The Struggle from The Struggle from Enslavement to FreedomEnslavement to Freedom
Resources for Teaching the Resources for Teaching the African American Experience in African American Experience in
Social StudiesSocial Studies
Instructional TopicsInstructional Topics
African Enslavement in Historical African Enslavement in Historical PerspectivePerspective– African CultureAfrican Culture– Migration: Atlantic Slave Trade & Middle Migration: Atlantic Slave Trade & Middle
PassagePassage– Africans in New York (colonial/post colonial)Africans in New York (colonial/post colonial)– Life in EnslavementLife in Enslavement– ResistanceResistance– AbolitionAbolition
African CultureAfrican Culture
Discuss colonial trade routes and their impact on societies (African, European, North American)
Examples:– Origins of Enslaved Africans Shipped to North America – History of Slavery in Africa– Triangular Trade– New York's role in slave trade/importation– Data on slave trade (Slave exports)
Sources: In-Motion: The African American Migration Experience (Schomburg) The African Slave Trade (Metropolitan Museum of Art) NY Digital Gallery (NYPL) Cross Roads and Cross Rivers: Early People of NY (Hudson Valley)
The fabrication of iron tools and weapons allowed for the kind of extensive systematized agriculture, efficient hunting, and successful warfare necessary to sustain large urban centers.
Source: The Age of Iron in West Africa | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Period Number of Enslaved Africans Identified
Per Cent
1450-1600 409,000 3.6
1601-1700 1,348,000 11.9
1701-1800 6,090,000 53.8
1801-1867 3,466,000 30.6
Total Known Population
11,313,000
Source: Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.)
http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/database/search.faces
RIGHTS OF MANRIGHTS OF MAN
VISIT TO A SLAVE SHIP.Onn^outheni voyage of trading anddiscovery, Capt Beioj, Morrell, Jr. visiteda slave ship off the coast of Africa. Weextract the account as a fair specimen ofhis valuabln narrative, lately published bythe enterprising Messrs. Harpers.* * * # » *If the reader has ever been on board ofa Hudson River market sloop, , loadedwith calves and sheep for the city slaughterhouses, he may form some faint ideaoi'tliis Brazilian shiv- brigi A '"•i!;« <•(pens, or bins, occupied each side of themain deck, from the cat-head to the mainchains, in which were confined such anumber of the slaves as were permited tocome upon deck at one time. In a linewith the mam hatchway, on each side,wa9 erected a bulkhead, or partition, separatingthe men from the women ; while anarrow passage remained open lo thegangway, abaft the sternmost pen, or befiveenthat and the quarter deck.The slaves, pi rfectly naked, were stowedin rows, fore and aft, ia a siting orcrouching posture; and most of the menand their faces between their knees, eitherindulging in a……
Describe the culture and lives of the African slaves in Colonial America
especially in New York
Examples: From Ancient Africa and the Atlantic to life in colonies/states Food, clothing, shelter, roles as workers, recreation, education Newspaper ads, wills, bills of sale, laws Memoirs, Poems, Narratives: Phillis Wheatly, Jupiter Hammon; excerpts of narratives from Austin Steward, Jermaine Loguen,
Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, others Sources:
– Documenting the American South: N. American Slave Narratives– New York Heritage (search “slavery New York” and “runaway slaves”)– Cross Roads and Cross Rivers: Early NY Inhabitants (various cultures)– Slavery in New York (NYHS) (compares Dutch, British, American)– Slavery in the North (NY) (Northern and NY slavery distinct from South)– US Historical Census Browser– SI: Slave Life and the Underground Railroad lesson with song “Gone, Sold & with song “Gone, Sold &
Gone” from Gone” from Many Roads to Freedom– Slavery in Genesee County, New York (Genesee Co. Dept. of History)
Alphabetical List of North American Slave Narratives
The Liberty Minstrel. Gone, Dead and Gone (1844)
Gone, gone—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings,
Where the noisome insect stings,
Where the fever demon strews
Poison with the falling dews,
Where the sickly sunbeams glare
Through the hot and misty air,
Gone, gone—sold and gone,
To the rice-swamp dank and lone,
From Virginia's hills and waters,
Woe is me my stolen daughters!
Its enslaved Africans built whatever New Amsterdam needed. •A wall and a fort to protect against native peoples and rival English colonies. •A dock to receive cargoes from the Hudson Valley and from overseas. •Roads into the interior of bountiful Manhattan Island. Eventually the Africans won "half-freedom." They still had to pay an annual tax and could be called back to work for the Dutch West India Company. But they had their own homes and the chance to create one of the first free black communities in North America.
Individual Classroom Materials for Teachers: Teacher Guide - Download PDF
Buried Stories: Lessons from the African Burial Ground - Download PDF White New Yorkers in Slave Times - Download PDF Laws Affecting Blacks in Manhattan - Download PDF
Fact Sheet - Download PDF Glossary - Download PDF
Photo Cards - Download PDF Life Stories: Profiles of Black New Yorkers During Slavery and Emancipation
- Download PDF
Analyze/discuss sectionalism in the America during the nineteenth century.
