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Lesson Plan Slavery in the United States: Primary Sources and the Historical Record

This lesson introduces students to primary sources — what they are, their great variety, and how they can be analyzed. The lesson begins with an activity that helps students understand the historical record. Students then learn techniques for analyzing primary sources. Finally, students apply these techniques to analyze documents about slavery in the United States.

Students will be able to:

• assess the credibility of primary sources; and
• use a variety of primary sources to clarify, elaborate, and understand a historical period.

Lesson Preparation

• Primary Source Analysis tool
• Teacher's guide  Analyzing Primary Sources
• Primary source gallery Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865

Lesson Procedure

Leaving evidence of our lives.

How can the historical record be both huge and limited? To consider the strengths and limitations of the historical record, do the following activity:

• Assign students to work individually or in small groups. Alert students that they will share their activity responses with the class.
• Ask students to think about all the activities they were involved in during the past 24 hours, and list as many of these activities as they can remember.
• Have students write down what evidence, if any, each activity might have left behind.
• Which of the daily activities were most likely to leave trace evidence behind?
• What, if any, of that evidence might be preserved for the future? Why?
• What might be left out of a historical record of these activities? Why?
• What would a future historian be able to tell about your life and your society based on evidence of your daily activities that might be preserved for the future?
• What kinds of evidence might this event leave behind?
• Who records information about this event?
• For what purpose are different records of this event made?
• Based on this activity, students will write one sentence that describes how the historical record can be huge and limited at the same time. As time allows, discuss as the strengths and limitations of the historical record.

In this section, students analyze primary source documents.

• Assign two primary sources from the primary source gallery  Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865  to individuals or groups. Students should be assigned to look at two different kinds of primary sources to allow for comparison.
• Allow 30 to 50 minutes for students to analyze the documents. Students analyze the documents, recording their thoughts on the  Primary Source Analysis Tool . Before the students begin, select questions from the teacher’s guide  Analyzing Primary Sources  to focus the group work, and select additional questions to focus and prompt a whole class discussion of their analysis.

In this section, students discuss their primary source analysis with the entire class and compare and contrast analysis results.

• Have student groups summarize their analysis of a primary source document for the class. Ask students to comment on the credibility of the source. If several groups have analyzed the same document, encourage supporting or refuting statements from other groups.
• What was slavery like for African-Americans in the period before the Civil War?
• Was any document completely believable? Completely unbelievable? Why or why not?
• Did some types of primary sources seem less believable than other kinds of sources? Why do you think this is true?
• What information about slavery did each document provide? How did looking at several documents expand your understanding of slavery?
• If you found contradictory information in the sources, which sources did you tend to believe? Why?
• What generalizations about primary historical sources can you make based on this document set?
• What additional sources (and types of sources) would you like to see to give you greater confidence in your understanding of slavery?

Each student might be asked to find one additional primary source on slavery. Individuals or groups might be challenged to research and gather a set of primary sources on a topic other than slavery.

Additional activity suggestions for different types of primary sources:

• Hypothesize about the uses of an unknown object pictured in an old photograph. Conduct research to support or refute the hypothesis. Make a presentation to the class to "show and tell" the object, hypothesis, search methods, and results.
• Study old photographs to trace the development of an invention over time (examples: automobiles, tractors, trains, airplanes, weapons). What do the photographs tell you about the technology, tools, and materials available through time?
• Use a historic photograph or film of a street scene. Describe the sights, sounds, and smells that might surround the scene. Closely examine the image to find clues that will help you. (weather, time of day, clothing of people, vehicles and other technology, architecture, etc.)
• Select a historical photograph or film frame. Predict what will happen one minute or one hour after the photograph or film was taken. Explain the reasoning behind your predictions
• Research your family history by interviewing relatives. Make note of differing recollections about the same event.
• Listen to audio recordings from old radio broadcasts. Compare the language, style of speaking, and content to radio and television programs today. How do they differ? What do they tell you about the beliefs and attitudes of the time?
• Study historical maps of a city, state, or region to find evidence of changes in population, industry, and settlement over time.
• Choose a famous, historical, public building in your area. Research blueprints or architectural drawings of the building. Compare the plans to the building as it exists today. What changes do you see? Why do you think the changes occurred?
• Select a cookbook from another era. Look at the ingredients lists from a large number of recipes. What do the ingredients lists tell you about the types of foods available and the lifestyle of the time?
• Select a time period or era. Research and read personal letters that comment on events of the time. Analyze the point of view of the letter writer. Compose a return letter that tells the author how those historical events have affected modern society.
• Make a record of family treasures (books, tools, musical instruments, tickets, letters, photographs) using photographs, photocopies, drawings, recordings, or videotapes. What was happening in the world when ancestors were using these family treasures? How did those events affect your family?
• Prepare a community time capsule. What primary sources will you include to describe your present day community for future generations? When should your time capsule be opened?

Lesson Evaluation

As an assessment activity, ask students to select a document from the primary source gallery  Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865  that they have not yet analyzed. Have students write an analysis of the document using the rules and questions provided in the Analysis section of the lesson.

The Social Science Education Consortium University of Colorado, Boulder

Slavery in the United States, 1790-1865

What specific information about slaves and slavery can you see in (or infer from) these photographs and text documents?

View photo gallery

Excerpt from "Report of the Board of Education for Freedmen" (1864)

Report of the Board of education for freedmen, Department of the Gulf, for the year 1864.

Read the full transcription of this document

REPORT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR FREEDMEN, DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, FOR THE YEAR 1864. NEW ORLEANS: PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE TRUE DELTA. 1865.

{Begin page}

REPORT. Office of the Board of Education for Freedmen, ) Department of the Gulf, .......... February 28, 1865. .......... Major General S. A. Hurlbut, Commanding Department of the Gulf:

General--In complaince with your order, we have the honor to submit the following Report of the Board of Education for Freedmen, Department of the Gulf.

The Report relates the operations of the Board from the date of its organization, March 22d, 1864, to December 31st, same year--a period of nine months.

COLORED SCHOOLS IN NEW ORLEANS.

When, in April, 1862, the guns of Farragut transferred the city of New Orleans from rebel to national rule, no such thing as a "Public School" for colored children, was found in the schedule of the conquest.

No such thing had ever existed in the Crescent City. Even that portion of the colored population, who, for generations, had been wealthy and free, were allowed no public school, although taxed to support the school-system of the city and State. Occasionally a small donation was made from the public fund to a school for orphans, attached to the Colored Orphans' Asylum.

The children of the free colored people who were in good circumstances, known as "Creoles," generally of French or Spanish extraction, when not educated abroad, or at the North, or from fairness of complexion, by occasional admission to the white schools, were quietly instructed at home, or in a very few private schools, of their class.

Even these, although not contrary to law, were really the ban of opinion, but were tolerated, because of the freedom, wealth, respectability and light color of the parents, many of whom were nearly white, and by blood, sympathy, association, slaveholding, and other interests, were allied to the white rather than to the black.

For the poor, of the free colored people, there was no school.

To teach a slave the dangerous arts of reading and writing, was a heinous offence, having, in the language of the statute, "a tendency to excite insubordination among the servile class, and punishable by imprisonment at hard labor for not more than twenty-one years, or by death, at the discretion of the Court."

In the face of all obstacles, a few of the free colored people, of the poorer class, learned to read and write. Cases of like proficiency were found among the slaves, where some restless bondsman, yearning for the knowledge, that somehow he coupled with liberty, hid himself from public notice, to con over, in secret and laboriously, the magic letters.

In other cases, limited teaching of a slave was connived at, by a master, who might find it convenient for his servant to read.

Occasionally, the slave was instructed by some devout and sympathizing woman or generous man, who secretly violated law and resisted opinion, for the sake of justice and humanity.

A single attempt had been made to afford instruction, through a school, to the poor of the colored people, by Mrs. Mary D.Brice, of Ohio, a student of Antioch College, who, with her husband, both poor in money, came to New Orleans in December, 1858, under a sense of duty, to teach colored people.

So many and great were the obstacles, that Mrs. Brice was unable to begin her school until September, 1860. At that time she opened a "school for colored children and adults," at the corner of Franklin and Perdido streets.

The popular outcry obliged her to close the school in June, 1861.

Subsequently receiving, as she believed, a divine intimation that she would be sustained, Mrs. Brice again opened her school in November following, near the same place; afterwards removing to Magnolia street, on account of room.

Under Confederate rule, she was repeatedly "warned" to desist teaching.

The gate-posts in front of her house were covered at night by placards, threatening "death to nigger teachers."

When forced to suspend her school, Mrs. Brice stole round at night, especially on dark and rainy nights, the more easily to elude observation, to the houses or resorts of her pupils, and there taught the eager learners, under every disability of mutual poverty, often of sore need, in face of imprisonment, banishment, or possible death.

Upon the occupation of the city by our forces, her school was preserved from further molestation, rather by the moral sentiment of the army than by any direct action; for so timid or prejudiced were many of our commanders, that long after that time General Emory sent for the Rev. Thomas Conway, to admonish him not to advocate,

publicly, the opening of schools for colored children, as it would be very dangerous!

The school of Mrs. Brice continued to thrive, and subsequently passed under the Board of Education, in whose employ she is now an efficient and honored Principal.

The advent of the Federal army weakened slavery, and suspended the pains and penalties of its bloody code, and a few private teachers began to appear, in response to the strong desire of the colored people for instruction.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR COLORED PEOPLE.

No public schools were established until October, 1863. The great work was fairly begun by the "Commission of Enrollment," created by order of Major General Banks, commanding Department of the Gulf.

In February, 1864, was published General Order No. 23, of Gen. Banks, known as the "Labor Order." That order bridged the chasm between the old and the new. By it the laborer, although a slave, was permitted to choose his employer. The governing power was shifted from the planter to the Provost Marshal.

In addition to food, clothing, quarters, fuel, medical attendance and wages, instruction for his children was promised the colored man by the Government. ....

DIFFICULTIES ATTENDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF COUNTRY SCHOOLS.

It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the difficulty of establishing these schools in the country parishes.

Considering the expense and the probability of change in the school districts, the Board decided not to build school-houses at present, but to avail themselves of such accommodations as could be found.

The parish Provost Marshals were directed to seize and turn over to the Board all buildings designated by our agents as essential to the schools, taking care not to incommode or irritate any one, beyond the necessities of the case.

Any hesitancy to act, or indifference on the part of the Marshals, was met forthwith by the Provost Marshal General in the shape of a peremptory order, or by the prompt removal of the refractory subordinate. By this means the first obstacles were overcome. Had the Board received from the same office a continuance of the active interest in these schools manifested by General Bowen during his incumbency, we should have had, at this time, at least three thousand additional pupils.

Cabins, sheds, unused houses, were appropriated, roughly repaired, fitted with a cheap stove for the winter, a window or two for light and air a teacher sent to the locality, the neighboring children gathered in, and the school started.

In some of the parishes, so great was the difficulty of obtaining boarding places for our teachers--notwithstanding the efforts of agents and Provost Marshals--that a special order or circular letter was published, (see Appendix D,) by which many of the teachers were provided with temporary homes. But it frequently occurs, that in a desirable locality for a school, it is impossible to obtain boarding for the teachers. In such cases, a weather-proof shelter of some kind--very poor at best--is obtained, some simple furniture provided, and a teacher sent who is willing to undergo the privations--often hardships-of boarding herself, in addition to the fatigues of her school,

Compelled to live on the coarsest diet of corn bread and bacon; often no tea, coffee, butter, eggs, or flour; separated by miles of bad

roads from the nearest provision store; refused credit because she is a negro teacher, unable to pay cash because the Government is unavoidably in arrears; subjected to the jeers and hatred of her neighbors; cut off from society, with unfrequent and irregular mails; swamped in mud--the school shed a drip, and her quarters little better; raided occasionally by rebels, her school broken up and herself insulted, banished, or run off to rebeldom; under all this, it is really surprising how some of these brave women manage to live, much more how they are able to render the service they do as teachers.

Despite all the efforts of our agents, the assistance of the Provost Marshals, and the devotion of the teachers, many of these schools would have to be abandoned but for the freedmen themselves. These, fully alive to all that is being done for them, gratefully aid the teachers from their small store, and mount guard against the enemy of the schools, whether he be a rebel, a guerilla, or a pro-slavery professed unionist skulking behind the oath.

Excerpt from "What Became of the Slaves on a Georgia Plantation?" (1859)

What became of the slaves on a Georgia plantation?: Great auction sale of slaves, at Savannah, Georgia, March 2d & 3d, 1859. A sequel to Mrs. Kemble's Journal.

{Begin handwritten} Life in the Southern States {End handwritten} WHAT BECAME OF THE SLAVES ON A GEORGIA PLANTATION? GREAT ACTION SALE OF SLAVES

{Begin handwritten} by Price M. Butler {End handwritten} AT  SAVANNAH, GEORGIA MARCH 2d 3d, 1859. A SEQUEL TO MRS. KEMBLE'S JOURNAL. {Begin handwritten} Savannah, Ga. {End handwritten} 1863.

SALE OF SLAVES

The largest sale of human chattels that has been made in Star-Spangled America for several years, took place on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, at the Race-course near the City of Savannah, Georgia. The lot consisted of four hundred and thirty-six men, women, children and infants, being that half of the negro stock remaining on the old Major Butler plantations which fell to one of the two heirs to that estate. Major Butler, dying, left a property valued at more than a million of dollars, the major part of which was invested in rice and cotton plantations, and the slaves thereon, all of which immense fortune descended to two heirs, his sons, Mr. John A. Butler, sometime deceased, and Mr. Pierce M. Butler, still living, and resident in the City of Philadelphia, in the free State of Pennsylvania.

Losses in the great crash of 1857-8, and other exigencies of business, have compelled the latter gentleman to realize on his Southern investments, that he may satisfy his pressing creditors. This necessity led to a partition of the negro stock on the Georgia plantations, between himself and the representative of the other heir, the widow of the late John A. Butler, and the negroes that were brought to the hammer last week were the property of Mr. Pierce M. Butler, of Philadelphia, and were in fact sold to pay Mr. Pierce M. Butler's debts. The creditors were represented by Gen. Cadwalader, while Mr. Butler was present in person, attended by his business agent, to attend to his own interests.

The sale had been advertised largely for many weeks, though the name of Mr. Butler was not mentioned; and as the negroes were known to be a choice lot and very desirable property, the attendance of buyers was large. The breaking up of an old family estate is so uncommon an occurrence that the affair was regarded with unusual interest throughout the South. For several days before the sale every hotel in Savannah was crowded with negro speculators from North and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana, who had been attracted hither by the prospects of making good bargains.

Nothing was heard for days, in the bar-rooms and public rooms, but talk of the great sale; criticisms of the business affairs of Mr. Butler, and speculations as to the probable prices the stock would bring. The office of Joseph Bryan, the Negro Broker, who had the management of the sale, was thronged every day by eager inquirers in search of information, and by some who were anxious to buy, but were uncertain as to whether their securities would prove acceptable. Little parties were made up from the various hotels every day to visit the Race-course, distant

some three miles from the city, to look over the chattels, discuss their points, and make memoranda for guidance on the day of sale. The buyers were generally of a rough breed, slangy, profane and bearish, being for the most part from the back river and swamp plantations, where the elegancies of polite life are not, perhaps, developed to their fullest extent. In fact, the humanities are sadly neglected by the petty tyrants of the rice-fields that border the great Dismal Swamp, their knowledge of the luxuries of our best society comprehending only revolvers and kindred delicacies. ...

WHERE THE NEGROES CAME FROM.

The negroes came from two plantations, the one a rice plantation near Darien, in the State of Georgia, not far from the great Okefonokee Swamp, and the other a cotton plantation on the extreme northern point of St. Simon's Island, a little bit of an island in the Atlantic, cut off from Georgia mainland by a slender arm of the sea. Though the most of the steek had been accustomed only to rice and cotton planting, there were among them a number of very passable mechanics, who had been taught to do all the rougher sorts of mechanical work on the plantations. There were coopers, carpenters, shoemakers and blacksmiths, each one equal, in his various craft, to the ordinary requirements of a plantation; thus, the coopers could make rice-tierces, and possibly, on a pinch, rude tubs and buckets; the carpenter could do the rough carpentry about the negro-quarters; the shoemaker could make shoes of the fashion required for the slaves, and the blacksmith was adequate to the

manufacture of hoes and similar simple tools, and to such trifling repairs in the blacksmithing way as did not require too refined a skill. Though probably no one of all these would be called a superior, or even an average workman, among the masters of the craft, their knowledge of these various trades sold in some cases for nearly as much as the man--that is, a man without a trade, who would be valued at $900, would readily bring $1,600 or $1,700 if he was a passable blacksmith or cooper. ...

... None of the Butler slaves have ever been sold before, but have been on these two plantations since they were born. Here have they lived their humble lives, and loved their simple loves; here were they born, and here have many of them had children born unto them; here had their parents lived before them, and are now resting in quiet graves on the old plantations that these unhappy ones are to see no more forever; here they left not only the well-known scenes dear to them from very baby-hood by a thousand fond memories, and homes as much loved by them, perhaps, as brighter homes by men of brighter faces; but all the clinging ties that bound them to living hearts were torn asunder, for but one-half of each of these two happy little communities was sent to the shambles, to be scattered to the four winds, and the other half was left behind. And who can tell how closely intertwined are the affections of a little band of four hundred persons, living isolated from all the world beside, from birth to middle age? Do they not naturally become one great family, each man a brother unto each?

It is true they were sold "in families," but let us see: a man and his wife were called a "family," their parents and kindred were not taken into account; the man and wife might be sold to the pine woods of North Carolina, their brothers and sisters be scattered through the cotton fields of Alabama and rice swamps of Louisiana, while the parents might be left on the old plantation to wear out their weary lives in grief, and lay their heads in far-off graves, over which their children might never weep. And

no account could be taken of loves that were as yet unconsummated by marriage; and how many aching hearts have been divorced by this summary proceeding no man can ever know. And the separation is as utter, and is infinitely more hopeless, than that made by the Angel of Death, for then the loved ones are committed to the care of a merciful Deity; but in the other instance, to the tender mercies of a slave-trade. These dark-skinned unfortunates are perfectly unlettered, and could not communicate by writing even if they should know where to send their missives. And so to each other, and to the old familiar places of their youth, clung all their sympathies and affections, not less strong, perhaps, because they are so few. The blades of grass on all the Butler estates are outnumbered by the tears that are poured out in agony at the wreck that has been wrought in happy homes, and the crushing grief that has been laid on loving hearts.

But, then, what business have "niggers" with tears? Besides, didn't Pierce Butler give them a silver dollar a-piece? which will appear in the sequel. And, sad as it is, it was all necessary, because a gentleman was not able to live on the beggarly pittance of half a million, and so must needs enter into speculations which turned out adversely.

HOW THEY WERE TREATED IN SAVANNAH.

The negroes were brought to Savannah in small lots, as many at a time as could be conveniently taken care of, the last of them reaching the city the Friday before the sale. They were consigned to the care of Mr. J. Bryan, Auctioneer and Negro Broker, who was to feed and keep them in condition until disposed of. Immediately on their arrival they were taken to the Race-course, and there quartered in the sheds erected for the accommodation of the horses and carriages of gentlemen attending the races. Into these sheds they were huddled pell-mell, without any more attention to their comfort than was necessary to prevent their becoming ill and unsaleable. Each "family" had one or more boxes or bundles, in which were stowed such scanty articles of their clothing as were not brought into immediate requisition, and their tin dishes and gourds for their food and drink.

