Slavery and Free Negroes, 1800 to 1860 (lesson 1)
- Slavery and Free Negroes, 1800 to 1860 (lesson 1)
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Slavery and Free Negroes, 1800 to 1860 (lesson 1)
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Overview
Students will expand their knowledge of slavery, an institution of labor that varied considerably depending on time and place. They will recognize what slavery was like in Virginia and particularly in Fairfax County in the antebellum period, and gain an understanding of the skills of and choices made by African Americans both as slaves and as free people.
Objectives
Students will:
1. Use several secondary sources on slavery to understand the complexity of slavery and life for free Negroes in Virginia.
2. Use primary source documents – a will and inventory, a registration of free Negroes, a deed, and a map – to examine life for free blacks before the Civil War.
1. Use several secondary sources on slavery to understand the complexity of slavery and life for free Negroes in Virginia.
2. Use primary source documents – a will and inventory, a registration of free Negroes, a deed, and a map – to examine life for free blacks before the Civil War.
Grade Level
grades 4, 6, and 11
Standards
Virginia Standards of Learning:
Grade 4: Virginia Studies
VS.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis including the ability to: (a) identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history; (b) determine cause and effect relationships; (d) draw conclusions and make generalizations; (i) analyze and interpret maps.
VS.7 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the issues that divided our nation and led to the Civil War by: (a) identifying the events and differences between northern and southern states that divided Virginians and led to secession, war.
Grade 6: United States History I – to 1877
USI.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to: (a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history to 1877; (b) make connections between past, present; (c) sequence events; (d) interpret ideas and events from different perspectives; (e) evaluate/discuss orally and in writing; (f) analyze and interpret maps.
USI.9 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the causes, major events, and effects of the Civil War by: (b) explaining how the issues of states' rights and slavery increased sectional tensions.
Grade 11: Virginia and United States History
VUS.1 The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to: (a) identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary source documents, records, and data, including artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, journals, newspapers, historical accounts, and art to increase understanding of events and life in the United States; (b) evaluate the authenticity, authority, and credibility of sources; (c) formulate historical questions; (d) develop perspectives of time and place.
VUS.6 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the major events during the first half of the nineteenth century by: (c) describing the cultural, economic, and political issues that divided the nation, including slavery, the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, and the role of the states in the Union.
Grade 4: Virginia Studies
VS.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis including the ability to: (a) identify and interpret artifacts and primary and secondary source documents to understand events in history; (b) determine cause and effect relationships; (d) draw conclusions and make generalizations; (i) analyze and interpret maps.
VS.7 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the issues that divided our nation and led to the Civil War by: (a) identifying the events and differences between northern and southern states that divided Virginians and led to secession, war.
Grade 6: United States History I – to 1877
USI.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to: (a) identify and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history to 1877; (b) make connections between past, present; (c) sequence events; (d) interpret ideas and events from different perspectives; (e) evaluate/discuss orally and in writing; (f) analyze and interpret maps.
USI.9 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the causes, major events, and effects of the Civil War by: (b) explaining how the issues of states' rights and slavery increased sectional tensions.
Grade 11: Virginia and United States History
VUS.1 The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability to: (a) identify, analyze, and interpret primary and secondary source documents, records, and data, including artifacts, diaries, letters, photographs, journals, newspapers, historical accounts, and art to increase understanding of events and life in the United States; (b) evaluate the authenticity, authority, and credibility of sources; (c) formulate historical questions; (d) develop perspectives of time and place.
VUS.6 The student will demonstrate knowledge of the major events during the first half of the nineteenth century by: (c) describing the cultural, economic, and political issues that divided the nation, including slavery, the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, and the role of the states in the Union.
Duration
Estimated time is: Elementary and Middle – three lessons, each one period; High school – two single lessons, each about 45 minutes, but feel free to adapt this lesson to your needs.
Historical Background
Slavery was primarily a labor system based on oppression and violence. Slaves were forced to work. At the same time, despite the cruelty, slaves created families and culture (song, dance, religion and education). This diverse and complex institution was not static. Instead the dynamic system evolved and changed over time and place. For example, life for a southern Virginia slave working tobacco in 1710 was not the same as life for a northern Virginia slave laboring on a wheat farm in 1850. Contrary to popular conceptions of slavery, many slaves did not pick cotton or live on Gone with the Wind-like plantations. Societies that allowed slavery also varied. In Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, Ira Berlin distinguishes between slave societies where slave labor dominated the economic, political, and social world and societies with slaves – those in which there was not a total dominance of slavery.