Examples: Slavery and State’s rights Examples: Personalities: John C. Calhoun, John Brown, William Lloyd
Garrison, others Examples: King Cotton versus factories; New York rural farms v.
urban ports; seasonsSources:
– SI: Slave Life and the Underground Railroad lesson – song “Gone, Sold & Gone” from Many Roads to Freedom– Trees of Liberty and Slavery Map, LOC– SI NPG: A Brush with History: Abolition & the Civil War– Reuben Fenton (Mr. Lincoln's War)– Republican Party Platform of 1860– Territorial Kansas Online lesson (G. Smith, R. Fenton, F.L. Olmsted, etc)– WNY and the 1854 Emigrant Aid Company (Kansas) (Daniel R. Anthony)– PBS American Experience: The Time of the Lincolns (Loguen letter)– 1835 NY Anti Slavery Convention– Slavery A Positive Good (John C. Calhoun, 1837)
Frederick Douglass on John Brown
The friendship of Frederick Douglass and John Brown began in 1848, when Douglass visited Brown's home in Springfield, Massachusetts. Brown confided to Douglass his ambitious scheme to free the slaves. Over the next eleven years, Brown sought Douglass's counsel and support.
Frederick Douglass."A Lecture on John Brown."
Autograph corrections and drafts, 1860.
Frederick Douglass Papers,Manuscript Division. (3-8b)
Examine major struggles within the nation and the resulting compromises
Examples: Texas statehood (Alamo)� Compromise of 1850� Fugitive Slave Act and abolitionists� “Bleeding Kansas” and Nebraska Act� Anti-Slavery Societies� Dred Scott� Sources: (including from previous section)
Accounts of Fugitive Slave Cases in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Lockport
Edsitement lesson on Kansas-Nebraska Act
.
Identify and discuss some American Identify and discuss some American activists before the Civil War.activists before the Civil War.
Examples: Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Sojourner Truth, Horace Mann, Dorthea Dix, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Sojourner Truth, Horace Mann, Dorthea Dix, The LiberatorThe Liberator
by William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, Harriet B. Stowe, by William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, Harriet B. Stowe, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and and The North Star The North Star by Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, Reuben Fenton, Austin Steward, the Anthony family, William W. Brown, Jermaine W. Reuben Fenton, Austin Steward, the Anthony family, William W. Brown, Jermaine W. Louguen, Henry Highland Garnet, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the Bloss familyLouguen, Henry Highland Garnet, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the Bloss family , , Gerrit Smith,Gerrit Smith, Amy Post, othersAmy Post, others
Sources:Sources:– Many Roads to Freedom (Rochester area abolitionists)(Rochester area abolitionists)– Reform, Religion & the Underground Railroad in WNY Reform, Religion & the Underground Railroad in WNY (WNY agents by (WNY agents by
county)county)– Flight to Freedom: RMSC Teacher GuideFlight to Freedom: RMSC Teacher Guide– Frederick Douglass quote Frederick Douglass quote (from “Freedom: A History of US”)(from “Freedom: A History of US”)– 19th century African American Activists in WNY (MFRHC)19th century African American Activists in WNY (MFRHC)– Garnet's Call to Rebellion (Buffalo, NY 1843)Garnet's Call to Rebellion (Buffalo, NY 1843)– U. of Detroit Mercy: Black Abolitionist ArchivesU. of Detroit Mercy: Black Abolitionist Archives (newspapers and abolition articles) (newspapers and abolition articles)
Henry Bibb's 1850 speech in Buffalo, NY (audio) (audio) Account of Henry Box Brown, 1849
Maria Pointer's 1861 Thanksgiving appeal
MANY ROADS TO FREEDOM: WORKERS FOR THE ABOLITIONIST CAUSE
Click on names for biographical information and on images for larger views
Underground Railroad in Western New Underground Railroad in Western New YorkYork
Fugitive Slave Case, Lockport, NY, 1823
Fugitive Slave Case, Buffalo, NY, 1835
American Anti-Slavery Society, WNY Branches, 1837-1838
Attempt to Release a Slave, Niagara Falls, NY 1847
Fugitive Slave Case, Buffalo, NY 1847
Mass Meeting of Colored Citizens, Buffalo, 1850
Meeting to Protest the Fugitive Slave Bill, North Collins, NY 1850
Fugitive Slave Case of "Daniel", Buffalo, NY, 1851
Betrayal of a Fugitive Slave, Buffalo, NY, 1857
Catherine Harris and the Underground Railroad in Jamestown, NY
Underground Railroad Agents in Western New York
Title: Henry BibbSpeaker or author:
Bibb, Henry, b. 1815Newspaper or publication: LiberatorSpeech denouncing Daniel Webster's
position on slavery and his recent speech regarding fugitive slaves. (from the collection audio files)
Description of original document: PDF 3 page, 669 word document Date published: 1850-04-12
Black Abolitionist Black Abolitionist ArchiveArchive
Canada or Colonization?Canada or Colonization?
Connections with Ongoing Struggles for Connections with Ongoing Struggles for Civil Rights and Human RightsCivil Rights and Human Rights
Anti-Slavery International