Topic: EX-SLAVE NARRATIVES

Grade Level: Eight and Ninth

Arkansas History Frameworks: 1.1.11, 1.1.13, 1.1.15, 2.1.7, 2.1.9, 2.1.10, 2.1.11, 2.1.12, 3.1.9, 3.1.10, 3.1.11, 3.1.14, 4.1.10, 5.1.11, 6.1.10

Objectives: Students will read and discuss ex-slave narratives that they have gathered from the Library of Congress website. They will write and perform one-act plays for the class based on their interpretations of these narratives.

Set: Teacher will provide copies of 3 interviews done with ex-slaves. The teacher and students will read aloud from these excerpts. The students will read for understanding of content, but also read as if they were performing.

Materials: Teacher will provide copies of ex-slave narratives. Students will access the Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov) for further examples.

Resources: An Arkansas History for Young People, Baker and Browning, pages 117-123.
Slavery in the American South, Dr. Jeannie Whayne, (excerpts)
Negro Slavery in Arkansas, Orville W. Taylor, (excerpts)

Key Terms: plantation, master, overseer, chopping cotton, picking cotton, cotton gin, cotton sacks, slave auction, slave codes, free blacks

Key Facts: I want the students to learn how slaves lived, worked, related to others (white and black), functioned within the system of slavery, and manipulated the system of slavery. I know this is a lot for the student to learn doing this activity. I hope that this is possible, with a little help from the teacher.

Activities: Reading of the slave narratives. Reading from other sources provided by teacher: Negro Slavery in Arkansas,, Orville W. Taylor; Arkansas 1800-1860, Remote and the Restless, S. Charles Bolton.

Forming of groups to write, direct and act in their one-act plays.
Performance of plays

Closure: Student critiques of plays. Teacher will provide an outline of things that the student should look for in the student plays.

By Shey Williams