To be a SlaveJulius Lester

John Ramillano5th Period

Word Sentence CorrectDictionaryDefinition

Halter Which was tied like a halter round the neck of each;

A rope or strap used for leading or tying an animal.

Caparisoned But the men of whom I was the stoutest and strongest, were very differently caparisoned.

Clothed in finery (especially a horse in ornamental trappings).

Verdure And covered with a rich ranked verdure.

The lush greenness of flourishing vegetation.

Capacious Sufficiently capacious to contain ten or twelve hooves.

Capable of containing a great deal.

Scanty And with the exception of a very scanty sprinkling now and then.

Barely sufficient or adequate.

Conte

xt

Clu

es

The author wrote this book to

inform and explain readers more about slavery and the lives of slaves. The author’s intended audience are students and teachers alike.

Text Purpose

The text structure the author used

for this book is mostly 1st but with a little bit of 3rd person. It affects the way I read the book by understanding more of the main character’s thoughts and feelings.

Text Structure

1)Africans

captured by

Dutch

2)

Journey

to

America

as

captives

on ship

3) Arrive

to America

4) Sold as

slaves at

auctions

Text Representation(Timeline how Africans became

slaves)

Subject Author’s

FeelingsText Evidence

To be a Slave The author’s feelings about this subject is that he thinks it is wrong. He is against slavery and if he was there he would protest.

To be a slave was to be a human being under conditions in which humanity has denied. They were not slaves. They were people. Their conditions was slavery.Pg. 28

Author’s Perspective/Point of View

Paragraphs Main Idea

Beginning-Page#40 A slave master owned a woman who had 7 children. He would break her heart by selling each of her children. When her 4th baby was born she couldn’t bear letting it go and killed her baby.

Middle-Page#69 Slaves worked everyday nonstop from the time the stars began to fade in the morning until the evening where they reappeared . Each day was similar as the previous one.

End-Page#136 Slave owners moved to Texas with their slaves when it seemed the South might lose the war. By moving they hoped that it’ll let them have their slaves a little longer.

Main

Id

ea

Details Page# Comments

“ stay up all night long “

37 Gives additional info about how long they stayed up.

“ in a buggy “ 42 Tells where and what to go to. If it had been omitted we wouldn’t have known it was a buggy.

“ six children “ 48 We wouldn’t have known how many children there were if detail was absent.

Supporting Details

What the Book Says Conclusions Drawn

Situation: Foreman slaps a slave for drinking at the dipper too long.

Character Actions: Slave slams foreman in the head with a shovel and runs.

He will do that in the future but will eventually get caught and be severely punished.

Situation: Master keeps selling slave’s babies, mother kills 4th not want to let it go.

Character Feelings: Heart broken doesn’t want babies to suffer

She will do the same for the rest of her babies.

Draw Inferences

Compare-Contrast

Title: To be a Slave

1. Book

2. Quotes and stories from real slaves

3. During slavery

4. Biographies

5. Mostly explains how slavery started

Title: AOW: How Slavery Really Ended in America

1. Article

2. No quotes/stories

3. End of slavery

4. Not a biography

5. Mostly explains about how slavery ended

Both:

1. History of slavery

2.Civil War

3. Abraham Lincoln

4. Ends of slavery

5. Emancipation Proclamation

Facts Page# Comments

A Dutch ship landed twenty Africans at Jamestown colony in 1619

16 To show how and when slavery started in Jamestown

The African slave trade was over 100 yrs. old

16 How old and how long the slave trade has been going

Portugal introduced Africans to Europe in the early 16 century

16 How the trade was passed on from place to place

Africans accompanied Spanish explorers on their journey to the New World

17 Africans were a part of the New World long before the Mayflower and the settling of Jamestown

Slave trade extended to England and Spain and other colonies in the New World

17 To show where the slave trade extended to

Fact

s

Opinions Page# Comments

Slaves were pictured as little more than dumb, brute animals

29 How others saw slaves as

Ugly disfiguring scars 33 To state his sister’s opinion

Pretty girl, really good looking

51 Included info to show how the girl looked like

I was the stoutest and strongest

54 To show how he differ from the others

Of rich rank verdure 58 To give more detail about the place

Opinions

Pg. 29- I can relate to this paragraph about

the slave hitting the foreman with a shovel. If I was slapped because of drinking from a dipper too long I wouldn’t just do nothing too. I’ve also wondered what would of happened if he didn’t hit the foreman. Pg. 30- I disliked this paragraph. It says what the white folks would do to the slaves. Beat, burn, boil, work them and do other things they wanted to do with them. How can people live like this. I wonder why they even did it?! Pg. 137/138- I liked this paragraph because it is true. No matter how you treat something it just wants to be free. You can treat it good and give it everything it wants-but if you open its cage-its happy. Why couldn’t slaves just be free?

Reading Response