I. Curricular Framework

Concept:

Injustice

Essential Question:

How could the institution of slavery exist in an independent nation?

Bridge:

Declaration of Independence

Content:

Slavery in Antebellum Era

Outcomes:

II. Standards Aligned

III. Instruction and Assessment

1. Connect: Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Objective: To create an experience to help students apprehend the impact of slavery on individuals living in southern antebellum society.

Activity: Involve students in a classroom simulation of a society based on slavery and conditions of inequality. 1) Before class scatter a large quantity of wrapped candy mints around the room to represent the wealth of the society within the classroom. They will be "harvested" and consumed by students. Some of the candy should be hard to reach imperiling the lives of those who might attempt to harvest it. 2) Play selected samples of plantation songs/spirituals as students enter the classroom. 3) Divide the students into the following groups representing various elements of antebellum society: a) plantation owner and his family, b) field slaves, c) household slaves, d) free blacks, e) abolitionist(s), f) Yeomen (white non-slave holding farmers), g) overseer(s) [to be selected by the Plantation Owner from among the Yeomen]. Apportion the students among the groupings such that the slave groups comprise the majority of the students. Select a small group to role play the plantation owner and his family. Assign them to a privileged space in the classroom to represent the "big house" and surrounding plantation. The Yeomen and free blacks should be confined to the perimeter of the classroom space to represent their relative status in antebellum southern society. The Yeomen should have a designated space to "harvest." Make sure their space is limited and supplied with relatively few pieces of candy. The space for free blacks should be far more limited and contain fewer pieces of candy. Select one or two students to role-play the overseer looking after the interest of the plantation owner. Also, select one or two students to observe the scene from the perspective of an abolitionist. 4) Initiate the simulation helping students assume their respective roles as the field hands "harvest the wealth of the plantation" under the watchful eye of the overseer and the household slaves serve the plantation owner and his family. The remaining groups enact their roles on the fringes of the classroom society. 5) Interact with role players as needed to encourage and sustain the experience. Monitor the emotional tone and note key events for the post-simulation de-brief. 6) After all the "wealth has been harvested," the candy should be collected into three piles of distinctly unequal portion. The largest pile should be before the plantation owner, the next largest should be before the Yeoman, and the smallest should be before the free blacks. The abolitionists do not share in the wealth. At this point, the plantation owner pays his overseer(s) and feeds his slaves. Encourage the students to eat of the fruits of their labor and enjoy. 7) Form reaction groups to brainstorm and record on newsprint a list of feelings and thoughts engendered by the experience. As each group reports out, post their responses.

Assessment: The degree of student involvement and the emotional response of the role players in the simulation. e.g., Did the mood among the slaves shift from laughter to somber, passive acceptance of their status in life or to violent rebellion? Did the overseer(s) assume a demanding, cruel demeanor?

2. Attend: Attending to the Connection

Objective: To process/analyze the experience.

Activity: 1) Conduct a debrief of the simulation in which students analyze the simulation using the K-W-L charting procedure. a) Label a sheet of newsprint, "What we know" or hypothesize about slavery and antebellum society. Label a second sheet, "What we want to know" about slavery and antebellum society. Label a third sheet, "What we learned" about slavery and antebellum society. Record and save student responses. Leave the third sheet blank for the later use. b) To foster maximum student involvement and to illicit the broadcast possible range of student responses, use the think/pair/share technique. 2) Raise questions to help students examine personal connections between the experience and their prior knowledge of slavery and its influence on the lives of individuals living before the civil war. For example: a) Several of you who played the role of slaves expressed hostility toward the plantation owner when he limited you to one piece of candy for all your work, while a few of you said nothing. How do you account for this difference in reaction? What does it suggest about how slaves might have coped with their enslavement? b) Continue the inquiry in like manner focusing on such issues as the relationship that seemed to emerge between and among various groups within the simulation. What does this suggest about the relationships that existed in antebellum society? What can we hypothesize about the impact of slavery on antebellum society in general? What do we need or want to know? 3) Tell the students that they will have an opportunity to be historians as they seek answers to these questions during this unit of study.

Assessment: Level of student involvement in discussion and quality of contributions to the group.

Assessment, Phase One, Level of Engagement, Fascination:

3. Image: Creating a Mental Picture

Objective: To help students image the incompatibility between slavery and the political ideals of liberty and equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Activity: 1) Proclaim the following excerpt from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by the creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it . . .." Conclude by saying that our forefathers used these words to justify rebellion against oppression. 2) Have students dramatically or graphically represent the inconsistencies between these words and the inequalities experienced in the simulation. or 3) Re-enact the responses of slaves, free blacks, Yeomen, plantation wives, and other hypothetical individuals upon hearing this proclamation.

Assessment: Variety of responses, intensity of emotions; engagement of students and quality of individual contributions.

Assessment, Phase Two, Seeing the Big Picture:

4. Inform: Receiving Facts & Knowledge

Objective: To define and characterize the "peculiar institution of slavery" that buttressed southern antebellum society betraying the ideals of liberty and equality expressed in the Declaration of Independence.