...In these sheds were the chattels huddled together on the floor,

there being no sign of bench or table. They eat and slept on the bare boards, their food being rice and beans, with occasionally a bit of bacon and corn bread. Their huge bundles were scattered over the floor, and thereon the slaves sat or reclined, when not restlessly moving about, or gathered into sorrowful groups, discussing the chances of their future fate. On the faces of all was an expression of heavy grief; some appeared to be resigned to the hard stroke of Fortune that had torn them from their homes, and were sadly trying to make the best of it; some sat brooding moodily over their sorrows, their chins resting on their hands, their eyes staring vacantly, and their bodies rocking to and fro, with a restless motion that was never stilled; few wept, the place was too public and the drivers too near, though some occasionally turned aside to give way to a few quiet tears. They were dressed in every possible variety of uncouth and fantastic garb, in every style and of every imaginable color; the texture of the garments was in all cases coarse, most of the men being clothed in the rough cloth that is made expressly for the slaves. The dresses assumed by the negro minstrels, when they give imitations of plantation character, are by no means exaggerated; they are, instead, weak and unable to come up to the original.

There was every variety of hats, with every imaginable slouch; and there was every cut and style of coat and pantaloons, made with every conceivable ingenuity of misfit, and tossed on with a general appearance of perfect looseness that is perfectly indescribable, except to say that a Southern negro always looks as if he could shake his clothes off without taking his hands out of his pockets. The women, true to the feminine instinct, had made, in almost every case, some attempt at finery. All wore gorgeous turbans, generally manufactured in an instant out of a gay-colored handkerchief by a sudden and graceful twist of the fingers; though there was occasionally a more elaborate turban, a turban complex and mysterious, got up with care, and ornamented with a few beads or bright bits of ribbon. Their dresses were mostly coarse stuff, though there were some gaudy calicoes; a few had ear-rings, and one possessed the treasure of a string of yellow and blue beads. The little children were always better and more carefully dressed than the older ones, the parental pride coming out in the shape of a yellow cap pointed like a mitre, or a jacket with a strip of red broadcloth round the bottom. The children were of all sizes, the youngest being fifteen days old. The babies were generally good-natured; though when one would set up a yell, the complaint soon attacked the others, and a full chorus would be the result.

The slaves remained at the Race-course, some of them for more than a week, and all of them for four days before the sale. They were brought in thus early that buyers who desired to inspect them might enjoy that privilege, although none of them were sold at private sale. For these preliminary days their shed was constantly

visited by speculators. The negroes were examined with as little consideration as if they had been brutes indeed; the buyers pulling their mouths open to see their teeth, pinching their limbs to find how muscular they were, walking them up and down to detect any signs of lameness, making them stoop and bend in different ways that they might be certain there was no concealed rupture or wound; and in addition to all this treatment, asking them scores of questions relative to their qualifications and accomplishments. All these humiliations were submitted to without a murmur, and in some instances with good-natured cheerfulness--where the slave liked the appearance of the proposed buyer, and fancied that he might prove a kind "Mas'r." ...

... The negroes looked more uncomfortable than ever; the close confinement in-doors for a number of days, and the drizzly, unpleasant weather, began to tell on their condition. They moved about more listlessly, and were fast losing the activity and springiness they had at first shown. This morning they were all gathered into the long room of the building erected as the "Grand Stand" of the Race-course, that they might be immediately under the eye of the buyers. The room was about a hundred feet long by twenty wide, and herein were crowded the poor creatures, with much of their baggage, awaiting their respective calls to step upon the block and be sold to the highest bidder. This morning Mr. Pierce Butler appeared among his people, speaking to each one, and being recognized with seeming pleasure by all. The men obsequiously pulled off their hats and made that indescribable sliding hitch with the foot which passes with a negro for a bow; and the women each dropped the quick curtsy, which they seldom vouchsafe to any other than their legitimate master and mistress. Occasionally, to a very old or favorite servant, Mr. Butler would extend his gloved hand, which mark of condescension was instantly hailed with grins of delight from all the sable witnesses.

... Mr. Walsh mounted the stand and announced the terms of the sale, "one-third cash, the remainder payable in two equal annual instalments, bearing interest from the day of sale, to be secured by approved mortgage and personal security, or approved acceptances in Savannah, Ga., or Charleston, S. C. Purchasers to pay for papers." The buyers, who were present to the number of about two hundred, clustered around the platform; while the negroes, who were not likely to be immediately wanted, gathered into sad groups in the back-ground, to watch the progress of the selling in which they were so sorrowfully interested. The wind howled outside, and through the open side of the building the driving rain came pouring in; the bar down stairs ceased for a short time its brisk trade; the buyers lit fresh cigars, got ready their catalogues and pencils, and the first lot of human chattels was led upon the stand, not by a white man, but by a sleek mulatto, himself a slave, and who seems to regard the selling of his brethren, in which he so glibly assists, as a capital joke. It had been announced that the negroes would be sold in "families," that is to say, a man would not be parted from his wife, or a mother from a very young child. There is perhaps as much policy as humanity in this arrangement, for thereby many aged and unserviceable people are disposed of, who otherwise would not find a ready sale. ...

... It seems as if every shade of character capable of being implicated in the sale of human flesh and blood was represented among the buyers. There was the Georgia fast young man, with his pantaloons tucked into his boots, his velvet cap jauntily dragged over to one side, his cheek full of tobacco, which he bites from a huge plug, that resembles more than anything else an old bit of a rusty wagon tire, and who is altogether an animal of quite a different breed from your New York fast man. His ready revolver, or his convenient knife, is ready for instant use in case of heated argument. White-neck-clothed, gold-spectacled, and silver-haired old men were there, resembling in appearance that noxious breed of sanctimonious deacons we have at the North, who are perpetually leaving documents at your door that you never read, and the business of whose mendicant life it is to eternally solicit subscriptions for charitable associations, of which they are treasurers. These gentry, with quiet step and subdued voice, moved carefully about among the live stock, ignoring, as a general rule, the men, but tormenting the women with questions which, when accidentally overheard by the disinterested spectator, bred in that spectator's mind an almost irresistible desire to knock somebody down.

And then, all imaginable varieties of rough, backwoods rowdies, who began the day in a spirited manner, but who, as its hours progressed, and their practice at the bar became more prolific in results, waxed louder and talkier and more violent, were present, and added a characteristic feature to the assemblage. Those of your readers who have read "Uncle Tom,"--and who has not?--will remember, with peculiar feelings, Legree, the slave-driver and woman-whipper. That that character is not been overdrawn, or too highly colored, there is abundant testimony. Witness the subjoined dialogue: A party of men were conversing on the fruitful subject of managing refractory "niggers;" some were for severe whipping, some recommending branding, one or two advocated other modes of torture, but one huge brute of a man, who had not taken an active part in the discussion, save to assent, with approving nod, to any unusually barbarous proposition, at last broke his silence by saying, in an oracular way, "You may say what you like about managing niggers; I'm a driver myself, and I've had some experience, and I ought to know. You can manage ordinary niggers by lickin' 'em, and givin' 'em a taste of the hot iron once in awhile when they're extra ugly; but if a nigger really sets himself up against me, I can't never have any patience with him. I just get my pistol and shoot him right down; and that's the best way." ...

...The expression on the faces of all who stepped on the block was always the same, and told of more anguish than it is in the power of words to express. Blighted homes, crushed hopes and broken hearts, was the sad story to be read in all the anxious faces. Some of them regarded the sale with perfect indifference, never making a motion, save to turn from one side to the other at the word of the dapper Mr. Bryan, that all the crowd might have a fair view of their proportions, and then, when the sale was accomplished, stepped down from the block without caring to cast even a look at the buyer, who now held all their happiness in his hands. Others, again, strained their eyes with eager glances from one buyer to another as the bidding went on, trying with earnest attention to follow the rapid voice of the auctioneer. Sometimes, two persons only would be bidding for the same chattel, all the others having resigned the contest, and then the poor creature on the block, conceiving an instantaneous preference for one of the buyers over the other, would regard the rivalry with the intensest interest, the expression of his face changing with every bid, settling into a half smile of joy if the favorite buyer persevered unto the end and secured the property, and settling down into a look of hopeless despair if the other won the victory. ...

... Many other babies, of all ages of baby-hood, were sold, but there was nothing particularly interesting about them. There were some thirty babies in the lot; they are esteemed worth to the master a

hundred dollars the day they are born, and to increase in value at the rate of a hundred dollars a year till they are sixteen or seventeen years old, at which age they bring the best prices. ...

... The highest price paid for a single man was $1,750, which was given for William, a "fair carpenter and caulker."

The highest price paid for a woman was $1,250, which was given for Jane, "cotton hand and house servant."

The lowest price paid was for Anson and Violet, a gray-haired couple, each having numbered more than fifty years; they brought but $250 a piece. ...

...And now come the scenes of the last partings--of the final separations of those who were akin, or who had been such dear friends from youth that no ties of kindred could bind them closer--of those who were all in all to each other, and for whose bleeding hearts there shall be no earthly comfort--the parting of parents and children, of brother from brother, and the rending of sister from a sister's bosom; and O! hardest, cruellest of all, the tearing asunder of loving hearts, wedded in all save the one ceremony of the Church-these scenes pass all description; it is not meet for pen to meddle with tears so holy.

As the last family stepped down the block, the rain ceased, for the first time in four days the clouds broke away, and the soft sunlight fell on the scene. The unhappy slaves had many of them been already removed, and others were now departing with their new masters. ...

Excerpt from "My Ups and Downs," an interview with Kert Shorrow" (1939)

[My Ups and Downs]

The  complete interview  is available.

MY UP'S AND DOWN'S

Written By: Mrs. Ina B. Hawkes

Research Field Worker, Georgia Writers' Project, Athens -

Edited By: Mrs. Maggie B. Freeman

Editor, Georgia Writers' Project, Athens - WPA Area -6

October 9, 1939

September 14, 1939

[Kert Shorrow?] (Negro)

Route # 1, Athens, Georgia

Mrs. Ina B. Hawkes

It was just a small Negro shanty, just off the highway. I went up to the front door. I noticed it was open, but I found the screen door shut and latched.

I came back down off the porch and walked around the house. I saw an old Negro woman coming down a little grassy lane. I walked up to meet her. She looked a little tired. She had a white cotton sack on her back where she had been picking cotton and a big sun hat on. She looked up and appeared very much surprised to see me.

"Good morning, Aunty. Do you live here?" She said, "Good morning, Miss. Yes, man, I lives here. I aint been here so long though. Is der something I can do for yo?"

I told her that I wanted to talk to her a little while if she had time. She said, "Yes'um, but you see I don't want to be [empolite?] cause I won't raised dat way. But if you will come in I will talk to you while

I fix a little dinner. I works in the field all I can."

About that time I saw a small boy coming around the house with his cotton sack.

"My name is [Sadie?]," she said, "and dis is my great grandson here. I'se got seventeen chillun, Honey."

"How did you manage with so many children, Aunty?" I asked. "By the help of the Lawd. We didn't have much, but you know what the old frog said when he went to the pond and found jus a little water, don't you? Well, he said, "A little is better than none.' Dat's de way I all'ers felt about things.

"I was born and raised in Walton County. But dey is done changed things back over der so much. I was over der to see my daughter while back and, Lawdy mussy, chile, dey is done built a new bridge ah didn't know nothing about.

"Here, Sammy, make mama a fire in de stove while I gits a few things ready to cook."

The little boy had a kerosine lamp over the blaze and, before I could stop myself, I had yelled at him to get it away from that blaze. Aunt Sadie said, "Dat's right, Miss. Correct him. Chillun des days don't see no danger in nothing.

"Back in my day as far back as I can remember

my mother and father was [Marse?] Holt and Mistess Holt's slaves. 'Case we chilluns wus too, but slavery times wus over fo I wus big nuf to know very much 'bout hit.

"But I do know about [Marse?] Holt and Mistess Holt. Lawd, child, dey wus de best people in de world I do think. Ole Mistess use to make us go to bed early. She would feed us out under a walnut tree. She wouldn't let us eat lak chilluns do now. We would have milk and bread, and dey would always save pot liquor left over from the vegetables. They put corn bread in it. We little Niggers sho' injoyed hit though. Sometimes we would get syrup and bread and now and then a biscuit.

"[Marse?] and Mistess died, but Ma and Pa and we chillun just stayed on and waked hard. Pa and Ma both wus good farmers. But, Honey, talk 'bout slavery times, hit's mor lak slavery times now with chillun dan it wus den. 'Cause us didn't have to go to de fields til we wus good size chillun. Now de poor things has to go time dey is big nuf to walk and tote a cotton sack.

"Miss Ruth is [Marse?] and Mistess Holt's daughter. I wus fortunate to know Miss Ruth. She larnt me to say my A B C's. If I didn't know them or say them fast nuf she would slap me and make me do hit right". She got up and went over to an old washstand and got an old blue

back speller. "Here," she said, "look at dis and you will see whut she taught me wid. You can see why I loves dat book. I don't let nobody bother wid dat.

"I sits and looks at my little book lots of times and think of dem good old days. I went to regular school two months in my life.

"I thought I wus grown when I hopped up and married."

..."My life, Honey, is jus been  ups  and  downs . Me and

pa and the chilluns always jus had to stay home and work 'cept on Saddays. We would always go to town and church on Sundays. We would fix a big box of oats and get up soon Sadday morning, and Tom and the boys would hitch up old Buck to the cart. Yes, dat old ox wus jus as fast as anybody's mule. He would take us to town and bring us back safe.

"I never will forget one Sadday we wus in town. It wus a treat to jus go to town for us, the lights wus so pretty, but coming home dat day a man stopped us. Me and Tom had most of the chilluns with us. He said he wanted to take our pictures, so he could save it and show it ot his grandchilluns.

"We jus sold old Buck in 1934. He wus gitting old and couldn't plow and git 'bout lak he used too. And we needed a mule too.

"Lawdy, dere's Tom now. He come in the back door, a little man not much older looking than I is."....

Excerpt from "Mrs. Lulu Bowers II," an interview with Mrs. Lulu Bowers (1938)

[Mrs. Lula Bowers, II]

{Begin handwritten} Beliefs Customs - Customs {End handwritten}

Accession no. - 10160

Date received - 10/10/40

Consignment no.

Shipped from Wash. Off.

Amount - 4p.

WPA L. C. PROJECT Writers' UNIT

Folklore Collection (or Type)

Title Social Customs. Mrs. Lula Bowers II

Place of origin Hampton Co., S. Car. Date 6-28-38

Project worker Phoebe Faucette

Project editor

{Begin deleted text} 8882 {End deleted text}

Project #-1655

Phoebe Faucette

Hampton County {Begin handwritten} [?] {End handwritten} {Begin deleted text} 390552 {End deleted text}

Records of the Past

SOCIAL CUSTOMS

Mrs. Lula Bowers {Begin handwritten}, II {End handwritten}

...."There is a great change in the men and women, too, from what it used to be. It used to be that the men tended to all the business. Now most all the business is tended to by the women!

I remember the first woman free dealer. She was Mr. Ned Morrison's grandmother. She was the first free-dealer I ever heard of. Her husband was an excellent man but no business man. He had a large farm to manage after the war, with free labor. He'd get so mad with the negroes that he'd just let them go, and give up. So she had to take charge. She went to the courthouse and got an appointment. She was the only woman I know that got an appointment to run her own farm. Now women run their farms if they want to.

"The churches and schools wasn't much. They got free-schools for three months then. Now they get it for nine.

"The roads weren't good either like they are now. And it was so hard to get anybody to work on the roads. Each farmer had to send a certain amount of hands to work the roads, and someone had to oversee the work. My father was generally the one.

"In slavery time we had three slave quarters - ten houses in each quarter. The houses were kept nice, kept clean. And there was one special house where they kept the children and a nurse. The houses were log-houses, and they didn't have any windows more than ten or twelve inches square. And they had shutters, not sash. The hinges for the shutters were made in the blacksmith shop. They wouldn't have but two rooms. Very often they wouldn't have lumber enough to put in the partition, and would have to hang up sheets between the rooms.

They'd ceil them with clapboards from the woods. Their furniture was just anything that they could get - little stools, and little benches, and just anything. They'd use the back of their old dresses for quilts.

"The clothes of the slaves were spun at home and made by their mistresses. The'd weave them white, then dye the cloth. They'd go in the woods and get bark and dye them.

"The slaves had bread and hominy, and what little meat they could get hold of now and then. There were a lot of cattle in this country. And they raised a lot of geese, and guineas, and such like. Most of the slaves were doctored by their owners. Dr. Nathan A. Johnston was the first doctor I knew anything about. They'd rake soot off the back of the chimney and make a tea out of it for the colic. Called it soot-tea. I've seen my grandmother do it a many a time! The slaves didn't have any education in that day. They'd have Sunday Schools for the white people and for the slaves. The old people would write down what the children had to say. They had no books then, and paper was so scarce they sometimes had to use paste-board. When the slaves wanted to go off on a visit they were given tickets, and allowed to go for just so many hours.

"After the war, military rule was oppressive for a while; but they got so they dropped that. There was much lawlessness. There was no law at all, and they couldn't manage the negroes at all. There was a man that came from Beaufort named Wright, and he controlled them. He was a northerner but he was a

good man. He and his wife came. They stayed in three different homes when they were here. Only three homes would take those people in! One of them was a relative of mine. She said one night Mrs. Wright said she would make a pudding for them all - what she called Hasty Pudding. So my aunt got out the sugar, and eggs and seasonings for her; but the 'Pudding' proved to be just Fried Hominy - cold hominy sliced and rolled in egg and flour and fried. They had a son and a daughter. After a while they came, too,"

Source: Mrs. Lula Bowers, 79, Luray, S. C.

(Second interview.)

Excerpt from "E.W. Evans, Brick Layer & Plasterer," an interview with E.W. Evans (undated)

[E. W. Evans, Brick Layer & Plasterer]

E. W. Evans (Negro)

610 Parsons Street, S.W.

Brick Layer Plasterer

by Geneva Tonsill

"My parents were slaves on the plantation of John H. Hill, a slave owner in Madison, Georgia. I wuz born on May 21, 1855. I wuz owned and kept by J. H. Hill until just befo' surrender. I wuz a small boy when Sherman left here at the fall of Atlanta. He come through Madison on his march to the sea and we chillun hung out on the front fence from early morning 'til late in the evening, watching the soldiers go by. It took most of the day.

"My master wuz a Senator from Georgia, 'lected on the Whig ticket. He served two terms in Washington as Senator. His wife, our mistress, had charge of the slaves and plantation. She never seemed to like the idea of having slaves. Of course, I never heard her say she didn't want them but she wuz the one to free the slaves on the place befo' surrender. Since that I've felt she didn't want them in the first place....

The next week after Sherman passed through Madison, Miss Emily called the five ... wimmen ... women ... that wuz on the place and tole them to stay 'round the house and attend to things as they had always done until their husbands come back. She said they were free and could go wherever they wanted to. See ... she decided this befo surrender and tole them they could keep up just as befo' until their husbands could look after a place for them to stay. She meant that they could rent from her if they wanted to. In that number of ... wimmen ... women ... wuz my mother, Ellen, who worked as a seamstress for Mrs. Hill. The other ... wimmen ... women ... wuz aunt Lizzie and aunt Dinah, the washer- ...wimmen ... women ... , aunt Liza ... a seamstress to help my mother, and aunt Caroline ... the nurse for Miss Emily's chilluns.

"I never worked as a slave because I wuzn't ole 'nough. In 1864, when I wuz about nine years ole they sent me on a trial visit to the plantation to give me an idea of what I had to do some day.

{Begin page no. 2}

The place I'm talkin' about, when I wuz sent for the tryout, wuz on the outskirts of town. It wuz a house where they sent chilluns out ole 'nough to work for a sort of trainin'. I guess you'd call it the trainin' period. When the chilluns wuz near ten years ole they had this week's trial to get them used to the work they'd have to do when they reached ten years. At the age of ten years they wuz then sent to the field to work. They'd chop, hoe, pick cotton ... and pull fodder, corn, or anything else to be done on the plantation. I stayed at the place a whole week and wuz brought home on Saturday. That week's work showed me what I wuz to do when I wuz ten years ole. Well, this wuz just befo Sherman's march from Atlanta to the sea and I never got a chance to go to the plantation to work agin, for Miss Emily freed all on her place and soon after that we wuz emancipated.

"The soldiers I mentioned while ago that passed with Sherman carried provisions, hams, shoulders, meal, flour ... and other food. They had their cooks and other servants. I 'member seeing a woman in that crowd of servants. She had a baby in her arms. She hollered at us Chillun and said, 'You chilluns git off dat fence and go learn yore ABC's.' I thought she wuz crazy telling us that ... for we had never been 'lowed to learn nothing at all like reading a writing. I learned but it wuz after surrender and I wuz over tens years ole.

"It wuz soon after the soldiers passed with Sherman that Miss Emily called in all the ... wimmen ... women ... servants and told them they could take their chillun ... to the cabin and stay there until after the war. My father, George, had gone with Josh Hill, a son of Miss Emily's to wait on him. She told my mother to take us to that cabin until a place could be made for us.

{Begin page no. 3}

"I said I wuz born a slave but I wuz too young to know much about slavery. I wuz the property of the Hill family from 1855 to 1865, when freedom wuz declared and they said we wuz free....

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12 Years a Slave

SUBJECTS — U.S./1812 – 1865; Literature/U.S. (Slave Narrative); Biography; Diversity/African-American;

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Human Rights;

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Respect.

AGE: 15+; MPAA Rating — R for violence/cruelty, some nudity, and brief sexuality;

Drama; 2013, 2 hrs. 14 minutes; Color. Available from Amazon.com .

Note to Teachers:

While TWM has created a useful Learning Guide for this film, it is very long for classroom use. As an alternative, teachers can assign the film for viewing at home and require students to fill out TWM’s Movie Worksheet for 12 Years a Slave . Reviewing responses to the worksheet can be a classroom activity. Watching the film at home can be supplemented with a shorter documentary, Unchained Memories (one hour, 15 minutes) in which actors read from interviews with the last generation of former slaves.

Give your students new perspectives on race relations, on the history of the American Revolution, and on the contribution of the Founding Fathers to the cause of representative democracy. Check out TWM’s Guide:

THE BEST OF TWM

One of the Best!   This movie is on TWM’s short list of the best movies to supplement classes in United States History, High School Level.

Benefits of the Movie Parenting Points Selected Awards & Cast Helpful Background

Using the Movie in the Classroom Discussion Questions Social-Emotional Learning Moral-Ethical Emphasis

Assignments and Projects CCSS Anchor Standards Bridges to Reading Links to the Internet Bibliography

MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS

TWM’s Movie Worksheet for 12 Years a Slave .

DESCRIPTION

This movie is a cinematic representation of the best selling slave narrative of Solomon Northup, a free black man living in upstate New York who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery. The film shows the life of a slave in the American South primarily on two plantations: one governed by a relatively benevolent master and the other subject to a brutal tyrant. They also expose the particularly hard lot of slave women and the operation of the slave trade. The movie is an excellent resource for 12th grade and college classes in U.S. History and for ELA units on the slave narrative genre.

SELECTED AWARDS & CAST

Selected Awards: 2014 Academy Awards: Best Picture of the Year; and numerous other awards.

Featured Actors: Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup; Kelsey Scott as Anne Northup; Adepero Oduye as Eliza; Benedict Cumberbatch as Ford; Liza J. Bennett as Mistress Ford; J.D. Evermore as Chapin; Paul Dano as Tibeats; Michael Fassbender as Edwin Epps; Sarah Paulson as Mistress Epps; Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey; Alfre Woodard as Mistress Shaw; and Brad Pitt as Bass

Director: Steve McQueen

BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE

It is important for students to understand the brutality and thoroughness of slavery as practiced in the American South and which was eradicated only a brutal and bloody civil war. It is also helpful for students to understand the worldwide dimensions of slavery, the current status of slavery, and to read at least parts of a slave narrative, the first genre of African-American literature.

Students will have a vivid understanding of the lives endured by slaves in the American South. Students will be introduced to slavery as a worldwide phenomenon that has existed for millennia and which continues to exist. Students will be introduced to the slave narrative, the first genre of African-American literature.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

Problems Here.

PARENTING POINTS

Watch the movie with your child. When the film is over, tell him or her that the film is mostly historically accurate except that Solomon Northup was not as well-off or accepted by whites in Upstate New York in 1841 and that it is very unlikely that a black mistress was presiding over a plantation or that she would give tea to a slave from another plantation.

HELPFUL BACKGROUND

Essay on the historical accuracy of the movie 12 years a slave.

The book, Twelve Years a Slave, is a traditional American slave narrative told by Solomon Northup to ghostwriter David Wilson. It is one of the most important of the slave narratives because it was published shortly after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s immensely popular and influential novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Twelve Years a Slave validated the claims of slave-owner brutality made in the novel. In addition, Twelve Years a Slave was a best-seller in its own right when it was first published in 1853. The historical accuracy of the book has been exhaustively vetted by Professor Sue Eakin of Louisiana State University. The culmination of her efforts are contained in the recently republished Enhanced Edition of the book which contains more than 100 pages of notes and supplemental materials. With a few exceptions, Professor Eakin has found the Northup/Wilson narrative to be accurate.

The film is a work of historical fiction based on the events set out in Mr. Northup’s book. To create an entertaining story arc and to fit the tale into a two-hour film, a number of events described in the book have been eliminated and others have been telescoped together. On a few occasions actions by one person have been attributed to another or scenes have been added to support the story. Except for the prelude, the scenes before the kidnaping, the murder of a slave by a sailor on the Orleans, and the tea scene with Mistress Shaw, the scenes shown in the film were taken from the book or are reasonable approximations of events that could have happened given current-day understanding of the history of the era.

On the whole, the book and the film are reasonably accurate representations of what life was like for a slave in the American South under one of the best masters (Ford) and later under one of the worst (Epps, who was not only sexually predatory but also extremely violent). The terrible way in which slaves were treated by slave traders and the awful plight of some slave women is also shown.

Set out below are comments on selected scenes in the film. Citations to the slave narrative itself are referred to as “Northup”. Citations to Professor Eakin’s notes are referred to as “Eakin”. Other citations are to articles in the Links to the Internet Section below.

• Prelude: The orgasm scene. This is not referred to in the book and was made up by the screenwriters to show “a bit of tenderness … Then after she climaxes, she’s back . . . in hell.” However, it would seem that Solomon Northup, who claims to have been strictly faithful to his wife for 12 years, would have been scandalized by this scene. Berlatsky
• Before the Kidnapping Northup was not in the middle class nor, in all probability, was he as well accepted by white society as shown in the early scenes of the film. His slave narrative makes no such claims. Northup lived in Saratoga Springs, a summer resort in upstate New York working as a carriage driver for a large boarding house during the summer season. He often had difficulty finding work during the rest of the year. Northup pp. 5 & 7. As shown in the film, he was a talented violinist and would get occasional jobs playing the violin for parties and dances. His wife had steady work as a cook although, as shown in the film, during the offseason she would have to work 20 miles from home, a long distance in those days when inland travel was by foot or by horse. Eakin 261 & 262. Northup himself comments about his life in Sarasota Springs: “Though always in comfortable circumstances, we had not prospered.” Northup pp. 5.  Nor would people in New York and in Washington D.C. have been as accepting of a black man as to hail him strolling as an equal through a city park or to allow him to eat at fine restaurants, or shop as an equal without care for the cost in the stores. In the 1840s U.S. society, North and South were extremely prejudiced against blacks. Eakin p. 261. Northup, for example, reports that when he was with the two kidnappers in Washington, D.C., they would order drinks and occasionally hand them to him. He was not necessarily sitting at the table with them. Northup p. 12.
• The Kidnapping: The kidnapping scenes do not follow Northup’s recollections in several ways. He doesn’t report, for example, being cared for in bed by the kidnappers, one of whom seems to regret what will happen to him. However, these scenes in the film add color to the bare historical facts of the narrative and, unlike the false prosperity and acceptance by whites shown in the scenes of Northup’s life in Saratoga Springs and his trip to D.C., these changes are appropriate poetic license in a work of historical fiction.
• In the D.C. Slave Pen: These scenes are realistic enough with touches of details from the book. Northup was indeed put in a dark cell, beaten with a paddle-shaped piece of wood until it broke, and then whipped with a cat-nine-tails. He was stripped naked before the beating. The slave pen was in sight of the U.S. capital. One of the jailers appeared to try to be nicer, as a ploy. A woman name Eliza, her children and several men were held at the pen with him. What the movie omits for lack of time are the fascinating and touching stories of these people. See Northup pp. 16, 19 – 23 and Assignment #1.
• The Trip to New Orleans: To shorten the narrative, the stop at a slave pen in Richmond is omitted. The facts of the aborted conspiracy are changed. Northup does not report that Eliza was taken to the upper deck for sex with a sailor as implied in the film. Robert dies from smallpox, not from a sailor’s knife; a sailor would not be so quick to kill such a valuable piece of property as shown in the film. Otherwise, the changes in the scene appear reasonable approximations of what could have happened and are true to Northup’s story.
• The Rescue of a Slave: One of the slaves with Northup on the ship Orleans, a man named Arthur, was reclaimed by his master, much to his delight. This scene is based on that report from the book. Northup p. 38.
• New Orleans: These scenes follow Northup’s recounting of what happened to him including: the scenes in which slaves are instructed to wash and are dressed up and offered for sale; the separation of Eliza from her children; Eliza’s protests and crying, Mr. Ford’s slight and ineffectual effort to convince Mr. Freeman (yes, that was the name of the New Orleans slave dealer) to sell him Eliza’s daughter at a reasonable price; and the characterization of Mr. Freeman the slave-trader.
• Arrival at Ford’s Plantation: Mrs. Ford is not reported as saying, “Something to eat and some rest – your children will soon be forgotten.” but this is a fair representation of the attitude of most plantation owners to the miseries of their slaves.
• The song Run Nigger Run: This is a Negro work song and if a white man ever sang it, it would be with the irony used by the character of Tibeats in the film. These scenes are not in the book but they are legitimate poetic license in a work of historical fiction.
• A Slave Work Party meets the Indians: Northup recounts meeting Native Americans who lived in the woods and watching them dance. Northup pp. 54 & 55.
• Northup Successfully Floats Logs Down the Bayou: This is from the book, including Northup’s success, Ford’s admiration, and Tibeat’s opposition and resentment when Northup is successful.
• Ford gives Northup a violin: Actually, it was Epps, at the request of Mrs. Epps. Northup p. 106.
• Northup’s Conversation with Eliza This is not reported in the book but it is a legitimate literary device to explore issues and develop themes. Eliza is still wailing about losing her children. Northup tells her to get over it. Eliza accuses Northup of being no better than prized live stock and laments that she has done dishonorable things to survive which ultimately did her no good. Northup’s position is that survival is everything.
• The Sunday Religious Service at the Ford Plantation: Eliza cries throughout the service. Mrs. Ford comments that she cannot have that depression about the plantation. This scene is not in the book, but again it is consistent with the cold and heartless attitude of the plantation elite toward the miseries that they caused to their slaves.
• Eliza taken away crying “Solomon”: This particular scene is not reported in the book. It is a dramatization of the fact that Northup was helpless to even protest the profound loss that Eliza was forced to endure. Northup reports that Eliza withered away and died of a broken heart. Northup p. 92.
• Flashback of Eliza Talking: Again, not in the book, but again a legitimate device by writers of historical fiction to bring out themes. “When I say I had my master’s favor – you understand – and for 9 years he blessed me with every comfort.” . . . “Such was our life, and the life of this beautiful girl I bore for him. But Master Berry’s daughter . . . she always looked at me with an unkind nature. She hated Emily no matter she and Emily were flesh of flesh. As Master Berry’s health failed, she gained power in the household. Eventually, I was brought to the city on the false pretense of our free papers being executed. If I had known what waited; to be sent south? I swear I would not have come here alive.”
• Fight With Tibeats – Northup Bound and Almost Hung: Northup reports a fight with Tibeats who was unhappy with nails Chapin had given to Northup. Northup thrashed Tibeats. Tibeats fled but returned with two other men. They bound Northup hands and feet and put a noose around his neck, but it was not strung up to a tree as in the movie. The tiptoes business is poetic license. Chapin, with pistols drawn, did chase off Tibeats and the two men, leaving Northup standing in the sun for hours, still bound hands and feet. Chapin sent for Ford who, as shown in the film, came and cut the cords. Solomon spent the night in the main house, guarded by Chapin, not by Ford. Northup pp.70 & 71. These scenes are basically true to the story. However, Northup relates two fights in which he thrashed Tibeats. Northup pp 63 – 72.
• Sale to Epps: At this point in the narrative, the movie skips several incidents in Northup’s career as a slave, including the second fight with Tibeats and Northup being hired out to other plantations to cut sugar cane. It is Tibeats rather than Ford who sells Northup to Epps. Northup pp. 75 – 93. The conversation with Ford in which Northup tries to tell Ford that he is a free man but Ford wouldn’t listen did not occur. Northup never reports trying to tell Ford that he was a free man. While generally complimentary of Ford in the book, Northup never trusted him enough to tell him the truth. This scene, while it didn’t occur, rings true. No matter how good a slaveholder might be, he was still a slaveholder.
• Epps preaching to the Slaves on Sunday “That servant which knew his Lord’s will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes. . . . 150 lashes. That’s scripture.” This is an example of how religion was bent and perverted to support the interests of the slaveholders.
• Scenes in the Fields Picking Cotton: These scenes, some of which are not specifically in the book, are consistent with Northup’s description of life on the Epps plantation. See e.g., Northup pp. 94 – 99, 105. The authenticity of some of these scenes are doubted by Professor Eakin, specifically (1) “It is doubtful that [Patsey] possessed the skill to pick 500 pounds [of cotton per day].” Eakin p. 301, note 127; (2) it is unlikely that slaves were whipped in the fields from morning till night because this would violate the the “Plantation Survival Code” and harm the property of the plantation owner, Eakin pp. 300 – 301, notes 125 & 126; see also Note 112, pp. 295 & 296 for more on the Plantation Survival Code; note however, that Northup states that Epps was, except for one other master, the most violent master on the Bayou Boeuf, p. 108, and the question is not whether this was usual but whether it would be tolerated by other slaveholders; (3) Northup complains of being given a foot-wide board to sleep on with wood blocks for pillows “seems to stretch credulity” according to Professor Eakin because scraps of cotton were always left in the fields and could be used to stuff mattresses and plantation owners would want their slave to get rest. Eakin, Note 130 p. 302. Professor Eakin also notes that no one could live on small portions of corn and pork as described by Northup. Ibid This is correct but in several places Northup states that slaves had access to other food, such as raccoon, possum and fish. (Northup pp. 117 & 118. Professor Eakin attributes these likely errors to Northup’s ghost writer, David Wilson.
• Patsey making dolls and singing to herself: This scene, again not in the book, is to show that Patsey was still just a child in her development despite the fact that she was in her twenties during the years when Northup knew her.
• Epps Making Slaves Dance at Night: This is reported by Northup. Northup p. 107.
• Patsey’s Sexual Abuse by Epps/Jealousy by Mrs. and Mr. Epps:
• Northup also describes the fact that Epps required Patsey to submit to his sexual advances as well as the jealousy of Mrs. Epps and her general persecution of Patsey. He also described the jealousy of Mr. Epps when Patsey went to the Shaw plantation, for what he imagined was sex with Mr. Shaw. The abuse of Patsey shown in the film, including the whippings, the bottle hurled at Patsey, Epps’ refusal to sell Patsey, and Mrs. Epps’ humiliation are all derived from episodes in the book. See pp. 111, 116, 117 and 151 — 154.
• Getting paper: When sent to purchase goods at the store, Northup appropriates a piece of paper on which to write a letter home. This is in the book. Northup p. 136.
• Run-in with a Gang of Patrollers: Called Pattys or Patty Rollers by the slaves. See generally Northup pp. 130 & 131. The hanging by a patrol is not mentioned in the book, however, hangings of slaves planning an insurrection is mentioned.
• Northup Running Away to the Swamp The time when Northup ran away from Tibeats through the swamps is related at pp. 77 — 83.
• Northup is Sent to Retrieve Patsey from her Visit to Mistress Shaw, a Black Woman This scene is not realistic and is a bit of tongue-in-cheek to provide comic relief. However, the scene is not quite as unrealistic as it may at first seem. Plantation owners, with a few limitations, were seen as the lords of their manor and had complete discretion about how the ran their plantations. A few white plantation owners lived openly with their black concubines. On occasion, these men acknowledged their mulatto children, freed them, sent them north to be educated, and left them property. See Eakin Note 115, second paragraph, page 297. However, much more often than not, children of Master/Slave unions were treated as slaves. For an example of the unnatural lack of fatherly feeling of slave owners for their children, see the second anecdote taken from the life of Thaddeus Stevens in TWM’s Lesson Plan on the End of America’s Nightmare Dance With Slavery Using Spielberg’s Lincoln . It is hard to believe that other plantation owners would allow one of their fellow slave owners to install a black woman as the mistress of a plantation as shown in the tea scene in this film.
• Patsey asks Northup to Kill Her: – She says, “I ain’t got no comfort in this life.” He turns his back; she cries. This is apparently based on a misreading of the book at page 111, although with all that Patsey endured, a wish to end it all seems understandable. However, it was Mistress Epps who tried to bribe Northup to murder Patsey.
• The Caterpillars Eating the Cotton and Slaves Being Hired Out This comes from the book at pages 112, et seq.
• Armsby Incident: Northup did ask a white man who was working in the fields to help him, gave the man his savings, and was betrayed. Northup saved himself by lying to Epps, claiming Armsby just wanted to be his overseer, stressing that Northup had no one to write to, etc. Northup then burned the letter to avoid his lie being found out. The film’s rendition is reasonably accurate. Northup pp. 136 – 139.
• Death of a Slave — & “Roll Jordan, Roll”: This is fictional but realistic. Northup begins to sing accepting the fact that he is going to be a slave for a long time, perhaps forever.
• Northup Asks Bass for Help: This is a reasonable approximation of what occurred as reported by Northup. For more on Bass, see pp. 325 & 326.
• Liberation from the Field: This is a reasonable approximation of what occurred. Patsey’s Last Word to Northup “Oh! Platt,” she cried, tears streaming down her face, “you’re goin to be free — you’re goin way off yonder where we’ll neber see ye any more. You’ve saved me a good many whippins, Platt; I’m glad you’re goin’ to be free. — but oh! de Lod, de Lord! What’ll become of me?” Northup p. 187.
• Omitted from the film: No movie of reasonable length can include everything in a book of 200+ pages. Some of the incidents and scenes omitted include

The smallpox outbreak on the boat, Northup’s illness when he contracted smallpox, his stay in the hospital and recovery; Chapters V and VI;

Ford’s financial embarrassment which caused Ford to sell Northup to Tibeats; Chapter VIII;

Northup’s flight from Tibeats through the swamps back to Ford’s plantation; Chapter X;

The New Years celebrations and the few days that slaves didn’t have to work; XV;

The months’ long wait for Bass’ efforts to bring someone down from the North; Chapters XIX and XX;

The careful groundwork laid by Henry Northup to make his rescue of Solomon a success; for example, Henry Northup secured declarations from people who knew Solomon and took them to the governor of New York; as a result, under the authority of a ten-year-old law designed for the retrieval of kidnapped free blacks, Henry secured an appointment as an official agent of the state to reclaim Solomon; he then went to Washington D.C. and convinced a senator from Louisiana to write letters of recommendation to local officials; Northup p. 177; once in Louisiana, Henry hired a highly respected attorney to represent him; Ibid; they secured a court order and the cooperation of the sheriff before going to the Epps plantation. Northup pp. 181 & 182.

Henry Northup’s search for Solomon and the lucky chance that he found Mr. Bass who directed him to Northup’s location; the rush to liberate Northup before word of the rescue effort got to Epps who would have hidden Northup so that he could not be liberated.

USING THE MOVIE IN THE CLASSROOM

Before Showing the Film:

Consider distributing and having students review, TWM’s Movie Worksheet for 12 Years a Slave . Modify the worksheet as appropriate.

Information Helpful to Students:

Relate the following information to students to give them a better understanding of the movie.

The terms “paddy” and “pattyrollers” or “paddy rollers” were names given by slaves to patrols of whites who were paid to be on the lookout for fugitive slaves and to hunt down runaways. Paddy’s were armed and often brutal.

The culture of the people living in what is now the U.S. has been a slave culture or has tolerated slavery from 1619 when the first slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia until 1865. That is a period of 245 years, almost a century longer than the period since slavery has been abolished. Slavery was so intertwined with the culture of the American South that it took the bloodiest war in U.S. history to make it illegal. Even then substantial portions of the slave society survived for another hundred years in Jim Crow laws and customs. The country is still not completely free of the racism that aided and abetted slavery.

Solomon Northup’s book Twelve Years a Slave is one of the most important examples of a genre of American literature called the slave narrative. In fact, African-American literature in the U.S. begins with the slave narrative, most of which were told to white abolitionist ghost writers after slave had escaped from the South. Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave became a best-seller in 1853 and then a major motion picture 160 years later.

Test Your Historical Instincts Exercise:

Tell students the following: (1) It’s time to test your historical instincts. (2) The movie is reasonably historically accurate except for a few scenes. (3) As you watch the film, look for these scenes. After watching the movie, there will be a class discussion in which you may be asked to identify an inaccurate scene or set of scenes.

Note to Teachers: The heart of this exercise is the discussion after the film. Teachers can prepare for this discussion in about five minutes by reviewing the highlighted sections of TWM’s Essay on Historical Accuracy.

As an alternative to class discussion, students can be asked to write a paragraph on a scene or a set of scenes that their instinct tells them are inaccurate and why. The paragraphs will be graded only on the quality of the writing.

After Showing the Movie:

Complete the Test Your Historical Instincts Exercise:

Suggested Responses:

There are three substantial inaccuracies in the film: (a) the set of scenes before the kidnapping showing Northup as a prosperous individual fully accepted by white society; (b) the scene in which a lone sailor comes into the hold of the Orleans to take Eliza up to the deck and then knifes a slave who tries to protect her; and (c) Mistress Shaw giving Patsey tea.

There are no specifically correct answers to the questions about why the filmmakers chose to include these obviously incorrect scenes. A good discussion will raise the following issues.

As to the first scenes of the wealth and acceptance of Solomon Northup, one possible explanation is that the people who made the movie wanted to draw a contrast between the life that free blacks lived in the North and the life they lived as slaves in the South. A second possible reason is that the filmmakers didn’t want to alienate their audience by showing that blacks were discriminated against in the North before the Civil War and did not have equal rights. Another possibility is that the filmmakers wanted generally affluent filmgoers to be able to identify with the character of Solomon Northup. Whatever the reason, the filmmakers vastly underestimated their audience. Scenes showing Northup having a poor and struggling but intact family in New York would have been more accurate historically and also true to the tale told in Northup’s slave narrative. Properly presented, it would still have provided a stark contrast to Northup’s life as a slave in which families were routinely broken up and family values were routinely ignored by most slave masters.

On the trip, the New Orleans the movie shows the slave being stabbed to death by a sailor when the slave tries to protect Eliza from being taken up to the deck, presumably for sex. This scene didn’t occur. A slave did die on board the ship, but he died from smallpox. The historical record was altered and this incident was added because it’s very dramatic for Robert to be murdered while trying to protect Eliza. However, in 1841 a healthy male slave was worth $650 (estimated to be about $18,000 in 2014 dollars using an adaptation of the Consumer Price Index. It is unlikely that a sailor would so quickly kill such a valuable piece of property. In addition, it is unlikely that a sailor would have gone alone into the hold of a ship containing a number of unchained male slaves.

The scenes of the black Mistress Shaw taking tea with Patsey could have been placed in the film to show that there were a very few slaveholders who honored their slave concubines and freed them or their children. The scene is played “tongue-in-cheek” and could have been placed in the film solely for comic relief.

Additional Information for Students

Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, was published in 1852, a year before Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave. The novel was one of the most popular books ever published and historians say that it was an important factor in turning the North against any expansion of slavery into the Western Territories. Twelve Years a Slave was published the next year and confirmed the indictment of slavery contained in Stowe’s novel. The connection between the two books was not lost on the Northern Press. Eakin, pp. 262 – 265.

Twelve Years a Slave was ghostwritten for Northup by David Wilson, a lawyer/author. Wilson wrote the book and had it published in a period of three months. a very short period of time. He was spurred on by attorney Henry Northup, the family friend who went to Louisiana to free Solomon. Attorney Northup “figured that information from the forthcoming book would reach readers who could and would identify the kidnappers. Attorney Northup was correct.” Eakin p. 263 at note 3. While the kidnapers were found and prosecuted, they were not convicted because the proceedings were delayed by appeals and before the case could come to trial, Solomon Northup had disappeared again, this time for good. No one knows what happened to him or how he died.

People are still kidnapped and sold into slavery all over the world. Most current-day slavery in the U.S. is sexual slavery in which girls and young women are forced to be prostitutes.

Grave Suspicions about the Death of Solomon Northup: After he returned to freedom, Northup gave lectures to spur sales of his book, assisted in the Underground Railroad, and addressed abolitionist rallies.

He also pursued the criminal prosecution of the kidnappers who claimed that they hadn’t kidnapped Northup at all, but that it was a scheme that he had participated in to cheat Burch out of the money he paid to the kidnappers. They claimed to have done this before with a free black man from the North. Northup steadfastly denied this charge. Eakin pp. 215 & 216.

The criminal prosecution of the kidnappers ended when, after many years of delays in the Court proceedings, Northup disappeared and the case was dropped. Eakin pp. 210 – 214. Many who knew Solomon Northup believed that he was murdered by his kidnappers or kidnapped again and sold into slavery a second time.

The following is from the ending of Dr. Eakin’s study of Solomon Northup’s life at pages 217 & 217:

John Henry Northup, born in Sandy Hill [New York] in 1822, a nephew of Henry Northup, was well acquainted with both Solomon and Henry Northup. [He would have been 19 at the time of the kidnapping and 31 when Solomon Northup returned to New York.] He wrote his version of the story in 1909 in a letter to his cousin . . . who recounted it:

John Henry Northup said not long after they came home, Henry B. “got a lawyer to hear Sol’s story. Soon by questions he got enough to write a book.” According to John Henry, Solomon Northup: 12 Years in Slavery, written quickly and published in 1853, “created a sensation for it came out a short time after Uncle Tom’s Cabin . . . by Mrs. Stowe. The last I heard of him,” said John Henry in 1909, Sol “was lecturing in Boston to help sell his book . . . All at once said John Henry, “he disappeared . . . We believed that he was kidnapped and taken away or killed or both.”

Additional Curriculum Materials:

Teachers may want to provide students with the following handouts prepared by TWM. (1) The Slave Narrative as Literature and (2) Slavery: A World-Wide View, Then and Now (placing American slavery into a global and historical context). As to the latter TWM has prepared a homework assignment to test comprehension of the materials in the essay.

Turning Students Toward the Written Slave Narratives:

After students have seen the movie, turn their minds back to the written slave narratives by having them read all or a portion of Northup’s Twelve years a Slave (see assignments 1, 3 & 4 below) or by having them read all or a portion or another slave narrative, such as Frederick Douglass’ The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself. Set out below are several excerpts and one abridgment of slave narratives prepared by TWM for shorter student reading assignments.

• Chapters I – III of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself;
• Short excerpt from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself describing Mr. Douglass’ decision to learn to read at whatever cost;
• Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery chapters I – VI describing his experiences as a boy during slavery and just after Emancipation;
• Sojourner Truth’s speech “Ain’t I A Woman?” delivered in 1851 at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio; the link is to a web page setting out the best version of the speech in the vernacular and also a translation to standard English;
• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet Jacobs; (TWM has prepared a six-page handout intended to capture the imagination of students and interest them in reading Ms. Jacobs’ narrative (this document alone will convey many of the lessons contained in Ms. Jacobs’ narrative); for teachers who don’t want to assign the entire book, TWM has abridged this work and cut it to about 1/3rd its original size; see TWM’s Abridged Version of “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself”).

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

After watching the film, teachers can engage the class in a discussion about the movie.

1. Have the class read the following excerpt from pages 48 & 49 of Northup’s book. Then ask the class to evaluate the character of William Ford.

Our master’s name was William Ford. He resided then in the “Great Pine Woods,” in the parish of Avoyelles, situated on the right bank of Red River, in the heart of Louisiana. He is now a Baptist preacher. Throughout the whole parish of Avoyelles, and especially along both shores of Bayou Boeuf, where he is more intimately known, he is accounted by his fellow-citizens as a worthy minister of God. In many northern minds, perhaps, the idea of a man holding his brother man in servitude, and the traffic in human flesh, may seem altogether incompatible with their conceptions of a moral or religious life. From descriptions of such men as Burch and Freeman, and others hereinafter mentioned, they are led to despise and execrate the whole class of slaveholders, indiscriminately. But I was sometime his slave, and had an opportunity of learning well his character and disposition, and it is but simple justice to him when I say, in my opinion, there never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford. The influences and associations that had always surrounded him, blinded him to the inherent wrong at the bottom of the system of Slavery. He never doubted the moral right of one man holding another in subjection. Looking through the same medium with his fathers before him, he saw things in the same light. Brought up under other circumstances and other influences, his notions would undoubtedly have been different. Nevertheless, he was a model master, walking uprightly, according to the light of his understanding, and fortunate was the slave who came to his possession. Were all men such as he, Slavery would be deprived of more than half its bitterness.

Suggested Response:

Make sure that all sides are represented. If there is a consensus in the class for one side or the other, the teacher should make the contrary argument.

2. What factors both within Northup and in his situation allowed him to survive the ordeal of being kidnaped and enslaved?

They include a) Tremendous patience and perseverance. Northup waited years for opportunities to attempt to regain his freedom. During the interim periods, he kept silent about his kidnapping and his right to be free. b) While the kidnapping was very bad luck, there were many instances in which Northup had good luck. These included: (1) encountering Mr. Bass — people like Bass were hard to come by in the South because the Slave Power didn’t generally allow dissent and abolitionists were expelled or lynched; (2) having a friend in the North like Henry Northup who had the capacity and willingness to secure Solomon Northup’s liberation; and (3) the way in which Henry Northup found Bass before Bass left the state. c) The ability to make Epps believe that Armsby was lying about the letter. d) The fact that the U.S. is a nation of laws in which the State of Louisiana would honor an order from the governor of the State of New York which caused a substantial financial loss to a Louisiana citizen.

3. During WWII the Germans established slave labor camps that were strikingly similar to plantations in the Southern U.S. The Germans imprisoned Jews, Poles, Russians, political dissidents and other people, fed them very little, and compelled them to work hard — all without pay. In the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials the U.S. accused some of the managers of those camps with crimes against humanity. This occurred just 80 years after the slaves on the last Southern Plantation were set free. What does this juxtaposition of facts indicate to you?

There is no one correct response. Some good ideas are: (1) Human society has advanced in some important ways or, in other words, the arc of history bends toward justice. (2) Like other nations, unless the U.S. is careful, it can act in ways that are oppressive and wrong. George Washington said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” — this applies to monitoring your own actions as well as to being vigilant to protect your country from others.

4. Describe some of the effects of slavery, as practiced in the American South, on the slave and on the slave owner that are exemplified by the characters in this movie.

The slaves lost their right to be free, to enjoy the fruits of their labor, sometimes to choose their spouses, to keep their families intact and see their children grow up, to choose their profession, and, for the women, to choose their sexual partners. The slave masters may have profited financially but they suffered personally becoming hypocrites (Mr. Ford), becoming callous to the suffering of others (all of the plantation owners and overseers, including the Fords, the Epps, Chapin and Tibbeats) or by becoming a torturer and abuser of their fellow human beings (Epps and Tibbeats).

HUMAN RIGHTS

See Discussion Question #4.

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS (CHARACTER COUNTS)

(Treat others with respect; follow the Golden Rule; Be tolerant of differences; Use good manners, not bad language; Be considerate of the feelings of others; Don’t threaten, hit or hurt anyone; Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements)

See Discussion Questions 1 & 3.

See also Discussion Questions which Explore Ethical Issues Raised by Any Film .

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

Any of the discussion questions can serve as a writing prompt. Additional assignments include:

1. Additional Assignments to Turn Students Toward the Written Slave Narrative

These assignments will require students to read sections of Northup’s book and give reports to the class or write short essays on some of the details in the book that are omitted from the movie. They can also be asked to evaluate whether various scenes accurately reflect what is set out in the book. This assignment will also enhance students’ understanding of the history of slavery. Suggestions for assignments are:

• Describe in your own words the people Solomon met in the various slave pens in which he was confined before being sent to the plantation of John Ford. They include: Eliza and her children, Clemens Ray, John Williams, and a man identified only as Robert. Read Chapters III and IV and page 92 to get the information for this project. [This assignment can be divided and each student can be given one person to describe.]
• Describe in your own words the aborted conspiracy on the boat. Describe how the movie differs from the book in the depiction of this episode. Speculate on why the filmmakers made this change. Read Chapter V to obtain the information for this project.
• Describe in your own words how it came about that Northup sent a letter home. Speculate on why the filmmakers omitted this scene. Read Chapter V to obtain the information for this project.
• Write an essay on whether the movie portrays what really happened at Freeman’s Slave Pen in New Orleans. Read Chapter V to get the information for this project.
• Write an essay on whether the movie portrays what really happened to Patsey. Read pages 96, 109 – 111, 116, 117, & 151 – 154 to get the information for this project.

2. Assignments for Research On Topics Relating to Solomon Northup

• Retrieve and describe documents in the national archive documenting Solomon Northup’s life [Note to Teachers: see The Documents Behind Twelve Years a Slave The National Archives, November 5, 2013];
• Describe the relationship between Solomon Northup’s book and the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin [Note to Teachers: see Eakin pp.262 – 265.];
• Write a report on what happened when Solomon Northup returned to Washington, D.C.; [Note to Teachers: see N.Y. Times Article from January 20, 1853 , and Eakin pp. 198 — 217 .]
• Describe the origin and meaning of the song “Run Nigger, Run”
• Write a short biographical sketch of Henry B. Northup, the attorney who rescued Solomon Northup, and the relationship between the white and the black Northups.[Note to Teachers: see Eakin, note 6, pp. 266 & 267.]
• The relationship of Dr. Sue Eakin with the book and her contribution to the story of Solomon Northup [Note to Teachers: see the first few unnumbered pages of the Enhanced Edition published by Eakin Films & Publishing.]

3. Students can be asked to create a drawing or write a poem about key scenes from the book. Instruct students to read the indicated pages of the book as they begin the assignment.

• The scene in the Washington slave pen when Northup realizes that he had been kidnapped; read Northup chapters II & III;
• The scene when Eliza’s daughter is taken from her in Freeman’s New Orleans slave showroom; read Northup Chapter VI.;
• The whipping of Patsey — read Northup pp. 96, 109 – 111, 116, 117, & 151 – 154;
• The scene when Northup is working in the field and is freed by the sheriff and Henry Northup; read Northup pp. 182 – 187;
• Northup’s reunion with his family, pp. 195 & 196.

4. Write a work of historical fiction, either a screenplay or a short story, describing what happened when Attorney Henry Northup went to Louisiana to free Solomon Northup. You may add or delete scenes but keep your story primarily true to the historical narrative and make it exciting. There is the stuff of drama in this incident!@ Read Northup pp. 168 – 186 to get the information for this project.

5. Research the usual elements of a 19th-century American slave narrative and write an essay describing how the story told by the movie conforms to or departs from those elements.

CCSS ANCHOR STANDARDS

Multimedia:

Anchor Standard #7 for Reading (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). (The three Anchor Standards read: “Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media, including visually and quantitatively as well as in words.”) CCSS pp. 35 & 60. See also Anchor Standard # 2 for ELA Speaking and Listening, CCSS pg. 48.

Anchor Standards #s 1, 2, 7 and 8 for Reading and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 35 & 60.

Anchor Standards #s 1 – 5 and 7- 10 for Writing and related standards (for both ELA classes and for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Classes). CCSS pp. 41 & 63.

Speaking and Listening:

Anchor Standards #s 1 – 3 (for ELA classes). CCSS pg. 48.

Not all assignments reach all Anchor Standards. Teachers are encouraged to review the specific standards to make sure that over the term all standards are met.

BRIDGES TO READING

The book itself is remarkably well written for a work that was pulled together in three months. See the books and materials listed in the Section on Turning Students to the Written Slave Narratives in Helpful Background.

LINKS TO THE INTERNET

• How 12 Years a Slave Gets History Right: By Getting It Wrong by Noah Berlatsky , The Atlantic, Oct. 28 2013.
• Historian at the Movies: 12 Years a Slave reviewed interview of Dr. Emily West in History Extra, January 13, 2014; “I have never seen a film represent slavery so accurately.”
• The Documents Behind Twelve Years a Slave The National Archives, by Stephanie on November 5, 2013; (includes census records and slave manifests);
• DocsTeach activity “Twelve Years a Slave” from the National Archive; (See Teacher Instructions for this activity;
• N.Y. Times Article from January 20, 1853 or another version ;
• Run Nigger Run recorded song and lyrics – The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas
• Run Nigger Run also from the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection;
• Nigger Run , Wikimedia Commons;

Other lesson plans: Text to Text: ‘Twelve Years a Slave,’ and ‘An Escape That Has Long Intrigued Historians’ By Michael Gonchar and Tom Marshall, October 22, 2013

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The works cited in this Learning Guide are the Enhanced Edition of Twelve Years a Slave published by Eakin Films & Publishing, the websites which may be linked in the Guide and the sites listed in the Links to the Internet section.

This Learning Guide was written by James Frieden and first published on July 29, 2014.

LEARNING GUIDE MENU:

Benefits of the Movie Parenting Points Selected Awards & Cast Helpful Background Using the Movie in the Classroom Discussion Questions Social-Emotional Learning Moral-Ethical Emphasis Assignments and Projects CCSS Anchor Standards Bridges to Reading Links to the Internet Bibliography

MOVIE WORKSHEETS:

Citations in this  Learning Guide  are to the Enhanced Edition published by Eakin Films & Publishing. Citations to the slave narrative itself are referred to as “ Northup “. Citations to Professor Eakin’s notes and supplemental materials, beginning on page 198 are referred to as “ Eakin “.

BUILDING VOCABULARY:

Click here for interesting quotes from the film at the Internet Movie Database. The entire script can be found on  Internet Movie Script Database .

Slavery: the Nation’s “Peculiar Institution”:

RANDALL KENNEDY, Professor, Harvard Law School on the two alternative traditions relating to racism in America:

“I say that the best way to address this issue is to address it forthrightly, and straightforwardly, and embrace the complicated history and the complicated presence of America. On the one hand, that’s right, slavery, and segregation, and racism, and white supremacy is deeply entrenched in America. At the same time, there has been a tremendous alternative tradition, a tradition against slavery, a tradition against segregation, a tradition against racism.

I mean, after all in the past 25 years, the United States of America has seen an African-American presence. As we speak, there is an African-American vice president. As we speak, there’s an African- American who is in charge of the Department of Defense. So we have a complicated situation. And I think the best way of addressing our race question is to just be straightforward, and be clear, and embrace the tensions, the contradictions, the complexities of race in American life. I think we need actually a new vocabulary.

So many of the terms we use, we use these terms over and over, starting with racism, structural racism, critical race theory. These words actually have been weaponized. They are vehicles for propaganda. I think we would be better off if we were more concrete, we talked about real problems, and we actually used a language that got us away from these overused terms that actually don’t mean that much.   From Fahreed Zakaria, Global Public Square, CNN, December 26, 2021

Give your students new perspectives on race relations, on the history of the American Revolution, and on the contribution of the Founding Fathers to the cause of representative democracy. Check out TWM’s Guide: TWO CONTRASTING TRADITIONS RELATING TO RACISM IN AMERICA and a Tragic Irony of the American Revolution: the Sacrifice of Freedom for the African-American Slaves on the Altar of Representative Democracy.

A Great Lincoln Saying

Illustrations from the original edition:.

Kidnapping was a very real fear of free blacks in the North.

Very few kidnapped blacks were ever heard from again.

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Mock slave auctions, racist lessons: How US history class often traumatizes, dehumanizes Black students

On Wednesday, an official at a Mississippi middle school apologized after eighth graders were asked to pretend they were enslaved people, including writing letters discussing their "journey to America" and the family they "live with/work for."

During Black History Month, a Florida high school teacher was suspended with pay after allegedly telling students slaves were not whipped by white people and that the N-word, a racist slur, “just means ignorant."

In February 2020, a student-teacher in Tennessee gave her fourth grade students an assignment called "Let's Make a Slave"  about a speech from the 1700s about keeping Black slaves under control.

In 2019, a fifth grade teacher was accused of holding a mock slave auction in which white students bid on Black students in New York.

Such careless assignments and lessons can traumatize students, experts said, and they are just one example of how teachers in the USA have long struggled and failed to teach the complex history of slavery.

"Unfortunately, (slavery is) addressed often in ways that are either marginalizing or it's the only way that Black people ... are brought into the curriculum," said Keffrelyn Brown, a professor of cultural studies in education at the University of Texas-Austin.

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'He did not want to be Black anymore '

In May 2019, teacher Patricia Bailey made Nicole Dayes' son and another Black student stand in front of their class while other students bid on them during a social studies lesson at North Elementary School, according to a lawsuit filed on Dayes' behalf.

The children were told to refer to the winning students as masters and were warned not to try to escape because they would "be chased down and violence would be done to them," according to a report from the New York attorney general's office.

Dayes said her son had to receive counseling after the incident, which the attorney general's office found had a "profoundly negative effect on all students present – especially the African American students."

"He told me that he did not want to be Black anymore," Dayes said. "He didn’t want to go to school because he didn’t know if he could trust the teachers."

More than a year and a half after the incident, Dayes said her son, 12, still worries that he's judged because he's Black when they're out in public and his friendships have been seriously affected. 

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'Not isolated incidents'

Simulations are a useful way to teach parts of history, such as civic education, but using this technique to teach about slavery is ineffective and fails to consider the impact on students, particularly Black students, experts told USA TODAY. 

These kinds of lessons are just one symptom of the systemic problems with how American schools teach – or in some cases fail to teach – about slavery and Black history as a whole. 

Brown said that when teachers ask students to imagine themselves as slaves or slaveowners, they may be attempting to bring history to life to build empathy or give students a more emotional and visceral experience. 

"We can never re-create, nor should we want to re-create, enslavement," she said. "It minimizes the trauma of the history itself."

No groups track how often such incidents happen across the country, but Brown said it's clear these kinds of lessons are being taught at multiple grade levels across the country.

"These are not isolated incidents," she said. 

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Dozens of teachers "proudly" reported that simulations were their favorite lessons when teaching about slavery, according to a report in 2018 titled "Teaching Hard History" from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which surveyed more than 1,700 social studies teachers and analyzed textbooks.

Teachers said they had students simulate the middle passage, the sea journey taken by slave ships from West Africa; others had students clean cotton and role-play as enslaved people and enslavers.

In addition to the problems with simulations, the SPLC report found that the U.S. education system fails to effectively teach about slavery across the board.

Teachers fail to discuss the relationship between white supremacy and slavery, teach about slavery as an exclusively Southern system, focus on the white experience instead of the perspective of enslaved people and rarely make connections between slavery and present-day structural racism, according to the report.

Machayla Randall, a senior at Cherry Hill East High School in New Jersey, said she grew disappointed and uncomfortable after years of learning only about the civil rights movement and slavery in school. She said she was never upset with her teachers but always wanted more from the curriculum.

"The fact that we only discuss (slavery) is kind of dehumanizing for the African American culture," she said. "Especially in the perspective of history textbooks, we’re only seen as tools and people that were utilized."

Brown said teachers struggle with lessons around slavery because they are not properly trained and because the country itself has had a difficult time addressing race and racism. Although some states adhere to common core standards, there is no national standard for teaching slavery, she said.

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Slavery simulations should never be used in the classroom, according to Jalaya Liles Dunn, director of the SPLC project that produced the "Teaching Hard History" report. Instead, primary source documents can offer students more insight into the true experience of slavery, she said. 

She encourages teachers to explain the root causes of the institution of slavery, the connection to political power and how those injustices still impact life.

"We need to be honest and tell the truth," she said. "We can’t romanticize it."

Brown , the University of Texas professor, is cautiously optimistic that more conversations are being had about this topic, but she said she has experienced pushback to talking about racism.

"I’m curious to see how that will play out and whether we will see it to its full fruition or if we will let this moment pass as moments have passed before without really doing the work," she said.

What can parents do if this happens to their child ?

If parents encounter a problematic assignment, Brown said, the first step is to talk to the teacher to better understand the intention of the lesson and what the rest of the curriculum entails.

"That's where you can begin to push for a more expansive and really transformative curriculum experience at the school," she said.

As a parent of two school-age children, Brown said it is important for kids to learn about hard histories, including slavery, at home first and to humanize the experience of people who were enslaved. She emphasized that parents should make sure slavery is not the only time their children learn about Black history in school.

"As an African American parent or parent of Black children, I am interested to know how do Black people and the Black experience play out in the curriculum," she said.

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LaGarrett King, an associate professor of social studies education at the University of Missouri who contributed to the "Teaching Hard History" report, suggested parents look at the assignments their children are given and consider what kind of message or narrative the work presents. He said parents should better educate themselves about the history of slavery and use additional resources to supplement what students may or may not learn in the classroom.

He noted that even when students are taught about slavery in a complex way, it can be difficult for them because "history is psychologically violent." Creating space for students to critically examine the actions of people who have not been historically held accountable is "extremely important."

"Holding white people historically accountable for their actions is extremely important if we’re going to teach slavery in a more humane way and complex way," he said.

Students push for change

Black students demand better Black history lessons in their schools.

Only a few states, including New Jersey , Florida and Illinois,  require public schools to teach Black history, but what exactly is taught is often decided by school districts.

Randall , the New Jersey senior,  and members of her school's African American Culture Club worked with authors and college professors to develop a Black history course, which was approved by the school board. The Cherry Hill School District became the first in New Jersey to require students to take African American history  to graduate Tuesday . 

Inspired by a trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, students at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Early College got the Denver Public Schools Board to unanimously vote to pass their  resolution to ensure the narratives and knowledge of Black, Indigenous, Latino and other communities of color are incorporated into every part of the district’s curriculum.

Students Kaliah Yizar, Dahni Austin, Alana Mitchell and Jenelle Nangah push to make that resolution a reality by including a new textbook, Black History 365 , into the curriculum . Yizar, a sophomore, said focusing only on select civil rights leaders and slavery minimizes the entirety of Black history. 

"When you only teach Black kids about them going through trauma and struggling, they’re going to think they're only going to be able to have trauma and struggle," she said. 

Students at Stanford University launched a campaign called Diversify Our Narrative to get one book by and about a person of color added to the curriculum in every school. The campaign has attracted more than 5,000 student organizers in 850 school districts.

Victoria Gorum, the campaign's director of project management and research, and fellow Stanford sophomore Beth Engeda said they were inspired to join the campaign amid the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement last summer. Engeda, the campaign's director of finance, said she saw information about Black history circulated on social media during the protests and recalled yearning to read books that reflected her own experience in the classroom.

"In school, the only time I would get to read about Black people was in history textbooks ... they wouldn't really talk about anything other than slavery," she said. "I just thought it would be better if schools had these things already incorporated into their curriculum."

Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg

Judge: School’s slavery punishment assignment doesn’t violate rights

A federal judge is siding with the Sun Prairie School District in a lawsuit filed by two Black parents who objected to their children’s middle school assignment that asked students how they would punish a slave in ancient Mesopotamia.

Dazrrea Ervins and Priscilla Jones claimed the Black History Month assignment in February 2021 violated their civil rights as well as those of their children, Zavion Ervins and George Brockman.

The question was not part of the school district’s curriculum on ancient Mesopotamia. Three teachers came up with the assignment on their own, according to an internal investigation. The teachers were placed on administrative leave and later resigned, the  Wisconsin State Journal  reported.

Along with complaints about the assignment, the lawsuit also accused the district of discriminating against Brockman for his learning disability and failing to protect him from racist bullying.

U.S. District Judge James Peterson, in Wisconsin’s Western District, said the parents failed to show evidence that their civil rights or those of their children were violated by the assignment.

“A reasonable jury certainly could find that its content and timing were offensive, insensitive and justifiably upset students and their families,” Peterson wrote. “But a hostile environment claim requires much more than a single upsetting episode.”

The parents didn’t provide evidence that the racism or the district’s inaction had any impact on Brockman’s education, Peterson also said.

With a decision on the case in federal court, complaints that the district violated state law will now go back to Dane County Circuit Court.

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• Our Mission

Engaging Students with History: The Power of Slave Narratives

Middle school students connect with history by writing stories from a slave’s perspective.

Editor's Note: Be sure to check out the checklist, worksheets, and rubric for this project at the end of this article.

In an Oakland, California, classroom papered with learning goals and student work, history teacher Lacy Lefkowitz relinquishes her podium to eighth graders presenting their latest project. After a little nudging from peers, a student named Jessica starts reading, quickly, in the voice of a character she created, a woman who was born in Africa, kidnapped by fellow Africans, and sold into slavery in North America. Jessica's classmates, fidgety at first, become silent as she reads (in historical dialect):

"One day Massa complained he needed more money so he sold my husband and kids then he laughed in my face. I got so mad I spit in his face... I's aint neva got so beaten so bad. Massa James put lemon juice in all my cuts. I cried out so loud in pain for John, Abdul, momma, my kids. I cried out for me!"

A Lesson in Empathy

These students at Claremont Middle School have just completed their slave narrative project, a unit that's been taught at the school by eighth-grade history and English teachers for three years. Students write from the point of view of slaves -- those who were born into slavery in the U.S. or brought on slave ships from Africa. By teaching students about slavery through these narratives, the Claremont teachers engage their students in writing by personalizing the study of slavery.

"The slavery unit requires more historical empathy than any other unit, I think," says project creator and history teacher Matt Smith. "So much of the eighth-grade curriculum revolves around debates about slavery and the onset of the Civil War, and I think it's inappropriate to jump into those discussions without first giving a voice to the people who were injured. Their stories are, to me, really the stories of America."

Lefkowitz finds that students understand history more intimately through this assignment: "Just reading doesn't affect them in the same way. They can read about slaves chained on a slave ship, but when it's their character that they're writing about, they gain historical empathy."

Setting Up the Project

Students do the slave narrative project jointly in both history and English class, and teachers scaffold the assignment . In history class, students choose from two dozen topics to brainstorm , such as the Middle Passage (the longest section of the trans-Atlantic trade triangle), field work, beatings, and biracial children. English teachers take on the bulk of the project from there, helping students complete character sketches and make storyboards to outline their narratives.

After writing multiple versions, students add details and descriptions , and edit each others' first drafts before writing a final narrative. They turn their narratives into attractive books with drawings, which they share with each other. Both the history and English teachers grade the project with a rubric .

Asking Tough Questions

Smith finds that students bring many questions on the topic of slavery: Why are people racist? Why did slave owners choose Africans to enslave? Why does slavery exist? How could it go on in the US for so long? Claremont's student population is predominantly African-American, but Lefkowitz recommends that teachers prepare to address race head-on, no matter their student population.

To complement the slave narratives, Claremont history teachers lead a mini-unit on racism featuring excerpts of writings by Howard Zinn and Winthrop Jordan to move conversations "beyond a second-grade understanding of racism," says Smith. Students learn about American slavery in the textbook and by doing dialectical journals with two films, Ships of Slaves and Unchained Memories .

The Lesson's Impact

In English classes, students read slave narratives from the American Antebellum but also more contemporary periods. "That makes a difference," says English teacher Kathryn Williams. "Students realize this is something that could happen to anyone at any time, not just one point in history."

The project certainly makes an impact on students; more turn in slave narratives than any other project during the year, according to Lefkowitz (close to 75 percent of her students this year turned the narratives in on time). It addresses many state standards, and allows for different types of learners to show what they've learned.

Even though the topic made him sad, an eighth grader named Kevin discovered through this project that he was a writer. "I usually have trouble reading and writing. If the teacher tells me to write an essay, usually I write only half a page," he says. But he wrote a four-page slave narrative. He explained, "The project made me want to write."

Fellow student Nia says of doing this assignment, as an African-American, "I took it so, so seriously." Studying and writing about what slaves did to avoid being killed or separated from their families made a big impression. "I learned what it was like to work in the fields, ten hours a day, with no food, even if you were pregnant," she says. "When they were auctioned, their mouths were opened and they were touched like they were not human, like pieces of meat."

Students don't shy away from events as brutal as rape and murder in their narratives. But those are historical realities, and Nia, for one, thinks other teachers should consider doing this project in their classes. "Children should learn what really happened. They should know."

Lisa Morehouse , a former teacher, is now a public-radio journalist and an education consultant in San Francisco.

The Slave Narrative Project downloads are also available here:

Slavery Book Checklist 72KB

Slavery Book Pre-write 110KB

Character Sketch Template 36KB

Description and Detail Worksheet 77KB

Peer Revision and Editing Worksheet 97KB

Slave Narrative Project Rubric 66KB

Teaching Hard History: Grades 6–12 Bookmarked 72 times

Teaching Hard History resources for middle- and high-school educators include our popular framework, as well as student-facing videos and primary source texts. Educators will also find teaching tools and professional development resources.   

Download the Framework

Tell us how you’ve used the Teaching Hard History resources in your school or district curriculum.

Here are some key elements of the framework and the accompanying resources:

Introduction The team of educators and scholars who worked on this project are passionate about its importance and pleased to share this outline of the components of the framework along with advice for how to use them.

Key Concepts The foundation of the K–5 and 6–12 frameworks, the Key Concepts pinpoint 10 important ideas that all students must understand to truly grasp the historical significance of slavery. Explored through Summary Objectives in grades 6–12 and Essential Knowledge in the elementary grades, the Key Concepts serve as tools educators can use to structure their teaching.

Summary Objectives Each of the 22 “Summary Objectives” provides a broad student learning outcome. The Summary Objectives articulate the content students need to understand and outline additional information to help them get there. These sections also offer additional recommendations for supporting student learning. The Summary Objectives are organized chronologically and divided by era.

Student Texts The Teaching Hard History Text Library features over 100 primary and secondary sources, all with text-dependent questions.

Teaching Tools Browse six sample Inquiry Design Models, based on The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.

Podcast Hosted by Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries, this series brings us the lessons we should have learned in school through the voices of leading scholars and educators.

Online Archives and Databases The online archives and databases listed here are great resources for educators looking to use original historical documents to represent the diverse voices and experiences of enslaved people.

Student Quizzes Use these quizzes as formative assessments and tools to help teach this hard history.

Videos Featuring leading scholars and historians, these short, classroom-ready videos can be used to introduce students to the Key Concepts behind the framework and the undertaught history of Indigenous enslavement in what is now the United States.

Webinars Sign up for an on-demand webinar to explore the Teaching Hard History resources and get ideas for how they can be used in your classroom.

Printable Cards Download and display these cards to let people know you have the courage to teach #HardHistory.

Key Concepts

Select "Watch the Video" for more resources and accompanying videos—providing a deeper dive into each Key Concept to help you bring them effectively into the classroom.

• Slavery, which Europeans practiced before they invaded the Americas, was important to all colonial powers and existed in all North American colonies. Watch the Video
• Slavery and the slave trade were central to the development and growth of the colonial economies and what is now the United States. Watch the Video
• Protections for slavery were embedded in the founding documents; enslavers dominated the federal government, Supreme Court and Senate from 1787 through 1860. Watch the Video
• “Slavery was an institution of power,” designed to create profit for the enslavers and break the will of the enslaved and was a relentless quest for profit abetted by racism.* Watch the Video
• Enslaved people resisted the efforts of their enslavers to reduce them to commodities in both revolutionary and everyday ways. Watch the Video
• The experience of slavery varied depending on time, location, crop, labor performed, size of slaveholding and gender. Watch the Video
• Slavery was the central cause of the Civil War. Watch the Video
• Slavery shaped the fundamental beliefs of Americans about race and whiteness, and white supremacy was both a product and legacy of slavery. Watch the Video
• Enslaved and freed people worked to maintain cultural traditions while building new ones that sustain communities and impact the larger world. Watch the Video
• By knowing how to read and interpret the sources that tell the story of American slavery, we gain insight into some of what enslaving and enslaved Americans aspired to, created, thought and desired. Watch the Video

*Ira Berlin, "Foreword: The Short Course for Bringing Slavery into the Classroom in Ten Not-So-Easy Pieces" in  Understanding and Teaching American Slavery , ed. Bethany Jay and Cynthia Lyerly (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2016), xviii.  

Summary Objectives

Important big ideas and critical content students must know to understand the historical significance of slavery. Click on each Summary Objective to see what students should know and how you can teach it.

Pre-Colonial and Colonial Era (to 1763)

Summary Objective 1 Students will recognize that slavery existed around the world prior to the European invasion of North America, changing forms depending on time and place. The enslaved often were perceived as outsiders: captives in war, the vanquished or colonized, or ethnic or religious others.

Summary Objective 2 Students will describe the nature and extent of colonial enslavement of Indigenous people.

Summary Objective 3 Students will describe the slave trade from Africa to the Americas.

Summary Objective 4 Students will demonstrate the impact of slavery on the development of the French, British and Spanish colonies in North America.

The American Revolution and the Constitution (1763-1787)

Summary Objective 5 Students will describe the roles that slavery, Native nations and African Americans played in the Revolutionary War.

Summary Objective 6 Students will demonstrate the ways that the Constitution provided direct and indirect protection to slavery and imbued enslavers and slave states with increased political power.

Slavery in the Early Republic (1787-1808)

Summary Objective 7 Students will examine how the Revolutionary War affected the institution of slavery in the new nation and the ways that slavery shaped domestic and foreign policy in the early Republic.

The Changing Face of Slavery (1808-1848)

Summary Objective 8 Students will examine how the expanding cotton economy spurred Indian Removal and the domestic slave trade.

Summary Objective 9 Students will describe the principal ways the labor of enslaved people was organized and controlled in what is now the United States.

Summary Objective 10 Students will analyze the growth of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s and the slaveholding states’ view of the movement as a physical, economic and political threat.

Summary Objective 11 Students will recognize that enslaved people resisted slavery in ways that ranged from violence to smaller, everyday means of asserting their humanity and opposing their enslavers.

Summary Objective 12 Students will discuss the nature, persistence and impact of the spiritual beliefs and cultures of enslaved people.

The Sectional Crisis and Civil War (1848-1877)

Summary Objective 13 Students will examine the expansion of slavery as a key factor in the domestic and foreign policy decisions of the United States in the 19th century.

Summary Objective 14 Students will analyze the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln and the subsequent decision that several slave states made to secede from the Union to ensure the preservation and expansion of slavery.

Summary Objective 15 Students will examine how Union policies concerning slavery and African American military service affected the Civil War, and they will describe how free black and enslaved communities affected the Civil War.

Summary Objective 16 Students will examine how Indigenous people participated in and were affected by the Civil War.

Summary Objective 17 Students will recognize that slavery continued in many forms through most of the 19th century in what is now the United States.

Summary Objective 18 Students will examine the ways that people who were enslaved tried to claim their freedom after the Civil War.

Summary Objective 19 Students will examine the ways that the federal government’s policies affected the lives of formerly enslaved people.

Summary Objective 20 Students will examine the ways that white Southerners attempted to define freedom for freed African Americans.

Summary Objective 21 Students will examine the impact of the Compromise of 1877 and the removal of federal troops from the former Confederacy.

Summary Objective 22 Students will examine the ways in which the legacies of slavery, white supremacy and settler colonialism continue to affect life in what is now the United States.

Accompanying Resources

Student Texts

This collection includes more than 100 primary sources selected to support teaching and learning about the Key Concepts and Summary Objectives found in this framework.

Inquiry Design Models

These Inquiry Design Models, based on The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards , offer examples of an inquiry-based approach to teaching the history of American slavery.

Stream these short videos to introduce understudied history, explain critical concepts, and share recovered narratives that can help students better understand the individual and collective impact—and the damaging legacy—of American slavery.

Student Quizzes

Educators looking for a way to broach the topic of slavery in 6-12 classrooms can begin with these short quizzes. All questions are mapped to the Key Concepts found in the framework.

Return to Project Overview

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Mock Auctions. Pretending to Flee Captors. Do Simulations Have a Place in Lessons on Slavery?

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The same education story makes headlines time and again: In search of an engaging or memorable history lesson, a teacher decides to do a slavery simulation.

Just this month, a 5th grade teacher in New York told several black students to play slaves, and pretended to auction them off to their majority-white classmates .

Also this month, a 4th grade teacher in North Carolina had students play a Monopoly-like game about the Underground Railroad . Too many wrong turns, and students would “be severely punished and sent back to the plantation,” according to their worksheets.

Two years ago, teachers at a high school in Cerritos, Calif., bound students’ hands and told them to lie close together on the floor to reenact the forced transport of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic .

Teachers have said that the goal of these activities is to convey the brutality of slavery and foster empathy. But in practice, many educators say, slavery simulations can minimize horrific events, recreate racist power dynamics, and cause emotional hurt to black students.

“You cannot actually replicate this experience. What you’ve basically done is gamify it, and by gamifying it, you’re actually reducing the horror,” said Maureen Costello, the director of Teaching Tolerance , a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Yes, you could work harder to make it more real, then you’re potentially introducing trauma.”

‘Curriculum Violence’

Classroom simulations aren’t just used to teach about slavery. History and social studies teachers often ask students to model different parts of political and civic life: representing different interest groups and coming to a compromise, or debating a law, for example.

These kinds of simulations can be useful tools for civic learning, many say, as they’re open-ended and engage students in decision-making. By contrast, reenacting a historical event “is simply like having kids do a play,” said Costello. If students are following a script, they’re not engaging in historical inquiry, she said. On the other hand, if teachers do give them license to rewrite the past with their choices, she added, they may come away with a misunderstanding of history.

Slavery simulations are among the less common types of classroom reenactments, but some say they have the potential to be the most harmful.

Stephanie P. Jones, an assistant professor of education at Grinnell College in Iowa, has tracked those that have made the news or drawn attention on social media. Through her project, Mapping Racial Trauma in Schools, she’s counted about 30 separate incidents of what she calls “curriculum violence” from the beginning of 2018 to now.

These classroom activities include simulations of slave auctions, the Middle Passage, and the Underground Railroad, but also assignments that dehumanize black people—like those that ask students to list reasons why African Americans made “good slaves.” Jones said she sees spikes in February and early March, when teachers are likely looking for Black History Month lessons. She noted, though, that not every incident makes the news.

When slavery simulations do receive press attention, school officials often condemn them, saying the activities are not aligned with the district’s values.

But simulation activities are also easily available on the web. The online marketplace Teachers Pay Teachers , which allows educators to upload and sell original lesson plans, lists a handful of plans that ask students to take on the identities of enslaved people, and “experience” capture, traveling the Middle Passage, being sold at auction, or escaping via the Underground Railroad. The board game that the teacher in North Carolina used was purchased through the site, local news station WECT reported.

Emotion as Learning Tool

Some educators argue that eliciting intense emotions from students, which simulations are generally designed to do, can be a starting point for inquiry. The idea isn’t new.

In 1968, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated, Iowa teacher Jane Elliott created a stratified society in her elementary school classroom, in an attempt to demonstrate the kind of discrimination that King had devoted his life to fighting. In the now-famous exercise , Elliott, who is white, divided her all-white class into two groups—blue eyes and brown eyes—and gave preferential treatment to brown-eyed children all day. The next day, she reversed the simulation.

Elliott wanted students to understand what racism felt like, to see that it was based on socially constructed differences. She hoped to change their behavior as a result. In the years since, educational institutions and businesses around the world have invited Elliott to run diversity trainings. But research on the effects of the blue eyes/brown eyes exercise is mixed. Only some studies have found long-term effects in reducing bias ; others have shown that the activity causes stress and anxiety .

About the Citizen Z Project

U.S. public education is rooted in the belief by early American leaders that the most important knowledge to impart to young people is what it means to be a citizen. If America is experiencing a civic crisis now, as many say it is, schools may well be failing at that job. To better understand the role of education in the current crisis, Education Week consulted experts, visited classrooms, and conducted surveys. This article is part of that ongoing effort. Look for more pieces from our Citizen Z project in the months ahead.

In the context of a history classroom, some educators say that kind of role-playing can make oppression in the past feel more real to today’s students. The late John A. Stokes, a civil rights activist who was also a teacher and principal in Baltimore, used to conduct a simulation of a segregated bus ride in the Jim Crow South with K-12 students. Stokes, who grew up in Virginia in the 1940s and 50s, helped lead a student strike for better conditions in his segregated high school and was one of the plaintiffs in Brown v. Board of Education . The simulation he designed “presents students with some of the actual facts and conditions that are part of our nation’s history” and gives them an opportunity to discuss what this history means to them today, he wrote in a 2010 article in Social Education , the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies.

But anti-bias simulations differ in an important way from slavery reenactments, said Jones. An exercise like Elliott’s can expose the structural foundations of racism and demonstrate how bias can lead to prejudice, and prejudice can lead to discrimination. But in a slavery simulation, “the objective is not for students to understand bias and discrimination. They want students to understand the psychological trauma of slavery,” said Jones. “I’m not sure if that is a teachable goal.”

But other educators think that there is a way to do slavery simulations well. Karen McKinney, an associate professor of biblical studies at Bethel University, a Christian college in St. Paul, Minn., has long practiced experiential learning in her college courses. In her dissertation, she studied several simulations that gave high school and college students the opportunity to be alternately powerful and powerless, with the goal of helping students and teachers understand oppression and systemic racism.

One of these activities was an outdoor simulation of escape on the Underground Railroad that took high schoolers through a three-mile course in the woods. The activity, held at a YMCA camp, was attended by a group of students of color and run by a black facilitator.

In a debrief after the exercise, some black students who had participated reported feeling fear and strongly disliking parts of the experience, including when facilitators had pretended to sell members of the group at a slave auction, McKinney wrote in her dissertation. But these students also said they felt like they had a better understanding of black history after the simulation. Experiencing some small part of what enslaved people went through conveyed to black students “you are important, you have a voice, you have a story,” said McKinney.

White educators can also lead simulations that deal with racism, said McKinney, but it’s necessary that any facilitator undergo training beforehand and work to understand how their own privilege would operate in the space. Even still, she accepts that students may have intense reactions to simulations, including tears. “It’s OK for people to be in emotional pain, if we can talk about it,” said McKinney.

‘The History Is Painful’

LaGarrett King, an associate professor at the University of Missouri’s college of education, agrees that educators and students are going to have to navigate discomfort to learn about slavery.

“The history is painful, people feel uncomfortable, there’s no way around it,” said King, who is the founding director of the university’s CARTER Center for K-12 Black History Education.

But when black children are asked to play-act as slaves, that violence disproportionately affects them in a way that reproduces historical oppression, said King. He opposes the use of slavery simulations, which he says are “about continuing to reinscribe pain on black people and black bodies.” Even though white teachers aren’t trying to hurt their black students, said King, simulations of slavery can be traumatic.

Often these exercises can mimic the power dynamics of slavery, said Jones, such as in the incident in New York, where a high school teacher pretended to “auction off” black students to their white peers. In a simulation like that, “What exactly do teachers want? What is the objective?” Jones asked.

Above all, there’s agreement that educators need to approach slavery simulations with caution.

“Teaching controversy is what we do in social studies,” said Lawrence Paska, the executive director of NCSS. The organization doesn’t take a position on simulations, but Paska said these exercises around sensitive topics like slavery can pose unique challenges. “How do you do a simulation in a way that’s authentic, that’s not in any way derogatory or minimizes historical perspective, or in any way marginalizes the experience of the individuals or the groups that are being portrayed?” he said.

Teachers Need Slavery Education, Too

Many say educators need more guidance on how to teach slavery. At the elementary school level, especially, teachers are often reading or math specialists, and don’t have specialized training or content knowledge in social studies, said Costello of Teaching Tolerance. These teachers also generally have a lot of flexibility in how they approach the social studies curriculum.

”For many teachers, they’re looking for something that will engage kids and be fun,” she said.

But Jones, the Grinnell professor, thinks putting an end to slavery simulations will require more than better resources and more professional development.

“Teaching this [history] in a real way means that teachers are going to have to talk about complicity—that they have benefited from this system that they’re trying to reenact in their classrooms,” said Jones, noting that most teachers in the United States are white women.

Often, teachers present slavery in passive terms, said King: Bad things happened to enslaved people; violence was done to them. This framing erases the fact that white Americans were the perpetrators of this violence.

Simulations can rob lessons on slavery of that context, said LaKeshia Myers, a Democratic member of the Wisconsin State Assembly, and a former middle and high school social studies and special education teacher.

When she taught the subject, Myers explained to students that slavery was also an economic mechanism—that America was built on the exploitation of black people. “That portion is sometimes lost,” said Myers.

For teachers looking to convey the trauma and pain of slavery, educators say there are far better ways than asking students to imagine the experience.

For instance, Costello said, teachers can introduce primary sources around slavery, such as the Lost Friends messages , which were personal ads placed by freed slaves seeking lost loved ones after the Civil War.

Even dramatized versions of first-person accounts can have a strong impact on students. Myers used to show her middle schoolers parts of the movie “Roots,” an experience she said gave them a deeper understanding of slavery than reading the textbook.

Patrice Preston Grimes, an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, recommends field trips. For several years, she has taken her preservice teachers to James Madison’s Montpelier estate. They spend hours immersed in the history of the enslaved people and their descendants who once lived there, examining primary source documents and walking through the buildings where they slept.

“That was far more effective than me trying to do some sort of simulation in the classroom,” she said.

A version of this article appeared in the April 10, 2019 edition of Education Week as Experts Warn Against History Lessons That Simulate Slavery

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• Lesson Plans
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Twelve Years a Slave : Analyzing Slave Narratives

Engraving of Solomon Northup "in his plantation suit," circa 1853.

Wikimedia Commons

"Although often dismissed as mere antislavery propaganda, the widespread consumption of slave narratives in the nineteenth-century U.S. and Great Britain and their continuing prominence today testify to the power of these texts to provoke reflection and debate." —William L. Andrews, Professor of English, University of North Carolina

Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued in 1853 (to be referred to as Twelve Years a Slave ) is the focus of this lesson on analyzing messages in slave narratives. In this unique literary tradition, formerly enslaved men and women report what they experienced and witnessed during their enslavement. Slave narratives had a mission: to convert readers’ hearts and minds to the antislavery cause by revealing how slavery undermined and perverted the principal institutions upon which America was founded: representative democracy, Protestant Christianity, capitalism, and marriage and the family.

The corrupting influence of slavery on marriage and the family is a predominant theme in Northup’s narrative. In this lesson, students are asked to identify and analyze narrative passages that provide evidence for how slavery undermined and perverted marriage and the family. They will be challenged to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences using their prior knowledge, including knowledge of narratives’ antislavery mission.

Northup collaborated with a white ghostwriter, David Wilson . Students will read the preface and identify and analyze statements Wilson makes to prove the narrative is true. Students are encouraged to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences about Wilson’s purposes for writing the preface.

Guiding Questions

What does Solomon Northup’s narrative reveal about the relation between slavery and social institutions such as marriage and the family?

Why are slave narratives’ authenticity and truthfulness questioned?

What do slave narratives reveal about how history is recorded in the United States?

Learning Objectives

Describe the slave narrative tradition and evaluate its purpose.

Analyze how the relationships Northup describes explicitly illustrate or imply how slavery corrupted the social institutions of marriage and the family.

Analyze statements the ghostwriter makes to prove the narrative’s truth and infer why he made the statements.

Lesson Plan Details

Of the institutions that define the American identity, these come to mind:

• In the political sphere, Representative Democracy
• In the religious sphere, Protestant Christianity
• In the economic sphere, Capitalism
• In the social sphere, Marriage.

The fifth institution, however, may not be as readily apparent:

• Human Bondage or Chattel Slavery

Why? The institution of slavery threatened the nation’s dedication to each of the four other key institutions in our history.

More than any other literary form, the American slave narrative dramatized how slavery corrupted America’s greatest institutions and thereby threatened to destroy the very social, economic, religious, and political bedrock upon which the country was founded. Twelve Years a Slave , in particular, supports the antislavery argument that the institution of slavery undermined and perverted the institutions of marriage and the family.

Solomon Northup was a free black man who was kidnapped from his home in the North and sold into slavery in the South. His steadfast love for his wife and children fortified him to endure slavery and to devise a means to be rescued. Northup’s commitment to his family stands in stark contrast to behaviors he witnessed among slave owners. He saw them desecrate their marriage vows; he saw the natural bonds between enslaved parents and their children sundered for slaveholders’ profit; he saw enslaved women’s lives devastated by their owners’ sexual exploitation; and he witnessed the jealousy and violence of slave owners’ legal wives toward the enslaved women their husbands had extra-marital relationships with and often fathered enslaved children by.

Northup’s narrative is unique because most slave narratives were written by individuals who were born into slavery and escaped to freedom. Northup was a kidnap victim, not a fugitive. Moreover, his was a rarity among slave narratives because it was authored by a white ghostwriter, David Wilson. Wilson took the facts Northup provided him and rendered them into an “as told to the writer” narrative. Because Wilson penned the narrative credibility issues have been raised; however, scholars agree that Twelve Years a Slave is historically accurate and verifiable regarding Northup’s life before, during, and after his enslavement.

In the summer of 1853, Twelve Years a Slave was published in Auburn and Buffalo, New York, as well as in London, England. By 1856 it had sold 30,000 copies, a sales record rivaling that of Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative in its first five years of publication. In the fall of 2013, weeks after 12 Years a Slave, a major motion picture based on the narrative, was released to great acclaim, the narrative was on the New York Times Best Seller List. Its renewed popularity as a book and a film underscores how America’s greatest human tragedy, chattel slavery and the legacy of racism and discrimination, remain compelling themes for the American people.

For a framework for teaching this material, review the PDF/PowerPoint Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave , and Analyzing Slave Narratives . This presentation draws from the  Biography of Solomon Northup   and the longer resource essay, “ Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave , and the Slave Narrative Tradition ."

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.6-8.8. Distinguish among fact, opinion, and reasoned judgment in a text.

• Power Point : Solomon Northup and  Twelve Years a Slave: How to Analyze Slave Narratives
• Solomon Northup’s  Twelve Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition
• Biography of Solomon Northup
• Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses Her Children
• Analyzing the Text: Answer Sheet: Eliza
• Analyzing the Text: The Soul Murder of Patsey
• Analyzing the Text: Answer Sheet: Patsey
• Editor’s Preface
• Editor’s Preface: Responses for Discussion
• Editor’s Preface: Assessment
• Editor’s Preface: Assessment Answer Sheet
• Final Quiz Assessment
• Final Quiz Assessment: Answer Key

Note to Teachers: The complete text of Twelve Years a Slave can be found at the EDSITEment-reviewed digital archive Documenting the American South . First, read the " Introduction to the North American Slave Narrative ,” also on the site. In addition to readings excerpted for analysis activities below, the important readings are:

• pp. 17–27 (Chapter I)
• pp. 35–39 (drinking in Washington, D.C., discovering himself in chains)
• pp. 75–80 (arrival at the New Orleans slave market)
• pp. 89–99 (Ford and Northup’s early successes as a slave)
• pp. 105–117 (a fight with Tibeats and aftermath)
• pp. 162–163 (introduction to Epps)
• pp. 180–185 (life under Epps); pp.188–189 (Patsey)
• pp. 223–227 (Northup as slave driver)
• pp. 230–235 (foiled in writing a letter)
• pp. 312–318 (frustration with the case against Burch)
• pp. 319–321 (Northup family reunion)

These comprise 65 pages of the 336-page narrative.

View the brief trailer from 12 Years a Slave (2013) Link to film trailer here . An earlier, NEH-funded film based on Northup’s narrative and directed by Gordon Parks,  Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984) is also worthy of note. By being familiar with both, you can decide which one to use with your students.

Activity 1. Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses Her Children

• Ask students: What is a slave narrative? Reinforce the correct answers and redefine.
• Show the short video trailer for 12 Years a Slave . Inquire about students’ prior knowledge: “Who has read Solomon Northup’s slave narrative?” or “Who has seen the movie 12 Years a Slave directed by Stephen McQueen or Solomon Northup’s Odyssey directed by Gordon Parks?” In the discussion make sure students understand the narrative’s storyline. (Time permitting, have students read as homework before the lesson the 65 pages in the narrative listed under Preparation and Resources.)
• Using “ Power Point : Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave , and Analyzing Slave Narratives ” which draws from the Biography and Background sections of this lesson and from the essay: " Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition" give students a short (1–15 minute) background for the lesson.
• Divide the class into pairs and distribute “ Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses Her Children .” Ask each pair to read and determine at least four ways the excerpt illustrates or implies how slavery undermined and perverted the institutions of marriage and the family.
• Challenge pairs to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences from their prior knowledge, especially 1) knowledge of slave narratives’ antislavery mission; and 2) knowledge of principles and tenets undergirding the institutions of marriage and the family. Stress that responses must be substantiated by evidence from the text.
• Review how to approach analysis of the text excerpt with the class. Let each student read silently and highlight relevant text. After reading the whole excerpt, have the pairs review their highlighted segments together. Ask “reading between the lines” probing questions to help them make inferences (see: page 4 of “ Analyzing the Text: Eliza Loses her Children. ”). Then respond by identifying four examples representing corruption of marriage and the family by the institution of slavery
• Ask several pairs of students to stand and present their responses to “Analyzing the Text Eliza Loses Her Children” and also to share other observations or inferences they made. Lead a discussion with the whole class referring to “ Analyzing the Text: Answer Sheet ."

Note to Teacher: The following excerpt, a graphic description of slave whipping, may not be suitable for all students. We recommend that teachers review carefully before assigning.

• Distribute “ Analyzing the Text: The Soul Murder of Patsey .” Advise students that the excerpt contains emotionally disturbing and graphically violent content.
• Inform students that they are to work independently to identify and analyze the text that conveys how slavery undermined and perverted the institutions of marriage and the family. Advise that they will need to go beyond the literal meaning of the text and to make inferences using their prior knowledge, especially their knowledge of slave narratives’ antislavery mission.

Activity 2. Editor's Preface

• Steps 1–4 are the same as for Activity 1
• Distribute the PDF, Editor’s Preface and have a student read this to the whole class. Ask students independently to underline the statements in the Editor’s Preface in which the editor is trying to convince the reader of the truthfulness of the narrative.
• Using the PDF, Activity 2. Editor’s Preface: Responses for Discussion , lead a discussion about the statements identified. Reinforce learning objective 3.
• Distribute the PDF, Activity 2. Editor’s Preface: Assessment . In this exercise, students will identify statements which are intended to convince the reader that the narrative is true.
• To assess student work, see the PDF, Activity 2. Editor’s Preface: Assessment Answer Sheet to Editor’s Preface.

In the event that teachers have implemented both Activity 1 and Activity 2, the quiz will enable them to assess student accomplishment of the learning outcomes for both activities. Distribute the quiz . Ask students to complete it.

• Students write a paper comparing and contrasting Northup’s narrative to that of Frederick Douglass and/or Harriet Jacobs or another individual, using the appropriate sections of William L. Andrews’s essay “Solomon Northup’s 12 Years a Slave and the Slave Narrative Tradition ” as one of the reference documents.
• Students review and summarize contemporaneous newspaper articles about Northup’s efforts to obtain justice. Direct students to the EDSITEment Closer Reading blog entry " Searching for Solomon Northup in Chronicling America " for helpful suggestions about how to search in Chronicling America's database of historic digital newspapers. 
• Students compare and contrast interpretations of Solomon Northrup’s narrative in the two films: Solomon Northup’s Odyssey (1984), directed by Gordon Parks and 12 Years a Slave (2013), directed by Stephen McQueen. Remind them to be sure to indicate where the film(s) were faithful to the narrative and where they were not, and. using prior knowledge and reason, analyze why they think these departures from the Northup’s slave narrative may have been made.

Materials & Media

“twelve years a slave”: activity 1. analyzing the text: eliza loses her children, “twelve years a slave”: activity 1. analyzing the text: the soul murder of patsey, “twelve years a slave”: activity 1.1. analyzing the text: answer sheet: eliza, “twelve years a slave”: activity 1.2. analyzing the text: answer sheet: patsey, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface answer sheet, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface: assessment, “twelve years a slave”: activity 2. editor's preface: responses for discussion, “twelve years a slave”: final assessment quiz, “twelve years a slave”: final quiz answer key, related on edsitement, harriet jacobs and elizabeth keckly: the material and emotional realities of childhood in slavery, slavery and the american founding: the "inconsistency not to be excused", frederick douglass's, “what to the slave is the fourth of july”, lesson 2: from courage to freedom: slavery's dehumanizing effects, twelve years a slave : was the case of solomon northup exceptional, harriet tubman and the underground railroad.

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Students should learn about slavery, but through the eyes of slaves, not owners | Plazas

The williamson county schools homework on assigning slaves a list of expectations was ill-conceived, but it can be a teachable moment to do better..

• David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee.

In the spring of 1849, B.M. Barnes, the sheriff of Davidson County, placed daily ads in the Republican Banner and Nashville Whig newspaper about an upcoming sale.

"By virtue of the power vested in me by law, I will sell to the highest bidder for cash at the courthouse door in the city of Nashville, on the 2nd day of 1849, a negro man, calling himself BOB BISICKS, about 48 years old, of yellow complexion, committed to the jail of Daviddson (sic) county on the 2nd day of May 1848, as a runaway slave."

This was the Antebellum era, the period before the American Civil War (1861-1865), when race-based slavery of black people was legal in many states across the union, and throughout the South. 

The ad provided no other information about Bob Bisicks, including where he lived, about his family or why he ran away. The one-sided narrative was about property for resale, but the untold story revealed the American institution of slavery's cruelty, brutality and dehumanization. 

Tennessee students are supposed to learn about slavery, but how?

One hundred seventy years later, on Dec. 7, 2018, a historical marker was placed in downtown Nashville at the corner of Fourth Avenue North and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (formerly Charlotte Avenue), where Bisicks and many other men, women and children were sold and resold.

In February, a pair of Williamson County teachers assigned eighth-grade students at Sunset Middle School in Brentwood  homework about the slave codes that read: "Your family owns slaves. Create a list of expectations for your family's slaves."

After that assignment became public because of a social media post by the brother of a Sunset Middle student, Williamson Schools Director Mike Looney apologized as did teachers Susan Hooper and Kim Best, who acknowledged the homework was "inappropriate" and "insensitive." ( The teachers have since resigned ).

The Tennessee Department of Education's Social Studies Standards includes slavery as part of the curriculum for fourth -, fifth - and eighth-graders , so students are supposed to learn about it. 

The Sunset Middle School assignment, however, raises the questions: How are teachers teaching the standards, and are they fundamentally prepared to do so? 

Learotha Williams Jr., a Tennessee State University professor of Civil War history and African-American studies, who led the effort to place the historical marker in downtown, expressed his disappointment at the homework assignment.

"It demonstrated to me that we are really not training our teachers on how to teach this subject," Williams said. 

"When we discuss slavery, it always seems to center on the slave masters. Any discussion of slavery needs to begin and end arguably with those that were enslaved.

"Slavery was something that existed as a result of brute force, violence, fear, terror. They weren't there by choice; they were there by force," he said.

The narrative around slavery must not be one-sided

The Sunset Middle homework assignment revealed a fundamental flaw in understanding what slavery actually was and how slaves endured their enslavement.

Today, we might think a "list of expectations" is like the grocery list clients might assign to a Shipt shopper. In the times of slavery, however, these were orders for people who were forced to comply or face punishment. No wonder Bob Bisicks wanted to escape.

While many historical places are starting to include slaves in the narrative — be it Andrew Jackson's Hermitage or the Belle Meade Plantation , for example — the main emphasis is still on the families who lived in the house and benefited from the labor of their slaves.

Last year the Belle Meade Plantation launched a Journey to Jubilee tour. It is an alternative tour to the one that begins at the front door. It takes visitors through back and side entrances and staircases and helps them understand what life was like for slaves.

I took both the standard and Jubilee tour in September and can attest that the stories are fundamentally different. It is difficult to understand the success of the plantation and its horse breeding business without comprehending the role of slaves in caring for the steeds and taking care of the house and serving the family members.

'Symptomatic of a larger problem'

In 2017, Eleanor Fleming, a Williamson County native and Battle Ground Academy alum, wrote a letter to the editor in The Tennessean  calling on preserving Fort Negley, the largest union fort outside Washington, D.C.

Her ancestors Ruffin Bright and Egbert Bright were slaves who were among the labor force that build the fort.

On Tuesday, we spoke about the Sunset Middle assignment.

"I couldn't imagine any teacher thinking this assignment was appropriate," said Fleming, now a Washington, D.C., resident. "But as I thought about it, that happened in Williamson County. I'm not surprised.

"A Confederate statue stands in the public square (of Franklin). A public school mascot ( Franklin High School ) is the Rebels. There's a sense of alternative history. There's a sense that the Confederate rendering is somehow correct. When we find what Franklin and Williamson County uphold, it wasn't as shocking to me.

"I don't think this was a one-off," Fleming added. "I think it's symptomatic of a larger problem that I hope someone will have the foresight to do something about and to remedy."

Williams and Fleming say they think there are ways school districts can learn from the Sunset Middle incident and improve the way history is taught. Among them:

• Tell the story from multiple perspectives
• Study narratives from the viewpoint of slaves, especially black women (Fleming suggests the works of poet Phillis Wheatley or essayist Maria Stewart )
• Work with local organizations like the A frican American Heritage Society of Williamson County 
• Read runaway slave ads from the 19th century in local newspapers as source material to help understand the context 
• Visit locations that help tell the story, like the downtown Nashville historical marker or Fort Negley
• Advocate to school officials that classrooms should offer a fuller picture of history 

As the United States deals with issues including blackface, Confederate monuments and how we talk about racism, it is important to put things in their proper context and face a painful history so we may continue to heal and inch closer to forming a more perfect union .

This can be teachable moment for all of us.

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at  [email protected]  or tweet to him at  @davidplazas . Subscribe and support local journalism .

Master and slave assignments

For a contact on SimScale, you always have a master and a slave assignment. During the calculation, the nodes of the slave surfaces are restricted in their movement by the deformation of the master surface.

1..There are some general rules that help you to decide which of the contact faces or sets to choose as master and which to choose as slave entities. Choose as slave entities, face(s) that are

• considerably smaller than their counter part.
• strongly curved compared to the other part of the contact pair.
• not as stiff as the other part, especially if the other part is even rigid.
• that have a considerably finer mesh than their counter part.

2…Simulation time for the physical contacts mainly depends on the size of the slave surfaces and almost negligibly on the size if the master surfaces (this means number of nodes). Assigning large surfaces to slave means that the simulation will require more memory or time to solve the contact. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to assign small surfaces to slave or otherwise partition the surfaces.

3…Each face can only be a contact slave once (more accurately: each node can only be in a contact slave once). On the other hand, a surface can be a master in multiple contacts.

4…In a contact analysis with friction one should assume that the simulation time will increase by at least 2 times. If you have a lot of iterations, changing the contact algorithm might also bring speed improvements, usually Lagrangian contact with the full newton method is the fastest, but you should note that stability is not as good as Penalty with the fixed point algorithm.

Nice post @AnnaFless ! Taking it further, I made a small animation showing how to assign master and slave surfaces. The animation shows the assignment in case of physical contacts but same procedure can be followed for the other available contact types.

Best Regards,

A post was split to a new topic: 2nd order elements and frictional contact

regarding master and slave entities.should master have 0 degrees of freedom ?

Hi @Omer , if you are referring to the case where one contact part is completely rigid - then yes, the master should be chosen to be on the rigid part.

Best, Richard

Federal judge sides with Wisconsin middle school where teachers asked students how they would 'punish' a slave

• A judge dismissed a suit over a Wisconsin middle school's assignment about how to "punish" a slave.
• Two parents sued the district last year, saying the assignment violated their kids' civil rights.
• Public outcry over the incident ultimately led three teachers to resign. 

A federal judge this month dismissed a lawsuit brought by two Black parents over a Wisconsin middle school assignment that asked students how they would "punish" a slave in ancient Mesopotamia.

The sixth-grade homework question at Patrick Marsh Middle School prompted outrage last year when it was administered to students on the first day of Black History Month. 

"A slave stands before you. This slave has disrespected his master by telling him, 'You are not my master!' How will you punish this slave?'" the assignment read. 

The assignment said the answer was "According to Hammurabi's Code: put to death."

The question was not part of the school district's approved curriculum on ancient Mesopotamia and the three teachers who created the assignment were put on administrative leave amid an internal investigation. All three educators later resigned, according to The Wisconsin State Journal .

Two parents subsequently filed a lawsuit against the Sun Prairie School District in June 2021. Dazrrea Ervins and Priscilla Jones alleged the assignment violated their civil rights, as well as those of their children — one of whom was in the class where the question was administered.

The lawsuit also accused the district of discriminating against one of the children over his learning disability and said the school had failed to protect the boy from racism. 

Related stories

But US District Judge James Peterson this month sided with the school district, saying Ervins and Jones failed to provide evidence that the assignment had violated their civil rights or their children's, according to court documents obtained by Insider.

"A reasonable jury certainly could find that its content and timing were offensive, insensitive and justifiably upset students and their families," Peterson wrote of the incident. "But a hostile environment claim requires much more than a single upsetting episode."

The suit had also alleged that the district kept the child with a learning disability away from his classmates in a separate room on three different occasions, and said other children regularly called the child racial slurs. Peterson wrote in his final decision that the student's accounts of racism and bullying were "disturbing," and acknowledged that the district did not "effectively protect" the boy. 

But Peterson still ruled in favor of the district, saying the district had not treated the children differently because of their race. The plaintiffs, he wrote, did not prove that the allegations of racism or the district's response had impacted the children's education.  

"The assignment might have had a different effect on [the plaintiffs] than it did on White students, but [they] were not treated differently from their classmates," the judge wrote.

An attorney for the parents told Insider that while the families are disappointed in the judge's ruling, they are "encouraged" by the national awareness and community engagement stemming from the story.

"We vehemently disagree with any notion that the education of the students involved were not severely disturbed by the egregiousness of such conduct and further recognize that a single incident resulting in a mental health crisis can produce a dire consequence," attorney B'Ivory LaMarr said in a statement.

"History has long taught that federal standards to ensure civil protections for minorities, has historically been long behind the necessary standard to maintain decency and order, in a modern world," LaMarr added. "No student, regardless of color, should be victimized by curriculum violence and the same should not have to occur repeatedly to be actionable.  We will continue to monitor the district's responses to known acts of racism, and not hasten to challenge such acts or inaction  should the appropriate safeguards not be implemented in the future."

A spokesperson for the school district did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

Watch: Surveillance video shows Uvalde shooter stroll into school and inaction from police

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Teacher on leave for ‘pretend you are a slave’ assignment

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A high school teacher in Iowa has been placed on leave for assigning students to “pretend you are a black slave.”

The Iowa City Press-Citizen reported that the assignment for an Iowa City school district online learning program for students assigned to different schools asked students to write four sentences about what they would do if they were a slave who was freed.

“Think very, very carefully about what your life would be like as a slave in 1865,” the assignment reads. “You can’t read or write and you have never been off the plantation you work on. What would you do when you hear the news you are free? What factors would play into the decision you make?”

The teacher, whose name was not released, was placed on administrative leave and the assignment was removed, Iowa City Community School District spokeswoman Kristin Pedersen said. A statement from the district called the assignment “inappropriate” and said it “does not support and will not tolerate this type of instruction.”

Dibny Gamez said her 14-year-old daughter, Ayesha, could not complete the assignment because it made her feel uncomfortable. Ayesha is among a small number of Black students in the class.

“She just starts tearing up,” Gamez said. “And I was, like, ‘No, listen, you don’t have to be ashamed of who you are.’ I said, ‘You are beautiful for who you are. Don’t let not one soul make you uncomfortable for who you are.’”

Assignments asking students to role-play enslaved people or slave owners trivialize or distort the actual events of slavery, said Justin Grinage, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota who focuses his research on race and education.

“The best-case scenario with lessons like this is that students come away with a fabricated lie about history. So, best-case scenario, they don’t really learn anything, or they learn the wrong thing,” Grinage said. “Worst-case scenario is that it’s a deeply traumatic experience for students of color, particularly Black students.”

This story has been corrected to note the assignment was made in an online learning program, not a specific school.

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Iowa City teacher on administrative leave over 'pretend you are a black slave' assignment

Editor's note: This story has been edited to make clear that the teacher who's been placed on leave was working with the district's Online Learning Program this fall and was working with students from buildings across the district, including those at Liberty High.

The Iowa City school district has placed a teacher on leave after she assigned students to "pretend you are a black slave."

The assignment asked students to write four sentences using proper grammar and punctuation about what they would do if they were freed:

"Think very, very carefully about what your life would be like as a slave in 1865," the assignment reads. "You can't read or write and you have never been off the plantation you work on. What would you do when you hear the news you are free? What factors would play into the decision you make?"

Dibny Gamez said that her 14-year-old daughter, Ayesha, who would've attended Liberty High School this year if not for the pandemic, couldn't bring herself to complete the assignment earlier this week in her 9th-grade class with the district's Online Learning Program.

"She's, like, 'Mom, that makes me so uncomfortable.' She just starts tearing up," Gamez said. "And I was, like, 'No, listen, you don't have to be ashamed of who you are.' I said, 'You are beautiful for who you are. Don't let not one soul make you uncomfortable for who you are.' "

Gamez says there are plenty of other ways to teach children about history that don't ask them to recall that their families were once enslaved.

"The way it is in 2020 right now, when it comes to race, you have to be very careful of what you can say and not say," Gamez said.

The assignment has been removed and the teacher, who, as part of the district's online learning program, works with students from multiple school buildings, has been placed on administrative leave, Iowa City Community School District spokesperson Kristin Pedersen said. The assignment was inappropriate, according to a statement from the district, and the district "does not support and will not tolerate this type of instruction."

The situation is being reviewed using the district's internal HR processes, and the district would not provide any additional information. The teacher involved did not reply to a request for comment from the Iowa City Press-Citizen, and the school's principal also declined to comment.

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Royceann Porter, a member of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and president of the Black Voices Project, contacted the district superintendent about the assignment, which, she said, has no place in a classroom.

"With everything that's going on in the world right now, (the teacher) would have been better saying 'Pretend that you were an astronaut.' "

Porter has taken students on civil rights tours to sites around the South, which includes putting students into reflection groups. But never, once, would someone ask a student to imagine they were a slave, she said.

