If You Were A Slave…
Amanda R. Earle
ED 629
This Lesson is for :
• Grade 5
• Social Studies
• Class that is discussing African
American Slaves in the United States
during the time of the Civil War
State of Ohio Social Studies Standards
for Grade 5 :
• Standard: People in Societies
• Benchmark: B. Explain the reasons people
from various cultural groups come to North
America and the consequences of their
interactions with each other. (p.118)
• Indicator: Describe the experiences of
African Americans under the institution of
slavery. (p. 131)
Goal:
• To develop an understanding of what it
was like to be an African American
slave and their role in the American
society during the Civil War.
Objectives:
• Students will have an understanding of basic terms
that define slavery by completing a word sort.
• Students will be able to locate on a map the routes
of the triangular slave trade by tracing and drawing
the routes on a map.
• Students will be able to explain the experiences of
the slaves on the ships by completing a simulation
of the arrangement of the slave ships.
• Students will be able to define key people in the
abolitionist movement by watching an informational
video .
• Students will be able to connect with plantation life
of a slave by hearing musical testimonials .
Materials:
• Computer with LCD Projector
• Vocabulary cards for Word Sort
• Maps of the globe
• Colored Pencils
• Scissors
• Social Studies Notebooks
• Pencils
If you were a slave…
Activity 1 : What is Slavery?
• Define the term slavery and list important
key terms. (Knowledge)
• Slavery: the state of being under the control
by another person
• Terms: Fugitive Slave Law of 1850,
Rebellion, Slavery, Slave ships, Abolitionists,
Underground Railroad, Abraham Lincoln,
Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth ,Triangular
Slave Trade,
Freedom
Activity 1 continued:
• Vocabulary word sort:
- Students will be given the vocabulary
words for the unit and their definitions.
Working with a partner, students will
match up the terms with their
definitions.
http://www.motopera.org/mg_ed/educat
ional/ms_lp_b.html
Activity 2: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Activity 2: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Continued
• Students will examine the following website and discuss the
triangular slave trade.
• The transatlantic slave trade generally followed a triangular
route. Traders set out from European ports towards Africa's
west coast.
• There they bought people in exchange for goods and loaded
them into the ships.
• The voyage itself generally took 6 to 8 weeks.
• Once in the Americas, those Africans who had survived the
journey were off-loaded for sale and put to work as slaves.
• http://www.nmm.ac.uk/freedom/viewTheme.cfm/theme/triang
ular
Activity 2: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Continued
• After viewing the webpage, students
will get a map of the globe and will
color and draw in the trade routes and
continents that were involved in the
Transatlantic Slave Trade
Activity 3: Slave Ships
• Students will learn about the
conditions aboard a slave ship by
examining this webpage :
• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/sl
aveship.htm
• After this discussion students will now
be able to pretend that they are a
slave.
Activity 3: Slave Ships Continued
• You are now a slave.
• Students will lay down
in a designated spot in
the classroom, head to
foot and be asked to
lay there for 3 minutes
in silence, simulating
the ride over from
Africa to the Americas.
• Students will now write
about their experiences
and how it made them
feel. Also they will
describe what they
think it must have been
like aboard the ships.
Activity 4 : Abolitionist
• Abolitionism : is a political movement that seeks to
end the practice of slavery and the worldwide slave
trade.
• Black as well as white people played an important
part in the movement for abolition.
• The Underground Railroad consisted of clandestine
routes, transportation, meeting points, safe homes
and other havens, and assistance maintained by
abolitionist sympathizers.
• The underground railroad played an important role
in the abolitionist movement under Harriet Tubman.
Activity 4 : Abolitionist Continued
Harriet Tubman
Activity 4 : Abolitionist Continued
• Sojourner Truth
• Students will watch the
video about Sojourner
Truth and then will be asked
to write in their social studies
notebook a letter to her asking
important questions, and giving
their opinions about slavery and
Abolitionism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEBk_F7m
PK4
Activity 5 : Singing on the Plantation
• Approximately one Southern family in four held slaves prior to
the Civil War.
• Slaves in many parts of the south were freed by Union armies
or when they simply left their former owners.
• The division of the land into smaller units under private
ownership became known as the plantation system.
• Crops grown on these plantations such as tobacco, rice, sugar
cane and cotton were labor intensive.
Activity 5 : Singing on the Plantation
Continued
• Slaves were in the fields from sunrise to
sunset and at harvest time they did an
eighteen hour day.
• The death-rate amongst slaves was high.
• Slaves would often sing songs to help the
days go by and to help relieve their pain.
• http://www.history.org/history/teaching/ene
wsletter/february03/worksongs.cfm
Activity 5 : Singing on the Plantation
Continued
Activity 5 : Singing on the Plantation
Continued
• Students will listen to the examples of
the slave songs and they will then be
required to write their own song, based
on the knowledge they have gained
about what it was like to be a slave.
Assessment
• Students will complete a written essay exam
where they must explain what they learned
about slavery and what slavery means to
them.
• Students must be sure to include important
elements such as
• How have their views changed?
• How they would have felt if they were a slave?
• Who did they find to be an influential part of the
abolitionist movement, and why?