Interpreting the Language of Slaves
Young Adult Literature and the History of Slavery Unit
By Rick Vanderwall

Overview

This lesson will introduce students to the language of the ex-slaves as presented in the Library of Congress collection of ex-slave narratives. While there is wide variation in the language as it is presented in the narratives, this lesson will give students a chance to practice with reading. Further, the discussion activity following the activity sheet will help students to understand why the language of slaves was different from Standard English.

Student Objectives

Students will:

• Read a passage from a historic narrative in a difficult language.
• Derive the meaning of unknown words and phrases from the context of the writing.
• Discuss the issues surrounding the language presented in the narratives.

Skills Attained

Students will be able to:

• Interpret the language of the enslaved.
• Understand the forces that shaped the development of the language of slaves.
• Develop strategies for better understanding and appreciating of the language of slaves.

Materials Needed

• Interpreting the Language of Ex-Slaves: Activity Sheet
• Interpreting the Language of Ex-Slaves Lesson: Discussion Activity prompts

The Lesson

Anticipatory Set

1. Read a few sentences from Mr. Charley Williams’ narrative.
2. Ask students for comments on this question: "Did you like what he said about daybreak?"
3. Set up the speakers on the computer and click through several audio narratives on the site. Ask students to respond to the diction, cadence, pacing, of the speakers.

Procedures

1. Pass out the activity sheet, below, allowing students appropriate work time to complete the tasks.
2. Allow students to share translations with another student.
3. Once they’ve finished sharing, ask students how the translations compared to each other.
4. Go over the contextual meanings students got for the highlighted words.
5. The word "potraking" should generate a lot of interest. If they are stumped, have students look up the word protract.
6. For a discussion activity, divide the class into groups of three. If you have to, go to smaller groupings rather than larger ones. Ask students to answer the following questions, noting that classes’ goal is to come to consensus on their answers:


• What do you like about Mr. Williams’ narrative?
• Considering what you know about the history of slavery, what reasons can you give for Mr. Williams’ speech?
• What are some strategies for making this dialect easier to read and understand?


7. Once the groups have completed the questions, have them report each group’s response to the class. Ask for comments. Post the best strategies for easier reading, suggested in the last question, somewhere in your room.

Assessment

To grade students’ work, use the rubric below:

Grading Element	Points (out of 35 total)
Completion of the translation/contextual meaning activity sheet	25
Sharing activity	10

Rick Vanderwall teaches Sixth Grade Language Arts and Social Studies at Price Laboratory School at the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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Part One

Instructions: Read the following passage from the Library of Congress Ex-slave narrative of Charley Williams. Write your own translation of the passage. Be sure to note the words in bold text.

Charley Williams, Age 94

When de day begin to crack de whole plantation break out wid all kinds of noises, and you could tell what going on by de kind of noise you hear.

Come de daybreak you hear de guinea fowls start potracking down at the edge of de woods lot, and den de roosters all start up 'round de barn and de ducks finally wake up and jine in. You can smell de sowbelly frying down at the cabins in de "row," to go wid de hoecake and de buttermilk.

Den purty soon de wind rise a little, and you can hear a old bell donging way on some plantation a mile or two off, and den more bells at other places and maybe a horn, and purty soon younder go old Master's old ram horn wid a long toot and den some short toots, and here come de overseer down de row of cabins, hollering right and left, and picking de ham out'n his teeth wid a long shiny goose quill pick.

Bells and horns! Bells for dis and horns for dat! All we knowed was go and come by de bells and horns!

My Translation:

Part Two

Instructions: Look at the context in which the bolded words appear. Write the word or phrase you think Charley is saying in his narrative or if you don’t recognize the word, try to give a definition of the word.

1. de



2. wid



3. potracking



4. purty



5. den



6. out'n



7. Bells for dis and horns for dat