Lesson 1: Slavery and Free Negroes, 1800 to 1860

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.

Grade Level

4, 5 or 6, and 11

Duration

Estimated time for elementary and middle school is three lessons, each one period; for high school – two single lessons, each about 45 minutes, but feel free to adapt this lesson to your needs.

Standards

Grade 4: Virginia Studies

VS.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, 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 5 or 6: United States History I – to 1865

USI.1 The student will develop skills for historical and geographical analysis and responsible citizenship, 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 and responsible citizenship, 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.