"All the things that you feel while you are there, you have no time to imagine — because you're literally in tears knowing somebody went through that."

Gamez says her daughter has always been a 4.0 student. She's a normal teenager — a "Tik Tok teenager" — who nonetheless has felt singled out and discriminated against for her race repeatedly while in school.

Students of color make up between 31% and 35% of the student body at Liberty High School, according to the district's 2018-19 enrollment report . Ayesha was one of only a handful of African-American students in the class that received the "pretend you are a slave" assignment, her mom says.

Gamez, who is Hispanic, experienced racism in the Iowa City school district growing up, like being called racial slurs on the bus. Now, she feels like she has to protect her daughter from discrimination similar to what she experienced.

"I can handle it — I've got the tough skin for me to handle it," Gamez said. "But their minds are starting to open ... they're really experimenting, they're starting to look at the world, like, 'Oh, what, wait — I have to act this way?'"

The district has laid out a multi-year plan to address inequities in the K-12 education system, acknowledging problems with disproportionate discipline against students of color and opportunity gaps between them and their white peers, according to its 2019-2022 Comprehensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Plan. 

One of the district's goals is to attract and retain diverse, culturally proficient teachers, administrators and staff and ensure they use "culturally responsive and equity-informed practices," according to the diversity plan.

As of 2018 district statistics, 89.6% of faculty and staff across the district were white — vastly out of sync with the district's student population, which that year was comprised of 41.6% students of color.

In the 2018-19 school year, 19.9% of the district's students self-identified as Black and 11.8% as Hispanic. The "total minority" population of the district's more than 14,000 students was listed as 43.4%.

The percentage of teachers of color has grown in recent years, but still remains disproportionate compared with the student population.

In the 2014-15 school year, teachers of color made up just 4.33% of the district's teaching staff. In the 2017-18 school year, that number had risen to just 6%.

Assignments that ask students to role-play enslaved people or slave owners are not uncommon — they're referred to as "slavery simulations," and are assignments that either trivialize or distort the actual events of slavery, Justin Grinage, a professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Minnesota who focuses his research on race and education, told the Press-Citizen.

"The best-case scenario with lessons like this is that students come away with a fabricated lie about history. So, best-case scenario, they don't really learn anything, or they learn the wrong thing," Grinage said. "Worst-case scenario is that it's a deeply traumatic experience for students of color, particularly Black students."

Last year, students in Tennessee were asked to imagine they were slave owners ; in Austin, Texas, seventh-graders were asked to draw themselves as slaves . This summer, the University of Iowa redesigned an assignment asking students to imagine they were a slave or a slave owner, according to reporting by the Gazette .

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Many students are afraid to report the assignments — especially younger students, who may not understand the gravity of what is happening, Grinage said. Similarly, some students may fear that the people they report to don't believe that systemic racism is real in the first place.

"I'm sure there's a lot of examples that never hit the public and just take place in classrooms and never get reported as such," he said.

The 1619 Project by the New York Times  and the work of the Southern Poverty Law Center have played a role in shedding light on slavery simulation assignments, Grinage said, but they are still common in schools across the country.

Gamez said she and her family have not received an apology for the assignment, despite her attempts to explain why how it made Ayesha feel.

"I just want (the teacher) to apologize," Gamez said. "I want her to, you know, be like 'Hey, I don't I didn't mean for your child to feel that way.'"

Cleo Krejci covers education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. You can reach her at  [email protected]  or on Twitter via  @_CleoKrejci . 

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Utah school district says it will revise project where students were assigned to be fictional slaves and plantation owners

Centennial middle school in provo faced pushback from parents..

Students in an eighth grade class in Provo were randomly assigned to be slaves and slave masters for a project about the Civil War. And when they finished, they were supposed to “reach their own conclusions regarding the issues.”

The assignment out of Centennial Middle School came last month and was scrapped after pushback from several parents with students of color in the class.

One father asked that his Black kid be given another assignment. He was instead told by the teacher that she would make sure the student got the North side of the war instead of the South.

When more raised concerns, those who declined to participate were given a packet and a book to read: “Across Five Aprils,” written by a white author about a white family’s experiences during the Civil War.

“It’s troubling on so many fronts,” said Adrienne Andrews, the chief diversity officer at Weber State University.

The Salt Lake Tribune received a copy of the assignment from a parent, who was sent an email with the instructions on March 23. The parent asked not to be identified for fear that their kid in the class may face repercussions. They have been involved with a group calling on Provo City School District to drop the assignment.

District spokesman Caleb Price said administrators have been “working with parents to resolve the issues.”

“There was some miscommunication, misunderstanding involved with it,” he said. “The assignment was never asking students to become a slave. It wasn’t a role-playing thing. It was a research assignment.”

Parents with kids in the class said that’s not what was asked of the students in completing the assignment. They said students were told to take on their fictional identities and make arguments for them, including some in support of slave masters.

Price said the school is going to adjust the project for next year. He did not say how; as that is currently being determined.

The email about the assignment says that students will be “involved in a project which investigates the impact of the Civil War on different occupations and individuals.”

It continues, “Each student will randomly be assigned a fictional person to follow in determining how their life would have been impacted during these significant events.”

The list of people includes at the top: “enslaved,” “freedman,” “escaped from slavery” and “plantation owner.”

(Screenshot) Pictured is the email that teachers at Centennial Middle School sent out about a Civil War assignment.

There are also a few spots for farmers and factory workers. Girls in the class were limited to the roles of slaves, nurses or women pretending to be male soldiers. Boys could also be factory owners, soldiers and officers, as well as slave masters.

The email notes, “Students will be encouraged, after class discussions and independent inquiry, to reach their own conclusions regarding the issues.” Anyone who is “uncomfortable with their assigned person” was told to contact their teacher “for an adjustment.”

Price said that is where the alternative assignment came in with the book, “Across Five Aprils.”

“It is a very common book regarding this time period,” he said. “It’s not like the teacher sought out the white perspective on it. But this is an area where we can find books and articles that are more diverse. Going forward, that is something the district recognizes we can work to improve.”

Andrews, who is currently completing a doctorate in education, culture and society and whose job at Weber State includes improving education in the state by focusing on inclusivity, said the project is not the best way to teach about the Civil War.

“These sorts of assignments are not acceptable,” she said. “There are other ways to teach the Civil War and American history that do not require us to put people into these experiences that could be harmful mentally, emotionally and even physically.”

Students, she added, should not be asked to reenact power differentials, especially any that reinforce negative ideas about a person’s immutable characteristics, such as skin color. That can be particularly damaging for any student in the classroom that is part of a marginalized community.

Andrews noted that for some taking on that identity for an assignment may be temporary. But, as a Black woman, she said, or for Black students in the classroom: “We don’t get to leave that. It never ends. These are our bodies when we go home.”

She urges everyone — especially those within the district — not to brush off the assignment by saying that wasn’t the intent. Even if that’s the case, there was still a painful impact that should have been considered.

She said that Provo City School District should look at providing access to counselors and psychologists, especially from communities of color, to talk to students who were hurt by the assignment, help them heal and move forward. Price said the district has more social workers than any other district in the state and have access to that.

The district and others in the state should also reexamine any assignments that may cause harm, Andrews said, and seek to really understand and listen when students say they don’t feel safe.

The project comes shortly after another school in Utah — Maria Montessori Academy in North Ogden — originally allowed parents to opt their students out of learning about Black History Month. The charter later reversed its decision after a public outcry.

Andrews said assignments and waivers like those continue to pop up in the state and need to be called out and addressed each time.

Students need to learn — in age-appropriate ways — about the complexity of race as part of the founding of America, she added, including ways the country is and isn’t different today. That should be done with humanity, though, and by teachers who are trained in cultural competency.

“We need to use this as a teachable moment,” Andrews said. “People need to be paying more attention and taking more intention as they develop these classroom exercises. We need to be using these things as teaching tools that empower and do not disenfranchise or oppress or exclude our students.”

For one thing, she recommends that Centennial Middle School not assign students to any identities from the Civil War moving forward.

She also says that they should focus on real persons, particularly the accounts of slaves, instead of fiction. There are some written narratives from slaves that could be studied at length to talk about their experiences — including the fact that having those accounts is rare because many were oppressed by not being taught to read or write.

“We don’t need someone to pretend to be a slave or a slave master,” she said. “Why are we not leveraging that primary historical documentation to teach the history? I think that that transforms our understanding of slavery in the United States from an abstract idea to a lived reality. It was a lived experience.”

Andrews also noted there should be no debating whether that was right or wrong.

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School apologizes for assignment asking 5th grader to 'pretend to be a white slave master'

by Baylee Wojcik/WJAC staff

SOMERSET COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — Two Somerset County parents say they were surprised to find what they say is an "alarming assignment" brought home by their fifth-grade daughter last week.

Conemaugh Township elementary parents Shannon and Kenneth Poole say their daughter brought home an assignment last week instructing students to “pretend to be a white master looking to buy a slave.”

“On Thursday morning, we got an assignment in our daughter’s schoolwork folder, and it was basically a colored in worksheet that was titled ‘auctions, winnings to the highest bidder.’ And it was an assignment wherein the fifth graders were supposed to portray slave masters and identify what qualifications they wanted in their slave,” the father said.

The Pooles say the assignment asked the students to draw and describe the living quarters, as well as various scenarios that would occur on a plantation. They say their daughter lost points when she wrote that she would “treat the slaves nicely.”

“I don’t think that we should be teaching our fifth graders or putting them in the frame of mind of what it’s like to own another human being or what qualifications hypothetically you would want in them. And I question the educational value of the assignment because if we’re asking our students to pretend to be slave masters or anything like that, why are we giving them points off if they said they’d treat a slave with empathy? That seems to suggest that there’s a certain type of response that’s correct or incorrect.”

The Pooles say they contacted the teacher and principal, but they say that school officials were initially unwilling to remove the assignment or apologize. In response, the couple says they took to social media, and their Reddit post currently has over one thousand comments.

“The consensus is just overwhelmingly that this was inappropriate. And I think the point in doing so wasn’t to condemn the institution or reprimand any teachers or anything like that, it was just to bring awareness to the fact. And when we tried to bring that through the proper channels, it sort of fell flat. And again, it’s our hope that this will bring awareness to the issue and correct these so that there aren’t other little children going through this.”

In a statement to 6 news, the superintendent of Conemaugh Township school district says the assignment was intended to help students to comprehend slavery, but a different approach should have been taken.

The assignment has been eliminated from the class and the district deeply apologizes to all who were offended by the assignment. The matter is, otherwise, being handled internally and measures are being taken to ensure that an unfortunate event like this does not happen again.

“It’s important to advocate for your children. I mean, at 10, they might not identify a problem but then they’re growing up and they’re going to see this thing and wonder and think ‘oh my God.’ And why didn’t your parents speak up for you. As parents we have an obligation to represent our children and to help them and make sure they are okay," the father added.

The couple says they are relieved to hear that the assignment has been removed from the class, and they hope other schools can learn from this.

What to watch over Fourth of July to forget about today’s politics

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Not that the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were flawless people, produced perfect documents or uniformly followed their own best propositions, yet I have no doubt that they would look with alarm upon what’s come of their hopeful handiwork, a politics where rules are for suckers and freedom’s just another word for messing with someone else’s liberty. Years from now, when historians come to speak of this time — and they will — they will not be kind.

Fortunately, we have television to distract us from this darkness, as long as we don’t turn on the news. TV has long looked at the American Revolution and various founding figures, in ways satirical, thoughtful and completely without historical merit — but generally with a degree of optimism. With the Fourth of July upon us once again, I have assembled a brief, entirely personal guide to relevant small-screen viewing, old, new and red, white and blue.

The internet will be your portal for much of what follows.

Entertainment & Arts

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My first thought in approaching this assignment was to wonder whether Jean Shepherd’s delightful “The Great American Fourth of July and Other Disasters” (YouTube) was living anywhere on the internet — and happily it is . A production of the still-missed public television series “American Playhouse,” it arrived in 1982, the year before the film of Shepherd’s “A Christmas Story,” with Ralph, now a teenager, played by a young Matt Dillon. (There are passing references to the movie — shooting one’s eye out, winning a lamp.) At the center of the story is the Old Man’s (James Broderick) fireworks obsession, but there‘s also a sack race, potato salad, a chain letter for washrags and a bad blind date. Shepherd narrates, naturally.

With an epic tone applied to ordinary small town affairs — not to mention, two brothers in an eccentric family — Shepherd’s youthful reminiscences remind me of “The Adventures of Pete & Pete,” the ’90s Nickelodeon series shot like a Hal Hartley film. In the Season 2 episode “Grounded for Life” (YouTube), Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli), the show’s angry troublemaker, finds himself confined by his father to the house after destroying the lawn, and faced with the prospect of missing the Fourth of July, he determines to tunnel out of the house. Like George Washington in respect to his father’s cherry tree, forgiveness will follow.

The cherry tree story is arguably the first thing a child learns about this period, and it’s no surprise to find it retold by the Muppets of “Sesame Street.” “What is that he’s carrying?” roving reporter Kermit the Frog asks George’s father. “That is his little hatchet,” the father replies. “How I wish we’d given him that wagon instead … it’s like that all the time — chop, chop, chop, truth, truth, truth, chop, chop, chop, truth — I’m getting old before my time, frog.”) In another segment , Kermit reports on colonists who have mistaken the Boston Tea Party for a “T” Party, dumping turnips and tamales into the harbor. (“That’s the kind of spirit that will make this country great,” one tells a little girl who has volunteered her toboggan. “I guess so,” she indifferently replies.)

‘The Bear’ moves like music, and Season 3 is beautifully arranged

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June 27, 2024

In 1987, the show offered a three-part “miniseries … telling the story of how the United States was born, more or less.” In “Thomas Jefferson Needs a Quill,” “humble colonist” Grover attempts to help Jefferson, who has broken his quill, finish the Declaration of Independence, bringing in a drill and a chicken named Phil. He’s back in “Crossing the Delaware”; believing Washington’s plan to surprise the British to be a surprise party, he’s brought balloons, streamers and noisemakers. And a host of Muppets, including Bert as Jefferson and Ernie as John Adams, assemble to choose the national bird, “who gets to have his picture on our new coins and stamps and other neat things like government letters.” The kicker is perfect.

Benjamin Franklin’s jolly persona adapts well to gentle comedy. In the 1966 “Bewitched” two-parter, “My Friend Ben” and “Samantha for the Defense” (Tubi), he’s accidentally summoned to the 20th century by dotty Aunt Clara (Marion Lorne). Along with crashing a fire truck and attempting to pay an old library fine, Franklin (Fredd Wayne) delivers words to live by (I can’t determine whether they’re Franklin’s own or that of writer James S. Henerson, but they’ve got the right tang): “I believe that a man’s wisdom, if he have any, should be left to future generations to measure against their own circumstances; if a man lives beyond his time and attempts to impose his notions upon new generations, he puts himself in very grave danger of losing any claim to wisdom at all.” As true in 2024 as it was in 1966 and 1776.

A bumbling Franklin features in the 1953 Disney short “Ben and Me” (not available on Disney+, foolishly, but up on YouTube), based on Robert Lawson’s children’s book about a church mouse responsible for most of Franklin’s inventions and successes, with Sterling Holloway as the mouse, Charlie Ruggles as Franklin and Hans Conried as a panicked Thomas Jefferson. Stan Freberg, the voice of the mouse tour guide who frames the story, played a similarly credit-taking Franklin in “Discovery of Electricity” (YouTube), a track not originally included on his 1961 LP “Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America,” in which a neighbor boy (June Foray) conducts the famous experiment. (“Quick, hand me the kite — here comes the press.”)

Semi-historical Ben, in the unlikely form of Michael Douglas, can be found in the recent, melodramatic “Franklin ” from Apple TV+, which will keep you running to the internet — or books, should you still have them — to winnow truth from jacked-up fiction. A more likely Franklin is played by an appropriately subtle Tom Wilkinson in HBO’s 2008 astute miniseries “John Adams , ” which scored Emmys for Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti as Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams.

If you prefer your Franklin straight, go straight to Ken Burns’ excellent 2022 “Benjamin Franklin” (PBS.com), a four-hour tour of his life from Boston to Philadelphia to London to Boston to Paris to London. Here is where the question of slave-owning founders of American liberty will be looked at unflinchingly, if not without context. So it is with Burns’ 1997 “Thomas Jefferson” (PBS.com), which examines the paradox, as an embodiment of American tragedy, of the man who wrote, “All men are created equal [and] endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” yet owned a whole lot of slaves.

After the scholars, comedians are perhaps the most likely to take up the question of slavery among the founding fathers. “Saturday Night Live” (Peacock, NBC.com, YouTube) has gone there at least a few times. In a 2017 “Weekend Update,” former anchors Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers return as Washington and Jefferson to defend themselves, poorly, from being compared to Robert E. Lee as slaveholders. In the 2023 sketch “Washington’s Dream,” in which guest host Nate Bargatze, as Washington, foresees a day when we will be able to “choose our own systems of weights and measures,” Kenan Thompson’s Black soldier asks, “In this new country what plans are there for men of color such as I?” “Distance will be measured in feet, yards and miles,” replies Washington, ignoring the question. “And the slaves, sir, what of them?” “You asked about the temperature.”

And in the 2002 sketch “Thomas Jefferson Meets Sally Hemings,” guest host Robert De Niro as Jefferson comes on to Hemings (Maya Rudolph), his newly inherited slave. “If it were up to me there would be no slavery,” says Hemings. “I mean, I wrote the Declaration of Independence, so that tells you where my head’s at … I’d like to take you out for corn cakes sometime,” Jefferson responds. Hemings: “All right.” Jefferson: “What time do you get off work?” Hemings: “Um, never.”

In the enjoyable ‘Franklin,’ Michael Douglas plays a flirtatious founding father

In this Apple TV+ limited series, Michael Douglas stars as Benjamin Franklin during his sojourn in France, where he negotiated the peace treaty between Britain and the U.S.

April 11, 2024

With its hip, hot, multi-genre score, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” introduced a generation of young Americans to the subtleties of 18th-century tax policy. Disney+ offers both the film of the stage show and a sing-along version, which adds subtitles and a bouncing ball — many will, of course, not need the prompt. Miranda can also be found relating the Hamilton story in a Season 4 extra-long episode of “Drunk History” (Paramount+, YouTube), with Alia Shawkat as Hamilton and Aubrey Plaza as Aaron Burr, mouthing Miranda’s words — just how you always imagined it.

To my mind, no series has served its subject better than “Drunk History,” which has the rare virtue of being both terribly funny and accurate as to the facts — or at least to one or another accepted version thereof. The Comedy Central series, which interprets better and lesser-known past events through a filter of extreme inebriation, puts an uncensored, unpretentious vernacular spin on history, somehow bringing it alive in an especially convincing way; it visited the Revolutionary War several times, including episodes on the Delaware River crossing and Benedict Arnold. Some might find the drunk element, at times to the point of sickness, troubling — but it’s a free country, to paraphrase wise old Franklin, if we can keep it.

More to Read

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July 2, 2024

Photos: Where to celebrate Fourth of July in Southern California

June 30, 2024

Editorial: Juneteenth isn’t a holiday just for Black people. Everyone should celebrate freedom

June 18, 2024

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