History Lesson Plans

Teachers contribute their best lessons on the events and issues that they think are the most important in the history of slavery in America.

Using Collage to Represent Themes of the Melrose House Experience
Using the Melrose Interactive Slave Environment, students will explore the home and slave quarters of a wealthy pre-Civil War family from the perspective of the slaves who lived and worked there. Students will create a collage to represent one theme that they feel represents an aspect of the Melrose House slave experience.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 7-12
For use with: Melrose Interactive Slavery Environment

West African Slave Ports
Students will study the Slave Ports map and the Transatlantic Slave Trade map on the site along with a current map of West Africa to become familiar with the geography of the slave trade. They will then do in-depth research on the main countries that participated in the slave trade. As a culminating activity, they will take the knowledge learned about the port cities and the countries involved, and write a descriptive essay on a port as if they were living during the slave trade.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Map: Slave Ports Map

Writing A Slave's Diary to Show Understanding of Slave Culture
In this lesson, students will view the third part of Slavery and the Making of America: Seeds of Destruction, read slave and listen to narratives on the slaveryinamerica.org website and conduct further research on what life was like for slaves. They will take on the persona of a slave, and show their understanding of life through a series of diary entries.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 7-12
For use with: Slavery and the Making of America: Seeds of Destruction

Investigation into Local Slave Rebellions
This lesson challenges students to investigate a slave rebellion that happened in close proximity to where they live so they can use resources found at their local library, historical society, or state archives as sources for their search. Students then will compile any information they have found in a graphic organizer that explores plantation life, causes of the rebellion, and individuals involved.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 11-12
For use with: Essay: Historical Overview

The Great Awakening Lesson Plan: African-American Churches and Abolition
The Great Awakening of the late 1700s changed many things in American Society. It pulled communities that were drifting apart back together and introduced new concepts that, up until then, were not common. In this lesson, students study the Great Awakening through the study of slave narratives and biographies. This lesson was created as a direct result of the George Washington University teacher symposium, held in January 2005.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12

Connecting African Cultures to Slave Culture in the United States
Students will explore Central African cultures and then discuss the impact of African language in the United States using the article, Bantu Place Names in South Carolina.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12
For use with: Essay: Bantu Place Names in South Carolina

Slavery and Native Americans: 1600-1865
Native American tribes, on a small scale, practiced some form of slavery. Using the essay, Slavery and Native Americans in British North America and the United States: 1600 to 1865, students will investigate this lesser known area of history. Students will be actively engaged in reading and processing the historical essay and will develop an electronic presentation related to the topic.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 7-12
For use with: Slavery and Native Americans in British North America and the United States: 1600 to 1865

The Constitution and the Hydra of Slavery
In this lesson, students will examine the interconnection between slavery, the constitutional clauses involving the three-fifths compromise and the composition of the Electoral College, and the 1800 presidential election between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Essay: Historical Overview

Slavery and Sugar: Molasses to Rum to Slaves
Students will participate in a trade simulation based on values for slaves, sugar, wood, molasses, and rum around the year 1700 to identify how the sugar industry served as the "engine" of the Triangle Trade.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Essay: Sugar and Slavery

Tobacco and Slavery: Voices from the Past
Students will examine eyewitness accounts from the essay Tobacco and Slavery: The Vile Weed. They will personalize the story of slaves involved in the tobacco economy by retelling it in a written, visual, or dramatic format.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Essay: Tobacco and Slavery: The Vile Weed

Rice and Slavery: Making the Past Tangible
Students will take the geographical, economic, climatic, and primary source data from the Rice and Slavery: A Fatal Gold Seede essay and convert the information into maps, graphs, and measurement activities to help visual and tactile learners understand written information more comprehensively.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12
For use with: Essay: Rice and Slavery: A Fatal Gold Seede

The Indigo Blues
Consumers' demand for exotic fashion fueled the expansion of indigo cultivation, but at a substantial human price. Slaves cultivated indigo, processed into dye, and then dyed fabrics an amazing shade of blue. Students will read the essay The Devil's Blue Dye: Indigo and Slavery to understand the hardships faced by slaves on indigo plantations and investigate gaps in the historical and scientific record that leave our understanding of their lives--and deaths--incomplete. This lesson is linked to the content of the essay.
Target grade levels: High School, grades 9-12
For use with: Essay: The Devil's Blue Dye: Indigo and Slavery

