Handout
PBS

Pbs: Africans in America: Part 1: The Growth of Slavery in North America

For Students 9th - 10th
Focuses on slavery in North America, the worry about uprisings, and slavery's economic impact. Links to related information.
Article
Henry J. Sage

Sage American History: Colonial Life: Faith, Family, Work

For Students 9th - 10th
Article illustrating colonial life in North America. The author discusses religion and religious movements, women and the colonial family, and work, including slavery, during the 17th and 18th Century. Photographs and links to primary...
Website
PBS

Pbs: Africans in America

For Students 3rd - 8th
PBS offers a four-part series on the plight of African Americans from slave days to the end of the Civil War. Resources such as interactive maps, a Resource Bank, and Teacher's Guide are available.
Primary
PBS

Africans in America: William Byrd's Diary

For Students 9th - 10th
Excerpts from "The Secret Diary of William Byrd" in which, among other things, he describes slaves as piece of property.
Article
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: History Now: African Immigration to Colonial America

For Students 9th - 10th
An interesting essay on the forced migration of Africans to America by way of the Middle Passage. Read where the slaves were off-loaded, how the population of slaves increased, and the inhumanities inflicted on the slaves both on the...
Website
Brown University

John Carter Brown Library: Slavery and Justice

For Students 9th - 10th
Brown University boasts ownership of one of the greatest collections of early Americana in the world. In 2007 the university's John Carter Brown Library introduced a thorough exhibit after the publication of "Report of the Brown...
Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Slavery & Making of America: The Slave Experience: Men, Women & Gender

For Students 9th - 10th
Learn about issues related to slave gender roles at this PBS series site that features illustrations and documents dating back to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods in American history.
Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: The Slave Experience: Living Conditions

For Students 9th - 10th
This PBS series site reveals the diverse circumstances and living conditions experienced by slaves and indentured servants in America by reading documents dating to the Colonial, Antebellum, and Reconstruction periods.
Website
Digital History

Digital History: Slavery in Colonial America

For Students 9th - 10th
A very interesting look at slaves and free blacks in colonial America, especially in the South, up to about 1660. See how the concept of slavery and the use of slaves was fluid until that time.
Article
PBS

Africans in America: Colonial Laws

For Students 9th - 10th
Read some excerpts from original colonial laws concerning slaves.
Lesson Plan
Stanford University

Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Early America

For Teachers 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] The Revolution and Early America unit covers the standard eighteenth century topics that would appear in any textbook. These lessons, however, will push students to dig deeper as they read the documents...
Article
PBS

Africans in America: Map of the British Colonies

For Students 9th - 10th
Map of British Colonies and information from PBS on slavery from about 1600 to 1750. Some timelining of African American's lives in the New World.
Article
PBS

Africans in America: Runaways 1740 1783

For Students 9th - 10th
This website gives a rough idea of how many slaves were present in the South and what happened to many who ran away.
Primary
Other

Virtual Jamestown: Laws on Slavery

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides the original text of Virginia colonial laws concerning different aspects of slavery for Africans, Native Americans, and indentured servants.
Lesson Plan
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Colonial Williamsburg: The Two Williamsburgs

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This lesson plan on daily life in Colonial Williamsburg challenges students to compare and contrast the lives of the African and European populations.
Handout
Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press.

New Georgia Encyclopedia: Atlantic Slave Trade to Savannah

For Students 9th - 10th
Encyclopedia article describing slavery in Colonial Georgia and the role that Savannah played in slave trade from 1755 to as late as 1858.
Article
PBS

Africans in America: Virginia's Slave Codes (1705)

For Students 9th - 10th
This website describes contents of the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705 with excerpts from the orginal law.
Primary
PBS

Africans in America: Runaway Slave Ad From Colonial New Jersey

For Students 9th - 10th
Here from PBS is the original text of a runaway slave ad for a slave named Jem. His owner in Newark, New Jersey describes him and offers a reward.
Article
PBS

Africans in America: Margaret Washington on the Earliest Africans in Va.

For Students 9th - 10th
In a brief answer, Margaret Washington, Assoc. Professor of History at Cornell University, discusses where the first Africans to colonial Virginia were from, who they were, and what it may have been like for them.
Activity
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Stono's Rebellion

For Students 3rd - 8th
A brief retelling of the colonial slave uprising, known as Stono's, or the Stono, Rebellion.
Lesson Plan
Huntington Library

Huntington Library: Triangular Trade

For Teachers 5th
In this lesson, 5th graders learn about the many societal structures that developed in colonial days, including the conditions for self-government in America, the free-market economy, and the slavery system. Background information for...
Activity
Library of Congress

Loc: America's Story: Stono's Rebellion

For Students 3rd - 8th
A brief retelling of the colonial slave uprising, known as Stono's, or the Stono, Rebellion.
Activity
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Colonial Williamsburg: Colonial African American Life

For Students 9th - 10th
Provides a few statistics on slaves in Maryland and Virginia and then contrasts the lives of field hand vs household or urban slaves.
Activity
Other

Understanding Slavery: The Lives of Eighteenth Century African Americans

For Students 9th - 10th
Comprehensive description of slaves in South Carolina. Click on the topics on the left to take you to a wealth of information about the lives of slaves in South Carolina.

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