In the 1650s and 1660s Virginia and Maryland had been societies with slaves, in which slaves had provided some labor. By the end of seventeenth century, they were being transformed into slave societies, in which slaves formed the bulk of the subordinate labor force. Laws passed in the 1660s had formally recognized slavery and begun to define it in racial terms – clearly distinguishing between black Africans and white workers. In the two decades before slave importation ended in 1808, planters purchased some quarter of a million Africans, doubling the number they imported in the previous two centuries. In the following years, natural reproduction and the internal slave trade replaced importation and met the demand for workers.
In 1830 a significant portion of Virginia slaves worked on small farms, where a laborer might cook one day and hoe cotton the next. On these farms patterns of labor varied from season to season as owners tried to insure profits and, at the same time, cultivate enough food and raw materials to sustain their own families. In such situations, slaves had more direct interaction with owners and could hope that a successful owner might purchase nearby family members. But slaves on small farms faced great danger. One bad season could cause owners to sell slaves to pay off debts, thus breaking up slave families and contributing to the great internal migration of slaves to sugar or cotton plantations in southern states such as Mississippi and Alabama. Alexandria had one of the largest slave markets in the U.S.
By the 1820s and 1830s throughout the Upper South, including Virginia, residents questioned the profitability of slavery. Many farmers turned from tobacco, which did not grow as well in northern Virginia as it did further south, to other crops, such as wheat, that did not require year-round labor. By the 1840s northern Virginia farmers had diversified and were growing wheat, corn, flax, raising hogs, cattle, and sheep. There was a change to smaller farms and to skilled slaves on plantations. Work was differentiated and skilled. With these skills, slaves had greater power and increased opportunities. They had more leverage to negotiate for better living conditions, less work, and some contracted their labor out.
In 1831-32, the Virginia state legislature considered resolutions that supported the gradual emancipation of slaves or their shipment to Africa. The resolutions received a substantial number of votes but failed to pass. This debate and the defeat of the resolutions was the result, in part, of timing, for in 1831 a major slave rebellion led by Nat Turner, erupted in Virginia. Instead of granting freedom, southern masters tightened their grip on blacks, free and enslaved, and on anyone else who challenged their right to own slaves. In Virginia, fearing the influence of antislavery literature, it became illegal to teach slaves to read. Nonetheless, the existence of such a debate suggests the problems Upper South slaveowners faced in sustaining the institutions of slavery.
What was life like for free Negroes in the South? Often free blacks were highly skilled in occupation, lighter in color than in North. While some lived and worked on small farms, most free blacks lived in urban areas and supported themselves as manual laborers, domestics, petty traders, artisans, or small shopkeepers. Often they formed support networks among themselves, founding their own churches and clubs. But after Nat Turner’s rebellion, whites assumed that the freedom of any blacks could stimulate dangerous notions among slaves. The Virginia legislature passed new restrictions on the activities of free blacks, denying them the right to own firearms, be ordained as ministers or meet for worship without the permission of the local white officials. By the 1830s, free blacks in every southern state found their very presence assailed and sometimes banned. Often the laws that limited them became the same as those after the Civil War.
Although free Negroes have been described as more slave than free, they were not a monolithic group, with different circumstances and choices depending on the region they lived in. In the North even without fear of slave revolts free Negroes had limited political rights, but they were allowed to travel freely, organize their own institutions, publish newspapers, and petition and protest. By 1810 the Upper South contained nearly 100,000 free Negroes, who composed about 8 percent of the black population in the region and almost 60 percent of the free blacks in the U.S. Thereafter repression slowed the number and the proportion declined. Some were freed by their masters who began to see slavery as inconsistent with the principles of the new Republic or who lost economic incentive to keep slaves. In the South there was less immigrant labor competition than in the North, so free blacks had higher economic standing than in the free states. But free Negroes in the Upper South were severely limited in their political and communal activities because whites feared they would instigate slave rebellions. Consequently, they were prevented from voting, sitting on juries, testifying in court, and also barred from travel without permission and meeting without supervision of whites. Free Negroes in the Upper South enjoyed economic advancement at the expense of political activism, and this was even more pronounced in the Lower South.
The William Jasper family, 1808-1870 [Talking Points]
• William Jasper, an African American, was probably born in 1808 not far from George Washington’s plantation in Mount Vernon. He was born a slave on the plantation of William Hayward Foote’s Hayfield plantation. Foote was one of the richest men in Fairfax County—when he died he owned 50 slaves.
• Jasper worked on a plantation that grew wheat and corn, and raised horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. Slaves at Hayfield, including Jasper, are likely to have had skills as farmers, blacksmiths and carpenters.
• Jasper and his family were not sold south to booming cotton and sugar plantations, as were many other slaves.