Activity: 1) Teacher structures mini-lectures, leads class discussions, and employs a variety of media in order to provide learning experiences accommodating the need for and interest in specific information generated in Quadrant 1. As questions raised during the K-W-L process are answered, expanded or discarded, note the changes. As new questions arise, add them to the "Want to Know" column. Major Concepts/Themes: the institution of slavery as the foundation of southern antebellum society; the lifestyles, roles and status of individuals and groups living within that society; modes of social control and the means of coping, avoiding, and/or rebelling employed by master and slave, the role of religion in plantation life, and the conflicting attitudes and viewpoints toward the ideals of liberty and equality inherent in antebellum society. 2) To increase student comprehension of how historians approach the study of history, pose questions that enable students to compare divergent views expressed by the experts and the manner in which each supports his/her arguments. e.g., Was the institution of slavery an essentially benign system or one that perpetuated racial injustice? Read or have students read brief excerpts from the American Negro Slavery by U.B. Phillips (1918) or The Peculiar Institution by Kenneth Stampp (1956). What factors might account from their widely divergent views on slavery? Invite a historian to give a guest lecture on some aspect of slavery and to discuss his/her work as a historian. 3) Students maintain a "historians log" in which they record basic factual information presented, answers to questions raised in the K-W-L process and additional ones raised in class, personal reflections and notes to guide individual research/study, etc.

Assessment: Teach checking for understanding/level of student questions; notebooks.

Assessment, Phase Three, Success with Acquiring Knowledge:

5. Practice: Developing Skills

Objective: To reinforce the unit concepts and to provide opportunities for students to engage in historical research.

Activity: 1) Teacher selected activities structured to provide opportunities for students to practice the skills of information acquisition, information processing, and historical interpretation. For example: a) Visit a plantation site, e.g., Somerset Place located in Creswell, N.C. and/or b) Explore life on the Chicora Wood Plantation using the primary source documents contained in an activity packet compiled by Fay Metcalf. See bibliography. c) Read Abraham Lincoln's essay, "On Defining Liberty" and his speech, "A House Divided"; have students construct a graphic organizer comparing the divergent viewpoints of an abolitionist and a proponent of slavery. 2) History Lab Establish a variety of learning stations supplied with learning materials that will allow students in small work groups or individually to expand their conceptual knowledge and to experiment with the work of history. The stations should include a wide selection of materials and questions or discussion starters such as: a) A collection of maps depicting the concentration of slave populations from 1820 to 1860 and the areas where various crops such as rice and cotton were produced. Ask students to draw conclusions about the relationship between the concentration of slave populations and the production of a given crop. b) Statistical data such as population distribution charts for each state showing the percentage of white, slave, and free black inhabitants. Based on this data, which states would most strongly favor the preservation or abolition of slavery? c) Diaries, letters and other personal items representing a particular point of view, e.g., slave narratives and the diary of Mary Chesnutt. d) Public and private estate documents, e.g., copy of the slave codes for various slave states, bills of sale for slaves bought and sold. e) Photographs depicting various aspects of slave culture. f) Recordings of spirituals and other period music. g) Literary collections, e.g., fictional and non-fictional accounts of slavery and plantation life, e.g., Uncle Tom's Cabin, published speeches of various abolitionist and proponents of slavery. As students work through the materials, facilitate their exploration through open-ended questions. Provide opportunities for brief mini-conferences in which you encourage your student historians to share some new insight or interest gleaned from the history lab. Student choice is paramount in lab activities to ensure balance between teacher direction and student initiative. 3) In cooperative groups, students construct web charts on slavery and antebellum society. Students post and share web charts.

Assessment: Quality of individual and group work, individual contributions to the web charts, and engagement of students with choice activities.

Assessment, Phase Four, Success with Acquiring Skills:

6. Extend: Extending Learning to the Outside World

Objective: To extend and apply concepts learned.

Activity: 1) Students in small groups or individually select a topic for further investigation. At this point, the "history lab" activities assume greater importance as students focus on specific areas of inquiry. Teacher and students collaboratively add to the resources in the "history lab." 2) Students select a mode of project presentation suited to their particular learning style preference and interest. A wide variety of art supplies and other production materials should be available for student use. 3) Hold large group mini-conferences affording students opportunities to share their "work in progress" and to learn from each other. The teacher facilitates such conferences by diverting student questions to one another whenever possible and linking students with similar interest and need.

Assessment: Quality and efficiency of project planning; the degree and quality of student participation in mini-conferences.

7. Refine: Refining the Extension

Objective: To edit and revise projects.

Activity: 1) Teachers and students develop a planning/evaluation checklist tailored to this unit of study. 2) Teachers and students collaboratively evaluate, edit and revise projects as needed. 3) Teachers and students collaboratively plan the format and logistics of a public forum that would showcase their learnings. Planning and logistical tasks are divided among small groups and individuals. The teacher interacts to facilitate and support student initiatives as needed.

Assessment: Quality of student projects and public forum planning.

8. Perform: Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Objective: To share and celebrate learnings.

Activity: 1) Hold a public forum on slavery in the antebellum era featuring student projects for invited guests. 2) Make a videotape of the forum to be included in the school library. 3) Re-play and enjoy the video. 4) The teacher and students affirm and celebrate their learnings in the unit by summarizing new insights about slavery on "post-it" notes. The notes are then posted on the sheet of newsprint entitled, "What we learned about slavery and Antebellum Society" as students leave the classroom.

Assessment: Quality of student presentations and degree of student engagement in the forum; variety and quality of learning reflected in the "post-it" notes. These notes provide an excellent source of ideas for the next 4MAT cycle focusing on the American Civil War and the emancipation of slaves.

Assessment, Phase Five,Performance, Creative Use of Material Learned: