|
...writers interview collect the stories of former American slaves. The initiative, through the Federal Writers' Project, captured over 2,300 stories rare, firsthand accounts--of what daily life was like for the men and women who were enslaved. Slaves from 17 states shared their unique lives with interviewers who were trained to ask questions ranging from the origins of their names to games children played, and were prepared to interpret the general dialect. This profound collection is housed at the Library of Congress with some 500 photographs, and some historians have consolidated these stories into anthologies, including: The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (1); Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery (2); and Voices from Slavery (3).
All of these resources can be used to give students a glimpse of the hard labor, mistreatment, familial dismemberment, and the severe punishment the slaves endured contrasted with the feelings and attitudes they held with regard to being enslaved and then freed. One book that is developmentally appropriate for the middle school grades is Slavery Time: When I Was Chillun. Belinda Hurmence's (4) book, which is applied in the following lesson plan, shares the lives of 12 men and women who were slaves, and more importantly asks young readers to critically contemplate: how authentic the accounts are given that many of the interviewed were in their eighties, nineties, and some over a century year old; how reliable the stories are given that the interviewed were a discriminated minority in the 1930s and could have shared accounts they believed would have been acceptable to the interviewer; how accurate the stories are given that the narratives could have been edited or modified by the interviewers; and how influential the mid-1930s period influenced their perception of being enslaved. These inquiries and the historical narratives afford themselves to multiple purposes all of which are focal to the standards (for grades 5-12) developed by the National Center for History in the Schools (NCHS). The most essential is Standard 2, The Student Comprehends a Variety of Historical Sources, which originates from the importance of facilitating historical comprehension.
The skill of historical comprehension, or historical understanding, is a substantial one that is not casually developed nor easily accomplished by assigning readings from the basal history or social studies text and then having students answer insipid questions strategically located at the end of a passage....
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
have been removed from this article.
More articles from Black History Bulletin
The emancipation proclamation: communicate to motivate., June 22, 2006
Power of the printed word: Freedom's Journal--the first black newspape..., June 22, 2006
Freedom's song--100 years of African American struggle and triumph: a ..., June 22, 2006
Afterthought: the centrality of African Americans in U.S. history and ..., June 22, 2006
Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.
Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication
name or publication date.
About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company
analysis or best practices in managing your organization,
Goliath can help you meet your business needs.
Our extensive business information databases empower business
professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible,
authoritative information they need to support their business
goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting,
company research or defining management best practices -
Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.
|