• According to his will, Foote decided to free his slaves on or soon after his death in 1846. At this time Jasper, in his thirties, was valued by appraisers to be worth $350. Foote’s will also freed Jasper’s wife Sara, in her mid-twenties, and their two daughters who were six and four. They were actually freed in the early 1850’s.
• It is important to note that the Jaspers were free blacks in Virginia before the Civil War. But even as free blacks they faced numerous obstacles. They could not: own a gun, obtain an education, vote, conduct business freely, worship in religious services unless supervised by whites. Also they might be captured by slave traders and sold back into slavery.
• The Jaspers wanted to stay in Virginia near friends and family, so in 1853 and 1858 they chose to register as free blacks in Fairfax County to prove that they were free. This meant they could travel and gain employment.
• In 1860 William Jasper purchased 13 acres of land near the Hayfield Plantation. It is likely that he put together the $200 to pay a white farmer and slave owner for the land from his work as a farmer.
• The Jaspers probably did not stay on their newly bought land during the Civil War -- and it is also likely that what they had on this land, including buildings, animals and crops, was lost during the war.
In the 1650s and 1660s Virginia and Maryland had been societies with slaves, in which slaves had provided some labor. By the end of seventeenth century, they were being transformed into slave societies, in which slaves formed the bulk of the subordinate labor force. Laws passed in the 1660s had formally recognized slavery and begun to define it in racial terms – clearly distinguishing between black Africans and white workers. In the two decades before slave importation ended in 1808, planters purchased some quarter of a million Africans, doubling the number they imported in the previous two centuries. In the following years, natural reproduction and the internal slave trade replaced importation and met the demand for workers.
In 1830 a significant portion of Virginia slaves worked on small farms, where a laborer might cook one day and hoe cotton the next. On these farms patterns of labor varied from season to season as owners tried to insure profits and, at the same time, cultivate enough food and raw materials to sustain their own families. In such situations, slaves had more direct interaction with owners and could hope that a successful owner might purchase nearby family members. But slaves on small farms faced great danger. One bad season could cause owners to sell slaves to pay off debts, thus breaking up slave families and contributing to the great internal migration of slaves to sugar or cotton plantations in southern states such as Mississippi and Alabama. Alexandria had one of the largest slave markets in the U.S.
By the 1820s and 1830s throughout the Upper South, including Virginia, residents questioned the profitability of slavery. Many farmers turned from tobacco, which did not grow as well in northern Virginia as it did further south, to other crops, such as wheat, that did not require year-round labor. By the 1840s northern Virginia farmers had diversified and were growing wheat, corn, flax, raising hogs, cattle, and sheep. There was a change to smaller farms and to skilled slaves on plantations. Work was differentiated and skilled. With these skills, slaves had greater power and increased opportunities. They had more leverage to negotiate for better living conditions, less work, and some contracted their labor out.
In 1831-32, the Virginia state legislature considered resolutions that supported the gradual emancipation of slaves or their shipment to Africa. The resolutions received a substantial number of votes but failed to pass. This debate and the defeat of the resolutions was the result, in part, of timing, for in 1831 a major slave rebellion led by Nat Turner, erupted in Virginia. Instead of granting freedom, southern masters tightened their grip on blacks, free and enslaved, and on anyone else who challenged their right to own slaves. In Virginia, fearing the influence of antislavery literature, it became illegal to teach slaves to read. Nonetheless, the existence of such a debate suggests the problems Upper South slaveowners faced in sustaining the institutions of slavery.
What was life like for free Negroes in the South? Often free blacks were highly skilled in occupation, lighter in color than in North. While some lived and worked on small farms, most free blacks lived in urban areas and supported themselves as manual laborers, domestics, petty traders, artisans, or small shopkeepers. Often they formed support networks among themselves, founding their own churches and clubs. But after Nat Turner’s rebellion, whites assumed that the freedom of any blacks could stimulate dangerous notions among slaves. The Virginia legislature passed new restrictions on the activities of free blacks, denying them the right to own firearms, be ordained as ministers or meet for worship without the permission of the local white officials. By the 1830s, free blacks in every southern state found their very presence assailed and sometimes banned. Often the laws that limited them became the same as those after the Civil War.
Although free Negroes have been described as more slave than free, they were not a monolithic group, with different circumstances and choices depending on the region they lived in. In the North even without fear of slave revolts free Negroes had limited political rights, but they were allowed to travel freely, organize their own institutions, publish newspapers, and petition and protest. By 1810 the Upper South contained nearly 100,000 free Negroes, who composed about 8 percent of the black population in the region and almost 60 percent of the free blacks in the U.S. Thereafter repression slowed the number and the proportion declined. Some were freed by their masters who began to see slavery as inconsistent with the principles of the new Republic or who lost economic incentive to keep slaves. In the South there was less immigrant labor competition than in the North, so free blacks had higher economic standing than in the free states. But free Negroes in the Upper South were severely limited in their political and communal activities because whites feared they would instigate slave rebellions. Consequently, they were prevented from voting, sitting on juries, testifying in court, and also barred from travel without permission and meeting without supervision of whites. Free Negroes in the Upper South enjoyed economic advancement at the expense of political activism, and this was even more pronounced in the Lower South.
The William Jasper family, 1808-1870 [Talking Points]
• William Jasper, an African American, was probably born in 1808 not far from George Washington’s plantation in Mount Vernon. He was born a slave on the plantation of William Hayward Foote’s Hayfield plantation. Foote was one of the richest men in Fairfax County—when he died he owned 50 slaves.
• Jasper worked on a plantation that grew wheat and corn, and raised horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. Slaves at Hayfield, including Jasper, are likely to have had skills as farmers, blacksmiths and carpenters.
• Jasper and his family were not sold south to booming cotton and sugar plantations, as were many other slaves.
• According to his will, Foote decided to free his slaves on or soon after his death in 1846. At this time Jasper, in his thirties, was valued by appraisers to be worth $350. Foote’s will also freed Jasper’s wife Sara, in her mid-twenties, and their two daughters who were six and four. They were actually freed in the early 1850’s.
• It is important to note that the Jaspers were free blacks in Virginia before the Civil War. But even as free blacks they faced numerous obstacles. They could not: own a gun, obtain an education, vote, conduct business freely, worship in religious services unless supervised by whites. Also they might be captured by slave traders and sold back into slavery.
• The Jaspers wanted to stay in Virginia near friends and family, so in 1853 and 1858 they chose to register as free blacks in Fairfax County to prove that they were free. This meant they could travel and gain employment.
• In 1860 William Jasper purchased 13 acres of land near the Hayfield Plantation. It is likely that he put together the $200 to pay a white farmer and slave owner for the land from his work as a farmer.
• The Jaspers probably did not stay on their newly bought land during the Civil War -- and it is also likely that what they had on this land, including buildings, animals and crops, was lost during the war.
Activities
1. For all levels (ES, MS, and HS) begin with students’ associations with/ assumptions about slavery.
2. For HS students this could be done as a think/pair/share activity for about 10 minutes. For MS and ES this could be done with webbing or KWHL. Either way, be sure to return to students’ assumptions after some historical context on slavery is provided. Another possibility is creating some myths and facts or true/false statements about slavery.
3. An advantage of the KWHL or webbing is that students can generate their own questions that they want to answer.
4. It might be useful to prime the pump and ask about national, regional, state, and local conditions.
5. Use the Historical Background section on slavery (based on secondary sources listed below) and the Three-part Time Line to provide a more nuanced and accurate historical context about slavery. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as: Teacher Talking Points, SHORT PowerPoint, having small groups of students work together to read and share different sections then have them report out, could be jigsaw. The goal is to provide at an appropriate developmental level a more complex historical context for this topic and to convey to students the connections between national, regional, state, and local events.
6. Once students have a clearer picture of slavery, it is time to take a look at the lives of some people living during this period. They will use the primary sources to find out: Who were “Free Blacks”? How did they get “free”?
7. For HS students give them copies of Wm. Hayward Foote’s will and inventory of his death in 1846 in the original handwriting, and direct them to try transcribing it.
8. For a warm up with MS and ES students, teacher directs a think aloud with this document, and brainstorms with students about meaning of vocabulary words. Give each student a copy of the transcribed version (and possibly have a copy on a smart board or overhead projector).
9. With HS students ask them what they notice/see. Students are likely to point out a great deal of information prior to debriefing. Get them to ask questions. Then give them a copy of a full transcribed will.
10. Direct students to work in pairs or small groups and follow along as you read the will aloud. Ask students to jot down on paper what they notice and also make a note of any questions they have. These are purposely open-ended tasks, with the purpose being for students to focus and think first on their own, and then to have pairs of students discuss what they found.
11. Examples of things students might notice include: The date of the will is 1846 – well before the Civil War, the court is in Alexandria County, Foote discusses his slaves right away, and uses words like “care and kindness” of his wife, slaves will be paid, most slaves have only first names, some also have last names, most of Foote’s wealth was in slaves and not material possessions. Examples of questions include: meanings of unfamiliar words such as executor, executrix, emancipate, comport, codicil; when were these slaves actually freed?
12. Ask students to use the same process (notice and question) as they look at/read the handwritten inventory. Useful for students to notice that, while things are listed, slaves are valued as worth most, also that William Jasper is listed.
13. Reconvene the class as a whole and ask students to share what they noticed and the questions they had, and write their basic points on the board under Notice and Questions. Answer questions as you can. Points to clarify and emphasize include: o Foote leaves the decision as to when “from time to time” to free or emancipate the named slaves up to the discretion of his wife, and for the “probable welfare of“ his slaves.
o The freed slaves are to receive one payment of $20 for males and $10 for females
o William Jasper is one of the slaves listed, but he is not actually freed until later.
o The average number of slaves held at this time was two – and Foote had fifty.
14. For HS students use these guiding questions:
What were the signs of daily work on the farm?
List and discuss the relative values of Foote’s property.
In what way do you understand the people who owned these possessions?
15. For ES and MS students have students infer that eighty percent of Foote’s wealth came from slaves. Begin 2nd lesson for HS students.
16. Before examining the next primary source have HS students pre-read Oates, Stephen B. “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion.” Then have them examine/answer :
The impact of Nat Turner’s Rebellion on the laws governing the lives of free Negroes in Virginia.
What were the advantages to whites of having free Negroes register? To free Negroes of registering?
Begin 2nd lesson for ES and MS students.
17. For ES and MS warm up have students think aloud with teacher and brainstorm why there might be a register of free blacks.
18. Have students use the next primary source, Registration of Free Negroes/Blacks in 1822, 1835, to learn more about free Negroes and to practice the analysis process. Who were “Free Blacks”? How did they get “free”? Were they really free? Have students look for William Jasper, Sarah Jasper, and Thornton Gray.
19. Distribute a copy of Registration of Free Negroes/Blacks to each student and use the same approach – notice and question – this time reading on their own and jotting down what they notice, and questions they have, discussing in pairs, sharing out as a class, and recording students’ main points on the board.
20. Examples of notice and questions: these people are identified first by their scars – why is that – significance of scars to former owners? To ex-slaves? How might we identify ourselves? Color of skin, size, and age are mentioned. For Thornton Gray a key fact is that his mother was a free woman emancipated by George Washington. What is race of the people signing the affidavit? Some are granted permission to remain in the state, but others are not – why? William and Sarah Jasper (not noted that they are married – why? legal only after war? Also earliest date for their registering as free is 1853 though Foote’s will was in 1846 – so did it take 7 years until Foote’s wife freed them?
21. Questions teachers might use include: How are Sarah and William Jasper and Thornton Gray described? Why do you think these features were noted here? Why do you think they had to ask permission to remain in Virginia as free Negroes? What year did each register?
22. Questions to guide the discussion include:
What was the impact of Nat Turner’s Rebellion on the laws governing the lives of free Negroes in Virginia?
What were the advantages to whites of having free Negroes register? To free Negroes of registering?
23. For ES and MS students, create a T chart and ask students to consider the opportunities (pros) and opportunity costs (cons) of being a free black.
24. From there have students predict what William Jasper’s life will be like as a free Negro. Use the predictions (some help would be useful here as to ways to make a living/eco opportunity, civil and political rights) to compare with what does and does not happen, what is and what is not allowed for free Negroes in Virginia from 1830 to 1860.
25. For ES and MS students have them think aloud and brainstorm about what connection property ownership might have to freedom. Begin 3rd lesson for ES and MS students.
26. Students will examine two more primary sources, together, to solve the problem: who were free Negroes and how did they live. These are:
Thompson Javins deed of land to Wm. Jasper in 1860
1860 Property map superimposed on a mid-twentieth century county map 2
27. Direct students to use the same process (Notice/Question/Context) and work on their own, then in pairs, then share their findings.
28. Examples of what students might notice and question: the precise legal language in the deed and why it was used. That Javins was white (and they might remember that Javins earlier signed the affidavit for the registration of free Negroes), using the map with the deed one can see that Javins kept/lived on? land next to Wm. Jasper, that Jasper bought 13 acres of land for $200 in November of 1860? How did Jasper earn the money to but this land? Using the map – who were the other landholders next to or near Jasper? Were they white or “colored”? This land purchase takes place about five months before the Civil War begins – where did Jasper and other free Negroes go during the war?
29. Let students know that, once war breaks out in April 1861, it is not clear where Jasper, family and free black community go during war – maybe to a Freedman’s Village in Alexandria or Falls Church. One of Thornton Gray’s family joins the Union Army.
For ES and MS students find an early 1860s map of Northern Virginia that shows the Civil War battlegrounds. Ask students to see which battles were fought near the Jaspers’ newly purchased land and discuss what students might think or how they might feel if this had been their land. 30.
