Slavery in the United States

Review General Background
Elementary School Activity
Middle School Activity
High School Activity

General Background

African slaves were first brought to North America (Virginia) in 1619, only 12 years after the founding of the Jamestown settlement. Some historians suggest that some of the first Africans came under the same general principals of indentured servant-hood that brought many Europeans to the colonies. Usually an indentured servant worked four to seven years in order to pay off the debt incurred by wealthy speculators who paid for their voyage and materials to get started in a particular settlement. In the Middle and Southern colonies, it is estimated that about half the population lived as indentured servants at one time. By the second half of the 17th century, however, the demand for labor on plantations grew in the South, leading to an institutionalization of slavery.

The economy of the South was based on agriculture. Crops such as sugar cane, indigo, tobacco, rice and cotton were staples of the economy. Most of the South’s farmers lived on small-to- medium size farms. Only a small fraction of Southerners actually owned plantations. Slaves were owned by one-fourth of the South’s white population, mostly from this wealthier class of planter.

When Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, cotton reigned as the major cash crop of the South. Prior to Whitney’s invention, the South produced about 10,000 bales of cotton per year. Forty years later the South was producing over one million bales of cotton. On the eve of the Civil War, cotton represented almost two-thirds of the total value of exports from the United States to other countries. Farmers and plantation owners started using slave labor in increasing amounts so that they could clear more land, plant more cotton, and harvest the cotton.

The South defended slavery to a considerable extent, because it was the only brace that held up their economy. One of the ways the South defended slavery was by saying that Christianity supported it. Many references from the Bible were used in support of slavery. Early on, no real action was taken by the North to stop slavery. In the long run, however, the South became economically, socially and geographically isolated, because slavery became less acceptable to many people in the United States.

Middle School & High School Background

The issue of slavery exacerbated the tensions between the North and South during the 19th century. The Compromise of 1850 attempted to create a truce in the conflict over slavery. Four actions involving the government highlight the economic, political and social forces that were converging on the United States over this issue: The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Dred Scott decision, and John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry. Through a reading of primary sources and an investigation of these four actions, students will gain a deeper understanding of the complexity of the issues surrounding slavery.

Elementary School – Making a Book

Introduction

The primary source readings in this lesson may be challenging for some students depending on their age and abilities. The teacher can read the materials to the students or have selected students read aloud.

• describe slavery as practiced in the South prior to the Civil War.

Vocabulary

• slave
• Civil War
• master
• indigo

Primary Source Readings

Assorted personal accounts of slavery by slaves and free people (download*).

Activity

1. Assign one primary source reading to each student or to a pair/group of students. Students can take turns reading out loud, or the teacher can read out loud as the students follow along. The class will create a book based on the accounts they have read. After reading one of the accounts, each student should undertake the following tasks:

• Briefly summarize the material, in writing, in the student’s own words.
• Draw/color one or two pictures illustrating the narrative.
• Include the narrator’s own words to describe the picture.

2. Laminate and bind the students’ work as a final product. The book should be placed in the classroom so that everyone has a chance to read it.

Middle School – Primary Source Interpretation

• identify differences in opinion between the Northern and Southern approaches to slavery.

Vocabulary

• fugitive
• compromise
• ruffian

Primary Source Readings

"Black Slaves on a Tobacco Farm," Hugh Jones, 1724 (download*)
"Blacks & Virginia Law," 1630 (download*)
"Slave Women’s Lives," Jacqueline Jones (download*)
Personal slave accounts (download*)

1. Assign class members one of the primary source readings. Have them write a one to two paragraph summary of the reading while considering the following questions:

• What roles are mentioned in the reading and what responsibilities did these people have?
• What can you infer about the daily life of a slave?
• What attitudes, beliefs and assumptions about slaves and slavery are portrayed?

2. Divide a blackboard into three columns (roles/responsibilities, daily life, attitudes/beliefs) in preparation for taking notes on student writing and reporting. Students should create their own chart as well.
3. Take each primary source and have students read their summaries to the class. As each student finishes, have other students provide feedback as it pertains to one of the columns on the board. When this activity is complete, students will have organized information about the economic, political and social forces that allowed slavery to flourish in the United States.
4. Assign students one of the four government actions pertaining to slavery that were listed in the General Background section of this lesson. Have students write a brief summary of the action assigned to them. Make a two-column chart with each of the government actions on the left side and notes of the details of each action in the right hand column. Students should report and take notes as described in Step 3 of the above activity. Discuss the potential ramifications of each action on society.

High School – Primary Source Interpretation

• organize information about some of the details surrounding the conflict over slavery between the North and the South.
• compare views held on slavery in the 19th century.

Vocabulary

• fugitive
• compromise
• ruffian
• spectrum

Primary Source Readings

"Black Slaves on a Tobacco Farm," Hugh Jones, 1724 (download*)
"Blacks & Virginia Law," 1630 (download*)
"Slave Women’s Lives," Jacqueline Jones (download*)
Personal slave accounts (download*)

1. Assign class members one of the primary source readings and one of the four government actions pertaining to slavery that were listed in the Background.
2. Have them write a one or two paragraph summary of the reading and of the government action assigned.
3. Divide a blackboard into three columns (roles/responsibilities, daily life, attitudes/beliefs) in preparation for taking notes on student writing and reporting. Students should create their own chart as well.
4. Have students read summaries to the class. Other students may provide feedback on what they’ve heard.
5. Explain to students that they will be creating a living spectrum of views on slavery, and ask for a definition of the term "spectrum" (a wide range of beliefs).
6. Prior to this activity, the teacher should make up name tags on plain pieces of paper based on the readings and government actions discussed and provide a role for each card (slave owner in Virginia, congressman from Massachusetts, settler in Kansas, etc.).
7. Designate one end of the room to represent a perspective that strongly opposes slavery while the other end strongly supports it.
8. Distribute the name tags to the students and have each student stand on the spectrum according to where they think their character would stand. Students should state why they have chosen their place on the spectrum.

* If you do not have Adobe Acrobat reader, download it for free from www.adobe.com