Slavery and the Legal Status of Free Blacks

Students research using the Internet, study books, reference sources, newspapers, and magazines for information about successful black business people and write a research paper. They may also interview entrepreneurs in their community...

Students listen to data on African American women in Texas before the Civil War. For 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...

Eleventh graders read actual arguments regarding the status of free blacks in Illinois and slavery in the United States more generally.

Using the family stories of a famous comedian and singer-songwriter, learners consider what life was like for African Americans who were enslaved and free before the Civil War. To complete a concluding activity, they write about the...

What was life like for enslaved and free black people before the American Civil War? Explore the building tension between states and the freedom of individuals with a thorough social studies instructional activity. Learners of all ages...

What was the most beneficial policy for nineteenth-century African Americans: to stay in the United States and work for freedom, or to immigrate to a new place and build a society elsewhere? Your young historians will construct an...

While examining slavery's impact on women, historians compare and contrast the perspectives of a plantation mistress and an enslaved woman, both reflecting on the system of forced prostitution. Text analysis and written responses create...

Students explore the plight of John Brown to fight slavery. In this Brown vs. Board of Education lesson, students listen to a lecture regarding Brown's work to free slaves through rebellion. Students participate in classroom discussion...

Young historians research the debate over slavery; some students take the pro-slavery side and others the anti-slavery side. They take the role of a character such as a plantation owner, a legislator, a free Black, a slave, or a northern...

Students explore the wide-ranging debate over American slavery and the lives of its leading opponents and defenders and the views they held about America's "peculiar institution."