History Now. From the Teachers Desk



	Introduction Lesson Plan 1: High School Lesson Plan 2: High School Lesson Plan 3: Middle School Lesson Plan 4: 5th Grade

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON SLAVERY: Writing the History of African American Slave Women

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Student Exercise One

1. Direct the class to the Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson letters on this website:
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/collections/
african-american-women.html

2. Analysis of the documents:

Have the class read the letters. Then, as a class, begin a discussion about a strategy for identifying information in the documents. The strategy should focus on the formulation of questions the students might ask in order to identify relevant information. Questions regarding the author's birth date, birth place, family, work, and religion will help the students begin to understand some of the experiences that these women had in common, as well as the circumstances that accounted for differences in their lives.
Critiquing the documents will help to identify bias. Questions about the author's purpose, status, and regional location will help to clarify the contextual conditions that influence perceptions.

3. Have the students write a model for analysis that will help them read the documents with a critical eye. Students should understand that they will be using their research to write a history of African American slave women.

Student Exercise Two

1. Divide the class into small groups. Assign each group a document or a portion of one of the longer documents listed below:

Letters: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/collections/
african-american-women.html
Historical Documents: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/index.html (Note that not all of these documents are about slave women. Students will need to determine which are most useful.)
Autobiography of Annie Burton: http://docsouth.unc.edu/burton/burton.html
Autobiography of Elizabeth, a Colored Minister: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/eliza2/eliza2.html

2. Ask the students to use their model to read the document and evaluate information found. Each group should compile the information gleaned from the assigned document.

3. Using the "jigsaw" approach to group work, shift the members of the groups so that each new group has a representative from each of the original groups. The task for these groups is to share information from the documents.

4. As a class, consider all the information that has been discussed in the individual groups. Identify the elements of experience that define the lives of slave women.

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