevers.
Slave
revolts were a recurring part of the Atlantic crossing.
The slave traders were armed with pistols, muskets, catlaces, cannons,
and around the clock guards; nevertheless, some slaves were not deterred.
“Although most revolts were put down, several slave mutinies were
successful” (Journal of Negro History, 184).
Probably the most successful slave mutiny was on the Amistad, June 30,
1839.
Some
slaves believed their White captors to be cannibals; therefore, committed
suicide – jumped overboard, refused food, or knocked their heads against
rails. Olandah Equiano recounted
his feelings of shock and isolation during the Middle Passage and his fear that
the European slave traders would eat him. Noticing a large furnace of copper
boiling and a multitude of chained, dejected Black people, he was sure his fate
was to be a meal for these beings (Equiano, 1).
“The
length of the voyage from Africa to the Western Hemisphere was the most
important factor in slave mortality. A
study of the French slave trade in the eighteenth century showed that ships that
took 40 days to reach the New World port of delivery experienced roughly an 8.3
percent loss of slaves but ships that traveled over 141 days had an average loss
of 21.3 percent of their slaves (Stewart, 15).
The
slave traders experienced an unpredicted factor in the slave trade business,
which affected profit. “Trade in
African slaves did not become immediately successful because of the availability
of White indentured servants in the New World (people bound by contract to work
for a certain number of years). During most of the 17th century they provided a
cheaper form of labor than the purchase of Black slaves could supply” (Ofosu-Appiah,
29-30).
Initially,
the race factor was not the inclusive factor of the slave trade.
Some Blacks were enslaved for a fixed term; freed and given land. Because
the White/Black-indentured servants were temporary there was a constant need to
replace them; this became expensive. And
to have Whites become permanent slaves was unthinkable.
Thus, race became a primary slave issue.
Black
slaves were imported from the West Indies and Africa to work in the plantations
of the South, and to a much lesser extent, in the town and agricultural areas of
the North. This importation brought
new legislature to these newly assembled states.
In 1662 the Virginia assembly ruled that all Negro slaves should become
“perpetual servants”. In 1664
Maryland ruled that all Negroes should be considered slaves and forbade racial
intermarriage. By the late 18th
century, slavery had become a significant part of the new nation’s social
& economic life. Slaves could leave a plantation only after obtaining the
owner’s permission. Slave owners
had economic, social, and political power.
In
the interest of economics, slave owners educated some slaves because the owners
believed education would increase their slaves’ efficiency.
“By the middle of the 18th century, South Carolina and
Georgia had both outlawed the schooling of slaves.
Literacy made it easier for slaves to circulate information about
oppression and escape, and it made them harder to subjugate” (American Legacy,
14).
Slave
codes were developed to keep Blacks under control. These codes were based on the assumption that slaves were not
human beings, but property. The
harshness of the codes was relative to the ratio of Blacks to Whites in a given
territory. “Fear Factor” was
the major device used to keep Blacks under control.
Illiteracy and separation from family were other control devises.
“Though
the slaves were expected to be docile, this was seldom the case.
They naturally resented their position and while they did not actively
rebel, they often shirked their duties or ran away…hoping for emancipation and
a better life” (Ofosu-Appiah, 110). Many
slaves ran away from their masters and life on the plantation via the
Underground Railroad. The
Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad, but was a loose
network of aid and assistance to fugitives from bondage (National Park Service,
1). The lure of the
Underground Railroad was that death was preferable to slavery if there could be
no freedom or liberty. As slaves
learned the language, terrain, and fellow-slaves on neighboring plantations,
they became more rebellious and resistive to bondage.
Runaway slaves survived as passengers of the Underground Railroad because
they were physically and intellectually above the average order of slaves.
Perhaps as many as one hundred thousand enslaved persons may have escaped
in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War (National Park
Service, 1).
The
term Drapetomania, “the disease of the mind that caused Negroes to run
away”, was invented to rationalize this desire (Thomas, Lest We Forget,
18). The masters could not
understand why the Negroes would want to run away.
The runaway slaves became wanted commodity whose bounty hunters were
slave hunters/catchers, bloodhounds, bounties, whips, and shotguns.
In
the years before the Civil War some slaves who broke the chains of slavery,
broke from their masters and lived in small colonies in the swamps and forest
and were accepted by Native American tribes.