The next step is to connect students’ observations and questions on the will and registration, the deed and the map to the historical context of free Negroes at this time. Again, use the relevant section of the Historical Background and the Three-Part Time Line to do this in whatever method makes sense to you and your class.
31. Discuss how students’ predictions compared to what happened.
32. Be sure to make two key points:
o Use the three-part timeline with National, Virginia, Jasper/Walker Family events to show the inter-relatedness of what happens. – Students could begin to create their own three-part timeline or have the teacher put it together section by section.
o People make choices within their historical contexts, whether it be Virginia legislators after the Nat Turner Rebellion or William Jasper and his family about registering, buying land etc. 3
3. Wrap-up: Have ES and MS students fill out a 3-2-1 chart and share with the class. 3 = tell three things you learned in the lesson, 2 = tell two things that surprised you, and 1 = tell one thing you would still like to know. One option is to return to the KWHL chart or web from the beginning of this lesson and have students write on their own and then contribute as a class to the “L” (learned) column about slavery and free Negroes. Another option is to have students write diary entries from the perspective of a slave owner, wife, and/or free Negro.
2. For HS students this could be done as a think/pair/share activity for about 10 minutes. For MS and ES this could be done with webbing or KWHL. Either way, be sure to return to students’ assumptions after some historical context on slavery is provided. Another possibility is creating some myths and facts or true/false statements about slavery.
3. An advantage of the KWHL or webbing is that students can generate their own questions that they want to answer.
4. It might be useful to prime the pump and ask about national, regional, state, and local conditions.
5. Use the Historical Background section on slavery (based on secondary sources listed below) and the Three-part Time Line to provide a more nuanced and accurate historical context about slavery. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways such as: Teacher Talking Points, SHORT PowerPoint, having small groups of students work together to read and share different sections then have them report out, could be jigsaw. The goal is to provide at an appropriate developmental level a more complex historical context for this topic and to convey to students the connections between national, regional, state, and local events.
6. Once students have a clearer picture of slavery, it is time to take a look at the lives of some people living during this period. They will use the primary sources to find out: Who were “Free Blacks”? How did they get “free”?
7. For HS students give them copies of Wm. Hayward Foote’s will and inventory of his death in 1846 in the original handwriting, and direct them to try transcribing it.
8. For a warm up with MS and ES students, teacher directs a think aloud with this document, and brainstorms with students about meaning of vocabulary words. Give each student a copy of the transcribed version (and possibly have a copy on a smart board or overhead projector).
9. With HS students ask them what they notice/see. Students are likely to point out a great deal of information prior to debriefing. Get them to ask questions. Then give them a copy of a full transcribed will.
10. Direct students to work in pairs or small groups and follow along as you read the will aloud. Ask students to jot down on paper what they notice and also make a note of any questions they have. These are purposely open-ended tasks, with the purpose being for students to focus and think first on their own, and then to have pairs of students discuss what they found.
11. Examples of things students might notice include: The date of the will is 1846 – well before the Civil War, the court is in Alexandria County, Foote discusses his slaves right away, and uses words like “care and kindness” of his wife, slaves will be paid, most slaves have only first names, some also have last names, most of Foote’s wealth was in slaves and not material possessions. Examples of questions include: meanings of unfamiliar words such as executor, executrix, emancipate, comport, codicil; when were these slaves actually freed?
12. Ask students to use the same process (notice and question) as they look at/read the handwritten inventory. Useful for students to notice that, while things are listed, slaves are valued as worth most, also that William Jasper is listed.
13. Reconvene the class as a whole and ask students to share what they noticed and the questions they had, and write their basic points on the board under Notice and Questions. Answer questions as you can. Points to clarify and emphasize include: o Foote leaves the decision as to when “from time to time” to free or emancipate the named slaves up to the discretion of his wife, and for the “probable welfare of“ his slaves.
o The freed slaves are to receive one payment of $20 for males and $10 for females
o William Jasper is one of the slaves listed, but he is not actually freed until later.
o The average number of slaves held at this time was two – and Foote had fifty.
14. For HS students use these guiding questions:
What were the signs of daily work on the farm?
List and discuss the relative values of Foote’s property.
In what way do you understand the people who owned these possessions?
15. For ES and MS students have students infer that eighty percent of Foote’s wealth came from slaves. Begin 2nd lesson for HS students.
16. Before examining the next primary source have HS students pre-read Oates, Stephen B. “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion.” Then have them examine/answer :
The impact of Nat Turner’s Rebellion on the laws governing the lives of free Negroes in Virginia.
What were the advantages to whites of having free Negroes register? To free Negroes of registering?
Begin 2nd lesson for ES and MS students.
17. For ES and MS warm up have students think aloud with teacher and brainstorm why there might be a register of free blacks.
18. Have students use the next primary source, Registration of Free Negroes/Blacks in 1822, 1835, to learn more about free Negroes and to practice the analysis process. Who were “Free Blacks”? How did they get “free”? Were they really free? Have students look for William Jasper, Sarah Jasper, and Thornton Gray.
19. Distribute a copy of Registration of Free Negroes/Blacks to each student and use the same approach – notice and question – this time reading on their own and jotting down what they notice, and questions they have, discussing in pairs, sharing out as a class, and recording students’ main points on the board.
20. Examples of notice and questions: these people are identified first by their scars – why is that – significance of scars to former owners? To ex-slaves? How might we identify ourselves? Color of skin, size, and age are mentioned. For Thornton Gray a key fact is that his mother was a free woman emancipated by George Washington. What is race of the people signing the affidavit? Some are granted permission to remain in the state, but others are not – why? William and Sarah Jasper (not noted that they are married – why? legal only after war? Also earliest date for their registering as free is 1853 though Foote’s will was in 1846 – so did it take 7 years until Foote’s wife freed them?
21. Questions teachers might use include: How are Sarah and William Jasper and Thornton Gray described? Why do you think these features were noted here? Why do you think they had to ask permission to remain in Virginia as free Negroes? What year did each register?
22. Questions to guide the discussion include:
What was the impact of Nat Turner’s Rebellion on the laws governing the lives of free Negroes in Virginia?
What were the advantages to whites of having free Negroes register? To free Negroes of registering?
23. For ES and MS students, create a T chart and ask students to consider the opportunities (pros) and opportunity costs (cons) of being a free black.
24. From there have students predict what William Jasper’s life will be like as a free Negro. Use the predictions (some help would be useful here as to ways to make a living/eco opportunity, civil and political rights) to compare with what does and does not happen, what is and what is not allowed for free Negroes in Virginia from 1830 to 1860.
25. For ES and MS students have them think aloud and brainstorm about what connection property ownership might have to freedom. Begin 3rd lesson for ES and MS students.
26. Students will examine two more primary sources, together, to solve the problem: who were free Negroes and how did they live. These are:
Thompson Javins deed of land to Wm. Jasper in 1860
1860 Property map superimposed on a mid-twentieth century county map 2
27. Direct students to use the same process (Notice/Question/Context) and work on their own, then in pairs, then share their findings.
28. Examples of what students might notice and question: the precise legal language in the deed and why it was used. That Javins was white (and they might remember that Javins earlier signed the affidavit for the registration of free Negroes), using the map with the deed one can see that Javins kept/lived on? land next to Wm. Jasper, that Jasper bought 13 acres of land for $200 in November of 1860? How did Jasper earn the money to but this land? Using the map – who were the other landholders next to or near Jasper? Were they white or “colored”? This land purchase takes place about five months before the Civil War begins – where did Jasper and other free Negroes go during the war?
29. Let students know that, once war breaks out in April 1861, it is not clear where Jasper, family and free black community go during war – maybe to a Freedman’s Village in Alexandria or Falls Church. One of Thornton Gray’s family joins the Union Army.
For ES and MS students find an early 1860s map of Northern Virginia that shows the Civil War battlegrounds. Ask students to see which battles were fought near the Jaspers’ newly purchased land and discuss what students might think or how they might feel if this had been their land. 30.
The next step is to connect students’ observations and questions on the will and registration, the deed and the map to the historical context of free Negroes at this time. Again, use the relevant section of the Historical Background and the Three-Part Time Line to do this in whatever method makes sense to you and your class.
31. Discuss how students’ predictions compared to what happened.
32. Be sure to make two key points:
o Use the three-part timeline with National, Virginia, Jasper/Walker Family events to show the inter-relatedness of what happens. – Students could begin to create their own three-part timeline or have the teacher put it together section by section.
o People make choices within their historical contexts, whether it be Virginia legislators after the Nat Turner Rebellion or William Jasper and his family about registering, buying land etc. 3
3. Wrap-up: Have ES and MS students fill out a 3-2-1 chart and share with the class. 3 = tell three things you learned in the lesson, 2 = tell two things that surprised you, and 1 = tell one thing you would still like to know. One option is to return to the KWHL chart or web from the beginning of this lesson and have students write on their own and then contribute as a class to the “L” (learned) column about slavery and free Negroes. Another option is to have students write diary entries from the perspective of a slave owner, wife, and/or free Negro.
References
Books & Media
Clark, Christopher and Nancy A. Hewitt. Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History. Volume I, third edition. Boston: St. Martin’s, 2008. A survey of the nation’s history from the perspective of the transformations wrought by the changing nature and forms of work and the role that working people played in the making of modern America. Used to write the historical background.
Foner, Eric and John Garraty, eds. The Reader’s Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton and Mifflin Company, 1991. Article on Free Negroes, 1619-1860, by Ira Berlin. In one readable and accessible volume this book covers political, economic, cultural, and social history; it combines short descriptive entries with longer in-depth essays. Used to write the historical background.
Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1968. Particularly useful for MS and ES school students (if entries selected and read by teachers), this book is based on the extensive collection of slave narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project at the Library of Congress as well as 19th century interviews with abolitionists.
Oates, Stephen B. “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion,” in Portrait of America, Vol.1, 8th ed. Stephen B. Oates and Charles J. Errico. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003. Appropriate for HS students, this is a dramatic and thorough telling and explanation of Nat Turner’s Rebellion.
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. An HBO Documentary Film in association with the Library of Congress, introduced by Ira Berlin, 2003. Based on oral histories from the Federal Writers Project and visual sources from the Library of Congress, entries are read by a range of well-know actors.
Websites
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/slavery.htm
The Avalon Project at Yale contains: history and literature, federal and state statutes, and other documents on Slavery
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart1.html
An essay and primary sources at the Library of Congress website on Slavery – The Peculiar Institution, contains a variety of useful images and contexts.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
The PBS four-part program from 1450 to 1865, each with a historical narrative, a resource bank of images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries, and a teacher's guide.
Clark, Christopher and Nancy A. Hewitt. Who Built America? Working People and the Nation’s History. Volume I, third edition. Boston: St. Martin’s, 2008. A survey of the nation’s history from the perspective of the transformations wrought by the changing nature and forms of work and the role that working people played in the making of modern America. Used to write the historical background.
Foner, Eric and John Garraty, eds. The Reader’s Companion to American History. Boston: Houghton and Mifflin Company, 1991. Article on Free Negroes, 1619-1860, by Ira Berlin. In one readable and accessible volume this book covers political, economic, cultural, and social history; it combines short descriptive entries with longer in-depth essays. Used to write the historical background.
Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1968. Particularly useful for MS and ES school students (if entries selected and read by teachers), this book is based on the extensive collection of slave narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project at the Library of Congress as well as 19th century interviews with abolitionists.
Oates, Stephen B. “The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion,” in Portrait of America, Vol.1, 8th ed. Stephen B. Oates and Charles J. Errico. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2003. Appropriate for HS students, this is a dramatic and thorough telling and explanation of Nat Turner’s Rebellion.
Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. An HBO Documentary Film in association with the Library of Congress, introduced by Ira Berlin, 2003. Based on oral histories from the Federal Writers Project and visual sources from the Library of Congress, entries are read by a range of well-know actors.
Websites
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/slavery.htm
The Avalon Project at Yale contains: history and literature, federal and state statutes, and other documents on Slavery
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart1.html
An essay and primary sources at the Library of Congress website on Slavery – The Peculiar Institution, contains a variety of useful images and contexts.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html
The PBS four-part program from 1450 to 1865, each with a historical narrative, a resource bank of images, documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries, and a teacher's guide.
Materials
Primary Sources:
• Wm. Hayward Foote’s will and inventory of his death in 1846
• Registration of Free Negroes/Blacks in 1822, 1835, 1853
• Thompson Javins deeds land to Wm. Jasper in 1860
• 1860 Property map superimposed on a mid-twentieth century county map
Three-part time line
• Wm. Hayward Foote’s will and inventory of his death in 1846
• Registration of Free Negroes/Blacks in 1822, 1835, 1853
• Thompson Javins deeds land to Wm. Jasper in 1860
• 1860 Property map superimposed on a mid-twentieth century county map
Three-part time line
Major Understanding
Slave life was never the same. Students will understand that Virginia and particularly Fairfax County between 1800 and 1860 went from being a slave society to being a society with slaves, and that between 1800 and 1840 the slave population of Fairfax County dropped because poor economic conditions on farms and changing attitudes toward slavery led slave owners to sell land and to sell or free slaves. Students will also understand that in Virginia between 1800 and 1861 not all African Americans lived in slavery, many were free, and that Virginia law in the 1820s and 1830s required free blacks to register so that they could be controlled. This law was more strictly enforced after Nat Turner’s Rebellion in 1831.
Files
Citation
"Slavery and Free Negroes, 1800 to 1860 (lesson 1)," in Teaching at Laurel Grove, Item #1, http://chnm.gmu.edu/laurelgrove/items/show/1 (accessed November 22, 2009).