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...
Curated OER
Colonial New York Slave Codes: Pedro's Walk
Look critically at the slave laws instated in Colonial New York. Your class examines primary source documents, slave laws, a narrative account from a slave's perspective, and Slave Codes. They write diary or journal entries in response...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Alabama Slave Codes in 1833: What They Can Teach Us About Slaves Themselves
After viewing a short PowerPoint about Nat Turner's rebellion, class groups examine Alabama's 1833 slave codes. Individuals then develop a mini-legal brief arguing against one particular slave law.
Curated OER
Using Primary Sources in the Classroom: Slavery Unit Lesson 1: Slave Code of 1833
Learners explore the concept of slavery. In this primary research lesson, students read the Alabama Slave Code of 1833 and discuss its implications. Learners also examine emancipation-related documents and respond to questions regarding...
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
Slave Code Songs
Seventh graders study water bodies that were escape routes to Canada for slaves seeking freedom. They examine and create a coded spiritual that describes a personal experience with secrecy and fear.
Curated OER
Sing Out Loud: The Slave Spirituals Historical and Cultural Implications during Reconstruction
Students identify, summarize and present facts about cultural, educational and political inequalities of Reconstruction, explain hidden codes of slave spirituals and their importance in slaves' communication, and create poetry based on...
Center for Instruction, Technology, & Innovation
Did African American Lives Improve After Slavery?
The Civil War made slavery illegal, but all ex-slaves were not totally free. Scholars visit eight different classroom stations to uncover life during the Reconstruction Era in America. Groups discover items such as Black Codes, 13th,...
Curated OER
In The Footprints of the Slaves and Conductors
Fifth graders research and examine the conductor sites to find routes to hide their slaves. They are given a map to map out a route to hide fifteen slaves. Each group is given three to four clues about their stations to pass on to...
Curated OER
Language and Runaway Slave Ads
Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary resources. In this fugitive slave lesson, students research and analyze fugitive slave advertisements from Virginia newspapers.
Curated OER
Living Under the Illinois Black Codes
Students use the text of the Illinois Black Codes to examine the laws in place. Using this information, they draw their own conclusions about why the laws existed in a free state. They also identify the purpose of these laws and how they...
Carolina K-12
Plessy v. Ferguson & the Roots of Segregation
How far in the past do the roots of Jim Crow and segregation extend? Young historians closely consider this question using detailed PowerPoint slides as a basis for discussion rather than lecture, culminating in an activity where class...
Curated OER
Slavery in Arkansas, Market to Misery
Pupils determine the factors that were considered when purchasing slaves at market or through the purchase of an estate. They examine the Arkansas Slave Code and share its content through a group activity.
Curated OER
Code Black
Eleventh graders gain an awareness and an appreciation of slave spirituals as part of their American Literature/American History heritage.
Curated OER
Streams of Time Lesson Plan: Visually Organizing the History of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Pupils, after reading the Transatllantic Slave Trade, create a color coded triple-timeline to help them explain the chronological streams that flow through the essay.
Facing History and Ourselves
Defining Freedom
The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves in the Confederate states. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery in the United States. However, neither document defined freedom. The second instructional activity in the Reconstruction Era...
Curated OER
The Called Themselves the K.K.K.; The Birth of an American Terrorist Group
How did Ku Klux Klan develop and flourish in the US? How did the government respond to acts of terrorism conducted by the KKK following the Civil War? How does the government respond to acts of terrorism today? This resource launches a...
Curated OER
A Lesson on Reconstruction Legislation and Amendments
Students study the legislation and Amendments of Reconstruction period in America. In this Reconstruction lesson plan, students work in groups to dissect the Black Codes, an article in the US Constitution, as well as the 13th, 14th, and...
Curated OER
EX-SLAVE NARRATIVES
Students read narratives of ex-slaves and then in groups write and act in their plays.
Curated OER
Slaver Code of 1833
Students explore the Africane, the first slave ship to bring slaves to the area, entered the port of Mobile in 1721. In 1724 the French Code Noir was extended into the Mobile area and provided the basic laws and conditions of slavery....
Curated OER
Reach for the Stars
Students investigate the Underground Railroad. In this slavery lesson, students read books about slavery, the Undeground Railroad, and how slaves escaped the south. Students develop knowledge about coded songs and constellations that...
Curated OER
Master Spy
Young scholars explain that a code is a system of symbols, letters, words, or signals that are used instead of ordinary words and numbers to send messages or to store information. They practice deciphering a variety of secret codes used...
Curated OER
Effects of the Stono Rebellion
Fourth graders learn about a slavery rebellion. In this slavery lesson, 4th graders work in groups to review different non-violent ways enslaved Africans protested slavery. Students learn about the Stono Rebellion, read a letter...
Curated OER
Art -- The Secret to Freedom
Fourth graders create a coded message in a quilt. In this art lesson students demonstrate the communication used by the Underground Railroad. Students work in a group to make a quilt with a code in it.