An exhibit in the Tampa, Florida Museum of History states that Blacks
were forced to migrate when the Native Americans were forced to relocate to
reservations. Black communities
that grew up in the Northern states provided the safest havens for runaway
slaves in the United States. These
communities were comprised of Negroes who had bought their freedom, were given
their freedom, or were runaways.
The
fugitive slaves had aid in their quest for freedom and dignity.
Quakers aided escaping slaves during the 18th century.
The beginning of the 19th century brought a systematic
organization for escape. This organization’s service was risky, adventurous,
rendered at (mostly) night, and led north following the North Star to Canada
were slavery was illegal.
Spread
between Ohio and Canada, an entire network of houses offered help, food and
money to the runaway slaves. The
Underground Railroad was a trackless and car less railroad that transported
people away from a harsh, brutal, degrading life to a life of freedom, esteem,
and hope. This railroad’s only
destination was freedom! The
Underground Railroad was created by decency and maintained by courage.
The
Stations, houses giving shelter to runaways, were located along the routes of
the Underground Railroad and were often identified by hanging quilts or lanterns
in windows. The Stationmaster, the
man or woman who owned the house, either hid the Passengers, escaped slaves,
while also providing them with food and clothing; or transported them to the
next station or on to Freedom.
Of
the many conductors, guides for escaped slaves, of the Underground Railroad,
Harriet Tubman and James Fairfield are possibly the most famous.
Harriet Tubman is reported as transporting 300 passengers safely to their
destinations. James Fairfield was
able to transports many slaves safely because he was a White man.
The
Emancipation Proclamation ended the work of the Underground Railroad in the
North because it brought an end to slavery in those areas controlled by Union
forces. However, the quest
for true freedom and true equality were still elusive for most of the Blacks.
From
the time the slave ships arrived in America until 1900, approximately ninety
percent of the African American population lived in the South. Maryland and Virginia had the highest concentration of slaves
in 1750. Slaves were relocated from the tobacco region of the upper South to the
cotton-growing Deep South; initially, Kentucky and Tennessee, and after the
close of the international slave trade to Alabama and Mississippi.
An
early exodus from the South occurred between 1879 and 1881, when about 60,000
African Americans moved into Kansas and others settled in the Oklahoma Indian
Territories in search of social and economic freedom (Library of Congress, 1).
Following
Emancipation, Black population movement began another shift.
A migration from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to Kansas was apparent
as approximately six thousand Backs left their homes.
Although the Blacks were free, they needed to leave home to feel totally
free.
“Black
migration to American cities escalated during the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries. In the
aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, Blacks increasingly moved into
rural industrial settings such as the coalfields of Alabama, Tennessee,
Kentucky, and West Virginia. As
late as 1910, nearly 90 percent of the nation’s Black population lived in the
South, and fewer than 22% of southern Blacks lived in cities.” (Encyclopedia of African-American Culture & History, 2).
After
World War I, a large number of African Americans began to move from the rural
South to the urban North. “It
reflected their quest for freedom, jobs, and social justice; the rise of new
classes and social relations within the African American community; and the
emergence of new patterns of race, class, and ethnic relations in American
society as a whole.” (Encyclopedia of
African-American Culture & History, 1).
The
impact of World War I enabled Blacks to move, in growing numbers, from their
southern rural homes to cities. Between
700,000 to 1,000,000 Blacks left the South between 1917 and 1920.
During the 1920’s approximately 800,000 to 1,000,000 left, moving
throughout the urban West and North.
The
Black population movement was fueled by a variety of factors.
African Americans pursued a way of life other than economic hardship
caused in part by the exploitation of sharecropping, and sought to escape the
disenfranchisement, the racial
injustice, the Jim Crow Laws, and the lynch mobs of the South.
The North, thought of as the ‘Promised Land’,
promised opportunities in the form of industrial positions, greater
access to the rights of citizens, and better economic conditions.
Migration
was also spurred on by the lack of educational opportunities in the Delta.
White school boards seldom hired enough teachers for African American
students, and the teachers they did bother to hire were almost none college
graduates (PBS Online, 1).
The
great migrates, like the runaway slaves, were met with opposition.
Delta planters’ fortunes depended on African American labor.
Some Whites offered better conditions while others resorted to
intimidation and brute force to keep African Americans from leaving.
African
American migrants continued their journey well beyond World War II.
By 1950, the African American population comprised approximately eleven
percent of the population of the United States, while African American migrants
comprised forty percent of the population in several of the United States’
major cities (Library of Congress, 2). Through
all the traveling of African Americans from the coasts of Africa, to the holds
of the slave ships, to the plantation, to resettling in the promised lands of
the West and especially the North, African Americans have contributed greatly to
the establishing, the growth, and the greatness of the United States.
Strategies:
Ø
Design a
time-line of the journeys. What
significant event(s) occurred during these times; reasons for journeys.
Ø
Surveys of
reasons families (or family members) located to their neighborhood, city, state,
and country (rent, job, health, immigration, etc.)
Ø
Interview an
elder as to the journeys s/he has taken and the reasons for the journeys during
the course of her/his life.
Ø
Compare
music of today (rap, et al) with “Black “ songs of the past.
Is there a similar message?
Ø
Plot states
(areas) of settlements of African Americans at the end of their journeys. Determine the reasons these states (areas) were chosen.
Ø
Write a
narrative story of your journey during the Middle Passage, Underground Railroad,
or Great Migration.
This
lesson will begin with the students choosing their own seating arrangements.
The teacher will then instruct the students to get up and move to other
specified seats. This new seating
arrangement will place the students (at
tables/in seats) away from their chosen friends/table mates, as well as, in
extremely close and tight spaces.
With
the students in this position, the teacher will begin a discussion on the word
journey. Ask for definitions of the
terms journey, forced and voluntary. Using
the terms defined, have students discuss their journey from the moment they
entered the school ground (today) to their present positions in this classroom.
Have
students to comfortably rearrange their seating. While working together in groups students are to choose a
recorder (with legible penmanship) and list reasons for taking journeys.
Place posters on wall(s). Have
students discuss journeys they have taken and identify them as forced or
voluntary, explaining the identification.
Students
are to place a dot sticker by journeys they believe to have been forced and a
sticker by journeys they believe to have been voluntary.
Students
are to pronounce, write and define the key terms: physical, mental, social,
emotional, and spiritual.
Resources
needed for this lesson:
Large “Post-It Notes”
Markers
Dot stickers (2 different colors per group)
This
lesson will begin with the reviewing of key terms introduced during the previous
lesson: journey, forced, voluntary, social, mental, spiritual, physical, and
emotional.
The
review will be in the form of a game, “Journey Bowl”. See Appendix A for game directions.
The
next portion of the lesson is to define survey/questionnaire and discuss its
use. Show students examples of
surveys/questionnaires. Have
students develop a survey/questionnaire to present to a family member or
neighbor. The survey development is to be a whole group project and is to
determine the reasons family members/neighbors located to their neighborhood,
city, state, and/or country. Determine,
in the interview, whether the journey was forced or voluntary or a combination.
The survey can be written on poster paper or on an overhead projector so
that all the students can see its formation.
Read
the story “People in Bondage”. Tapping
prior knowledge, have students design a table and cite examples of key terms
noted in the story. The teacher is
to use one graph on overhead, chalkboard, or poster paper so that all students
can see. This is to be a whole
group project.
Resources
needed for this lesson:
Overhead projector (chalk board/chalk, or poster paper)
Markers
Projection
film
Examples
of surveys/questionnaires
Book: “People in Bondage”
Assignment:
Give students copies of the surveys developed during the last class.
Students are to interview family members/neighbors and return surveys to
school.
Discuss
interview process:
·
Requesting
permission to interview
·
Giving
reason for interview
·
Interviewing
·
Thanking the
interviewee
Have
students participate in a mock interview by going through the interview process
with classmates.
Read
the story “The Story of the Underground Railroad”. Design a table and cite examples of key terms noted in the
story. Use one graph on overhead
projector, chalkboard, or poster paper. This
is to be a whole group activity.
Trace
the route of a runaway slave from……. to………
The route is to be decided by the class.
Resources
Needed:
Overhead
projector (chalkboard/chalk or poster paper)
Markers
Class
designed survey for each student
Encarta/Internet
(Google)
Book:
“The Story of the Underground Railroad”
Discuss
results of surveys/questionnaires. Have
students develop a table or graph of results.
Listen
to and discuss the importance of songs song by slaves.
See Appendix B for examples of songs.
Read
the story “The Great Migration”. Design
a table and cite examples of key terms noted in the story.
Use one graph on overhead projector, chalkboard, or poster paper.
This is to be a whole group activity.
