Curated OER
The African Slave Trade: From West Africa to South Carolina and Beyond
Eighth graders explore the African slave trade. They identify the principal figures practicing the African slave trades at three locations. Students draw the physical routes of the slave trade on a map and they list the reasons for the...
Curated OER
African Slaves in Haiti
Sixth graders examine how Africans were treated in the Caribbean and Haiti after reading about the Atlantic Slave Trade. From a multicultural information passage, they complete a time line on Toussiant L-Ouverture and write an obituary.
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Clotilde, The Last Slave Ship
The Clotilde was the last known ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States - good riddance! Dive into the details of the ship, its cargo, origin, and route, and learn about the future of the Africans on board with 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
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...
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies
Voices from the Trans‐Atlantic Slave Trade
Young historians trace the roots of African slavery and learn about the causes and effects of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through a PowerPoint presentation and by reading and discussing excerpts from the book Copper Sun.
Curated OER
Colonial New York Slave Codes: Law and Order
Build a historical perspective from four different points of view. Young historians take on the role of a slave-owning white person, non-slave owning white person, slave, or free African-American person and imagine what life would be...
Curriculum Corner
African American Inventors
Celebrate Black History Month with a packet of materials on African American inventors. Readers discover several inventors' character traits, their inventions, and their lives. They even have the opportunity to conduct further research...
Curated OER
Perspective on the Slave Narrative
Students examine narratives of two slaves: iam W. Brown and Frederick Douglas. They produce an essay explaining how Brown's narrative challenged the prejudices of readers in his own time and how it challenges prejudices today.
Curated OER
The Role of African Slaves on South Carolina Rice Plantations
Fourth graders investigate the role of African American slaves in rice plantations. In this slave life lesson, 4th graders discuss the products produced in the 13 colonies. Students discuss the importance of rice to South Carolina's...
Curated OER
Eighteenth-Century Slave Codes
Students explore slavery by reviewing the written laws intended to keep African Americans subservient. For this U.S. slavery lesson, students analyze a time-line of the history of African Americans. Students discuss the patterns of the...
Curated OER
How Africans Became Slaves for the Colonists
Students complete a t-chart identifying the advantages and disadvantages of having indentured servants. In groups, they research the use of serfs and slaves in various cultures and share their responses. To end the lesson, they...
American Institute of Physics
African American Inventors in History
A two-part lesson introduces young historians to the work of famous African American inventors. Groups first research and develop a presentation of an inventor that includes biographical information and information about one of their...
Curated OER
African American Women Before and After the Civil War: Slavery and Freedom
Students listen to data on African American women in Texas before the Civil War. In this Civil War lesson, students compare and contrast the lives of slave and free women, and discuss case studies, locating areas on a map. Students...
Curated OER
"In Defense of My Race and Country": African-American Soldiers on Why They Are Fighting
Why would an African-American slave fight in the Civil War? Read and analyze primary source documents to understand the ex-slave perspective on fighting in the Union Army. Everything to complete this lesson is included.
Curated OER
Slave Life on George Washington’s Mount Vernon Plantation
Eleventh graders investigate slave life on the Mount Vernon Plantation. In this slavery instructional activity, 11th graders examine photographs of and documents about George Washington's home as they participate in classroom station...
Curated OER
After the American Revolution: Free African Americans in the North
Learners investigate the life of African Americans in the North during the American Revolution. They analyze how authors use various techniques to write biographies, read about Sojourner Truth, conduct research, and write an excerpt...
Curated OER
African-American Communities in the North Before the Civil War
Students examine what life was like in free African-American communities before the Civil War. They analyze maps, identify elements of everyday life in these communities, explore various websites, and complete a chart.
National Endowment for the Humanities
African-American Communities in the North Before the Civil War
Middle schoolers may be surprised to learn that before the American Civil War there were more slaves living in New York than there were in Kentucky! Young historians examine maps and census data to gather statistics about...
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...
Crafting Freedom
Creating Original Historical Fiction Using Henry "Box" Brown's Narrative and Runaway Slave Ads
Young historians discover the experiences of runaway slaves after reading the brief biography and narrative excerpt of Henry "Box" Brown, who escaped slavery by having himself shipped away in a crate and popularized his flight in a...
Curated OER
The 1808 Slave Trade Abolition Deadline
Students study the trans-Atlantic Slave trade. In this slave trade lesson, students study the Constitutional Convention Notes and the impact on United States slavery. Students research the slave trade database and other primary sources...
Curated OER
The Fabric of History
African-American history is an integral part of what America is. Learners examine important events, read informational texts, and create quilts depicting specific eras in African-American history. Each image created for the quilt will be...
PBS
African-Americans in the American West
Secondary learners explore the westward movement of African Americans. Segmented into four time periods, the lesson provides an overview of how African Americans experienced westward expansion. Learners view PBS specials on the westward...