National Endowment for the Humanities
A Debate Against Slavery
Slavery is a serious topic that can be challenging for middle schoolers to study. Young scholars can see firsthand through primary sources what occurred during that time period in the United States. The third of five lessons provides...
Smithsonian Institution
African American Music: Let’s Sing and Play Clapping Games
Two lessons focus on making a beat. Using popular African American music of its time, scholars listen and analyze the rhythm then recreate it with hands drums, and cups.
Curated OER
Sharing African Culture
Students investigate African American culture by reading aloud an African folk tale and illustrating the tale. They use their illustrations to create a book or a bulletin board that retells the folk tale.
ESRI
Juneteenth: An American History through Maps
An interactive website traces the history of Juneteenth celebrations from their origin in Galveston, Texas, on June 19th to the present day. Using interactive maps, learners can find information about the African-American population...
K12 Reader
Booker T. Washington: Up From Slavery
Read Booker T. Washington's inspiring story about arriving at his name with a short reading passage from his autobiography, Up From Slavery. After class members read the excerpt, they answer two reading comprehension questions about the...
Crafting Freedom
George Moses Horton: Slavery from a Poet's Perspective
After reading about the life of George Moses Horton, the first slave to publish anti-slavery poetry, learners will recall his major accomplishments, provide a summary of the obstacles he faced, and identify common aspects of the...
Curated OER
Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
Learners access oral histories that contain slave narratives from the Library of Congress. They describe the lives of former slaves, sample varied individual experiences and make generalizations about their research in journal entries.
Lesson Planet
Black History Month: Celebrating Diversity and Progress
Black History Month is a time to recognize the achievements of our civil rights heroes while looking toward the future with a vision of equality for all.
Carolina K-12
African Americans in the United States Congress During Reconstruction
The Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted citizenship to all males in the U.S., resulted in the first African Americans to be elected to Congress. Class members research 11 of these men, the challenges they faced, and craft...
Curated OER
The Quilting Connection....a Teaching Unit on Slavery, the Underground Railroad And Quilting
Students research the Internet, read designated books and selection, participate in discussions and write short reports while completing this series of lessons about slavery and the Underground Railroad. As a final project, they design a...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
A Different Perspective on Slavery: Writing the History of African American Enslaved Women
New ReviewStudents examine the experiences of African-American women during the Civil War. Reading letters and autobiographies, they gain insight into how they dealt with slavery and losing their children. They create a model to evaluate the...
Curated OER
African Ideas of the Afterlife and Beloved
Students examine African cultural ideas about death and the afterlife by reading and answering questions about passages from Beloved.
National Park Service
Lesson 6: Researching Contemporary Slavery
While many believe slavery ended after the American Civil War, it continues today in various forms. Using a WebQuest research project, class members investigate how the institution of slavery lives on in the modern world. Activities also...
Curated OER
Revealing Untold Stories
Young scholars explore how and why various historical resources present information about slavery differently. They work in pairs to examine written texts to interpret the objectives, points of view, and depictions of slavery in these...
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Curated OER
The History of African-American Children: A Guide for Teaching Black History at the Elementary School Level
How do you introduce the topic of slavery to your youngest learners? The Sneetches, by Dr. Suess, is a great introduction to the idea of being different. Read the story to your class, and discuss desegregation in public buildings. This...
National Gallery of Art
The First African American Regiment
Young historians examine a memorial sculpture of the first African American regiment in the Civil War, and then compare how the experiences of the regiment are portrayed in letters and poetry, as well as in the motion picture, Glory.
Curated OER
Social Studies: The Ideology of Slavery
Students examine the development of racial stereotyping beginning with the antebellum years. They research how blackface minstrel songs reinforced the antebellum mindset of African-Americans. Secondly, students investigate "Uncle Tom's...
DocsTeach
Analyzing a Petition about Slavery
Practice analyzing primary sources in a thought-provoking lesson on the impact of slavery. Young historians read a petition regarding the Fugitive Slave Law and answer a series of questions to understand the importance of the document....
Education City
Black History Month
New ReviewEnhance Black History Month with a twenty-page resource designed to boost scholars' knowledge of the great accomplishments made by African Americans. Learners take in fun facts about famous inventors such as George Washington Carver and...
Curated OER
African Americans After the Civil War
Young historians learn what life was like in the South during the Reconstruction era. They complete hands-on-activities and participate in group discussion to understand how experiences varied between African Americans and white...
Curated OER
Stateside Slavery
Students read "Slavery's Past, Paved Over or Forgotten" from The New York Times and discuss as a class. This activity is the introduction for researching a topic on the history of slavery in the U.S. Student groups present their...
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies
Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: African Americans in Revolutionary Times
What's missing from most studies of the American Revolutionary War is information about the role African Americans played in the conflict. To correct this oversight, middle schoolers research groups like the Black Loyalists and Black...
Curated OER
African American Experiences: Window to the Past
Students examine African life during slavery on the Internet. In this slavery lesson, students use the Internet to research slavery and create a scrapbook. Students review pictures of slavery and label them as primary or secondary sources.