Using
the Internet, design a table showing cities/states that Blacks moved from and
cities/states the Blacks moved to.
Resources
Needed:
Overhead
projector (chalkboard/chalk or poster paper)
Markers
Returned
surveys from student interviews
Encarta/Internet
(Google)
Songs
– Negro Spirituals (can be accessed via Internet)
Book:
“The Great Migration”
Have
students plot states (areas) of settlements of African Americans at the end of
their journeys. Questions to
ask: a) What important fact (factor) caused the settlements in the Middle
Passage states, in the Underground Railroad states, in the Great Migration
States?
Resources
Needed:
Overhead
projector (chalkboard/chalk or poster paper)
Markers
Encarta/Internet
(Google)
Paper
Pencils
Design
a time-line of the journeys. What
significant event(s) occurred during these times; reason for journeys?
Resources
Needed:
Overhead
projector (chalkboard/chalk or poster paper)
Markers
Encarta/Internet
(Google)
Paper
Pencils
Write
a narrative story of a journey during the Middle Passage, Underground Railroad,
or Great Migration.
Resources
Needed:
Paper
Pencils
TSWBAT:
Define key terms
Discuss the use of Surveys/Questionnaires
Develop a Survey/Questionnaire
Read and discuss “People in Bondage”
Design a table of terms
*
While participating in the game “Journey Bowl” (see appendix A), students
are to
define key terms discussed in the previous lesson.
The key terms are journey,
forced, voluntary, social, mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional.
* The
teacher is to poll students regarding information they possess on the topics
surveys/questionnaires. Survey/questionnaire
are to be defined and their uses are to
be discussed. The teacher is to present examples of surveys.
*
While participating in guided practice, the students are to develop a
survey/questionnaire to present to a family member or neighbor.
(The teacher will
type the completed survey/questionnaire, copy, and bring to next class
for students
to review, take with them and administer to a family member or neighbor.
*
Students will read and discuss “People in Bondage”.
The teacher is to lead students
in the development of a table of terms used in the story.
(These terms are to be
related to the theme.)
Materials
needed for lesson:
Overhead projector
Book – “People in Bondage”
Cards or pieces of paper with key terms written on them
Markers
Overhead film
Paper
Pencils
Content
Standards:
Communication 2, 3,6
Citizenship 7,8
TSWBAT: Discuss and categorize the results of the surveys/questionnaires
Access songs on the Internet, particularly Negro Spirituals, Slave
songs, current African American songs
Compare and contrast period songs, those accessed via
Internet, in
Read and discuss “The Great Migration”
* The
teacher will lead the discussion of the results of the surveys/questionnaires
while directing the students in the development of a table or graph of
the results.
Students will use prior knowledge of tables and graphs; however, the
teacher will
review.
* The
teacher will closely monitor as the students surf the Internet for Negro
Spirituals and slave songs. Students
will listen to and infer their meanings.
Students will relate songs to the various journeys of African
Americans. Students
will discuss the relationship of today’s music (hip-hop, rhythm and
blues) to today’s
experiences.
*
Students will read and discuss “The Great Migration”.
The teacher is to lead
students in the development of a table of terms used in the story.
(These terms are
to be related to the theme.)
Materials
needed:
Overhead
projector
Overhead
film
Markers
Computers
Internet
Paper
Pencils
Book
– “The Great Migration
Content
Standards:
Communication 2, 3,6
Arts and Humanities 2, 3
Citizenship 7,8
Science and Technology 9
Bibliography
Harris,
Edward J. (Publisher). African American
Heritage Hymnal. GIA
Publications, Inc., Chicago, 2001.
This is a book of songs, many of which are Negro Spirituals.
Migration/Population.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture
& History
Ofsu-Appiah,
L.H. People in Bondage. Lerner
Publications Co., Minneapolis, Minn., 1971.
Stewart,
Jeffrey C. 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History. Mains
Street Books, Doubleday, 1996.
This book presents accounts of significant events, movements, and other
information in African American history.
Technical
Reference: African-American Culture & History on CD-ROM.
Macmillan Library Reference, 1999.
Thomas,
Velma Maia. No Man Can Hinder Me. The
Journey from Slavery to Emancipation Through Song. Crown Publishers, New York, 2001.
Thomas,
Velma Maia. Lest We Forget.
Crown Publishers, New York, 1997.
Education
Worldweb. A Black History Treasure Hunt.
http://www.education_world.com/a_lesson/lesson
052.shtml.
