Lesson Plan #5
SPE 382 Collaborative Unit
Lesson Topic:
Slavery’s Opponents and Defenders
Duration:
60-90 Minutes
Key Concepts:
1. Economy
2. Oppression
Essential Understandings
1. All humans are equal in worth and deserve equal freedoms.
2. Oppression results from misuse of human power.
3. Economic factors may impact slavery.
Guiding Questions:
1. Are all humans equal in worth?
2. Do all humans deserve equal freedoms?
3. What economic factors impact slavery?
Standards:
Social Studies (10)8, 9
Objectives:
1. Identify influential opponents and defenders of American slavery and compare their respective
biographies
2. Explain the reasons given for and against the morality and legitimacy of slavery under the U.S.
Constitution
3. Articulate an economic argument in favor of slavery and an opposing argument on behalf of free
labor
Specific Questions:
1. What were the leading arguments against slavery in the antebellum era?
2. How did the advocates of American slavery defend the "peculiar institution"?
Processes and Skills:
1. Students will compare and contrast the life stories of slavery's opponents and defenders.
2. In this activity, students will compare and contrast the ideas in two documents: one from the
abolitionist orator and Editor, William Lloyd Garrison, and the other from the slaveholding Senator
from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun. Students will read Garrison's editorial, "On the
Constitution and the Union" (December 29, 1832).
3. They will also read Calhoun's speech, “Slavery a Positive Good" (February 6, 1837).
4. After students have read the two documents and answered the questions in the matrix, gather the
class to discuss their findings.
5. After the matrix has been completed by the class, give students time to ask questions and make
comments about what they have learned.
6. Ask them why Garrison excoriated the people of New England and the rest of the free states, and
why Calhoun maintained that the South could not "concede an inch" on its position in regard to
slavery.
7. See if they noticed the role that temperament and personality played in the opinions and positions
of these two men. Ask them to think about situations where an uncompromising stance on an
issue would be a good thing, and where it might not be.
Materials:
1. Pencil
2. Paper
3. "On the Constitution and the Union" (December 29, 1832).
4. “Slavery a Positive Good" (February 6, 1837).
Instructional Activities:
1. Students will read Senator James Henry Hammond's March 4, 1858 speech to the U.S. Senate.
2. After students read this article, then the class will participate in a Socratic circle and utilize the
thinking skills talents.
o According to Sen. Hammond, what makes societies civilized and why did he think this
justified the enslavement of black people in America?
o What does Sen. Hammond mean by "the very mud-sill of society and of political
government"? (Note: Instructor should define "mud-sill" for the students. It is the bottom
sill or wooden beam in a foundation, which typically rests on the ground.)
o According to Sen. Hammond, why is the South more civilized than the North?
o Why does Sen. Hammond believe slaves exist in the North as well as the South? Who
are these "slaves"?
o Why does Sen. Hammond believe southern slaves have a better life than northern
"slaves"?
Technology Integration:
1. Smart board
2. Computer
Thinking Skills Integration:
Calvin Taylor’s Model of Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking
Diffrentiation Components:
1. Explain that for the most part, slavery's opponents were located in the North and slavery's
defenders were located in the South. However, this did not mean that the antebellum North was a
uniformly friendly and welcoming place to the free black person.
2. Although slavery was not legal in the northern states, free black residents of the states were not
given the same civil or political rights, or treated with the same dignity and respect as white
inhabitants.
3. Ask students to list examples of civil, political, and human rights denied to Black Americans in the
North. At the same time, there were also individual northerners who were willing to disobey the
1850 Fugitive Slave Act and provide safe havens for runaway slaves who were attempting to
escape to freedom in the North or Canada. Some states even passed "personal liberty" laws to
prevent the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act from sending free or fugitive blacks south to
bondage.
Assessment:
Students should now be able to discuss why slavery was opposed and defended so strongly and how this
contributed to a widening breach between the North and South.
1. Students will be asked to give the main ideas of both the opponents and defenders of slavery in
paragraph form.
Natural Environment for the Humanities. (n.d.). Lesson 2: Slavery's Opponents and Defenders. Retrieved
April 23, 2012, from EDSITEment: http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/slaverys-opponentsand-defenders#sect-assessment