This lesson planning site article, hosted by Education Worldweb, has four
tests on
African American history for students ranging from the 4th
grade to the 9th.
Equiano,
Olaudah. A Multitude of Black
People….Chained Together. http://www.vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/bihtm.
The source of this site is “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah
Equiano, London, 1789).
Library
of Congress. Migrations:
African-Americans Mosaic Exhibition. http://leweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afan008.html.
The
Middle Passage Foundation, Inc. The
Middle Passage History; http://www.tmpf.org/history.htm.
The
National Geographic Society. The
Underground Railroad. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/jl.html.
Super interactive website! This
website allows the students to click choices and
travel routes of a slave through the Underground Railroad.
It also features
grade level classroom ideas, maps of the routes, and sites for children.
The
National Park Service. Underground
Railroad: Special Resource Study.
http://www.nps.gov/undergroundrr/contents.htm.
PBS
Online. American Experience:
Fatal Flood. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/peopleevents/e_sharecroppers.html.
Chambers,
Veronica. Amistad Rising.
Harcourt Brace & Company, Mexico, 1998.
A beautifully illustrated account of Joseph Cinque’s ordeal on the
slave ship
Tecora through his trial and his voyage back to Sierra Leone.
Edwards,
Judith. Nat Turner’s Slave
Rebellion. Enslow Publishers,
Inc., Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, 2000.
A chapter book that traces Turner’s life and his leadership in one of
the most
famous slave revolts.
Lawrence,
Jacob. The Great Migration. The
Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Phillips Collection, 1993.
A wonderful detail of the Great Migration in words and beautiful
paintings.
McMullan,
Kate. Famous Lives The Story of Harriet Tubman Conductor of the Underground
Railroad. Gareth Stevens Publishing, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1997.
This chapter book details the life of Harriet Tubman from age six to her
death in
1913. The book includes
chronological highlights in the Life of Harriet Tubman.
Stein,
R. Conrad. The Story of the Underground Railroad.
Childrens Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1981.
Groups:
4 (Or numbered according to the number of students)
Materials:
Each
group is to choose a spokesperson or have the position of spokesperson rotate.
The play (questioning) will be left to right, or clockwise, depending on
the group arrangement.
A
term will be randomly selected by the moderator/scorekeeper. The spokesperson will have seven seconds to pronounce and
define the word.
Groups
are awarded 50 points for a correct answer.
If a group fails to answer correctly (only one answer per group is
permitted), the question goes to the next group, and so on.
Once
a question has been answered, the next term goes to the next group.
~~~~~~
Variation:
Pronounce term and use it in a sentence.
Oh, Freedom
Oh,
freedom, Oh, freedom, oh freedom over me.
No
more moaning, no more moaning, no more moaning over me.
And be
There’ll
be singing, there’ll be singing, there’ll be singing over me.
Verse:
And
before I’d be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and
be free.
Ride
on, King Jesus, no man can a-hinder me. Ride
on, King Jesus, ride on. No man can
a-hinder me, no man can a-hinder me.
In
that great gettin’ up morning, fare ye well, fare ye well. In that great gettin’ up morning, fare ye well, fare ye
well.
That
Gospel train is com-in, A rumblin’ through the lan’, I hear them wheels a
hummin’, Get ready for that train!
Pittsburgh Public School’s Content Standards:
Communications Content Standards
1. All students use effective research and information management skills, including locating primary and secondary sources of information with traditional and emerging library technologies.
2. All students read and use a variety of methods to make sense of various kinds of complex texts.
3. All students respond orally and in writing to information and ideas gained by reading narrative and informational texts and use the information and ideas to make decisions and solve problems.
4. All students write for a variety of purposes, including to narrate, to inform and to persuade in all subject areas.
6. All students exchange information orally, including understanding and giving spoken instructions, asking and answering questions appropriately, and promoting effective group communications.
7. All students listen to and understand complex oral messages and identify their purpose, structure and use.
8. All student communicate appropriately in business, work and other applied situations.
2. All students evaluate and respond critically to works from the visual and performing arts and literature of various individuals and cultures, showing that they understand important features of the works.
3. All students relate various works from the visual and performing arts and literature to the historical and cultural context within which they were created.
7. All students demonstrate their skills of communicating, negotiating and cooperating with others.
8. All students demonstrate they can work effectively with others.