Cotton and Slavery: Global Consequences
This lesson plan is for students to use while studying about slavery in the United States or as a culminating activity. Students will read the essay King Cotton: The Fiber of Slavery to determine the impact of the cotton economy on the Americas, Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Target grade levels: High School, grades 9-12
For use with: Essay: King Cotton: The Fiber of Slavery

Slavery through the Eyes of Artists
Students will consider the role of the artist in creating images of slavery and compare and contrast images created by artists with those created by photographers. They will use Sugar and Cotton: The Paintings of Steele Burden collection for this lesson.
Target grade levels: Middle and High School, grades 6-12
For use with: The Paintings of Steele Burden

Political Cartoons: Insights into the Past
Students will examine the political cartoons available in the Political Cartoons of Slavery Image Collections. They will then explore the elements of political cartoons, analyze historical cartoons, and transfer their knowledge and understanding by developing their own political cartoon on a current events issue.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: The Political Cartoons of Slavery Image Collections

Roads to Freedom: Getting Free in the South
Students will experience the Roads to Freedom Online Exhibit and use the information as a starting point for further research. Using tools from the National Archives education site, students will learn in more depth about the various roads through the use of primary source documents.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Roads to Freedom Online Exhibit

Self-Purchase: "My Own Humble Exertions"
This lesson plan is to be used with studying about one of the less-traveled roads to freedom, that of self-purchase. Students will investigate the case studies of six slaves who earned their way to freedom between 1824 and the outbreak of the Civil War. Then, students will create six expressive pieces of writing (all in the same format) to form a mosaic of the self-emancipated.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Roads to Freedom Online Exhibit

Before, During, and After the Emancipation Proclamation: A Slave's View
Students will study the Emancipation Proclamation by experiencing the "Roads to Freedom Online Exhibit," examining Lincoln's proclamation, and exploring it's ramifications on the war and the war's effect on the enslaved.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: Roads to Freedom Online Exhibit

Rudolf Eickemeyer's Photographs and the Reality of Freedom
Students will examine the images of African Americans made by the photographer Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Students will examine the role of photographer, subject, camera, and audience in creating and interpreting images of the reality of freedom.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12
For use with: Down South: The Photography of Rudolf Eickemeyer, Jr. Collection

Great Compromises of the U.S. Constitution
In this Continental Congress simulation, students learn (a) how the U.S. Constitution was created, (b) the issues that arose among states, and (c) the general problems in creating a federal government. It also gives students the background they need to understand the Civil War.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, grades 6-12
For use with: The Slavery and Abolition map

Propaganda in Confederate Currency
This lesson is designed to use the Confederate Currency Collection of images on the www.slaveryinamerica.org site, borrowed with permission from Louisiana State University's online Exhibition, "Beyond Face Value." Students examine the role of the Confederate bank notes as propaganda and do a comparison between antebellum currency and wartime currency.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school

A Case Study: Slavery and Anti-Slavery in Philadelphia, PA, (17th-19th Centuries) Mini-Unit
This mini-unit is a case study to help students understand the enslavement of Africans in a northern city, Philadelphia, and the role of African Americans in the Abolition Movement in Philadelphia.
Target grade levels: High school, grades 9-12
For use with: The Slavery and Abolition map

Examining the Compromise of 1850
Middle school students examine the Compromise of 1850 from various viewpoints. They will look at the nature of a compromise, examine this controversial historical decision, and evaluate the key political standpoints of the day.
Target grade levels: Middle school, grades six-eight
For use with: The Slavery and Abolition map

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Telling History Through Art
This lesson accompanies the Johnnie Mae Maberry-Gilbert Collection on the slaveryinamerica.org site. Students will examine both the text and the paintings in an attempt to gain insight into life under slavery.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school
For use with: Johnnie Mae Maberry-Gilbert Image Collection

The Impact of African Languages on American English
This lesson accompanies Dr. Holloway's essay on evolution of African terms into modern day English words. Students research the words from the essay and analyze and hypothesize about the migration and evolution of language.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school
For use with: Essay, "The Impact of African Languages on American English"

The Underground Railroad: Three Perspectives
In this three-day lesson designed for students with basic knowledge of the Underground Railroad, students examine the Underground Railroad from multiple perspectives: the slave, the slave catcher, and the Underground Railroad conductor. Ideal for upper-elementary and middle school students, this lesson uses the children’s book Secret Signs by Anita Riggio as a starting point for research. This lesson plan also includes suggestions for upper grade literature selections.
Target grade levels: Elementary and middle school
For use with: The Underground Railroad Map

Atlantic Migration of African Food
To be used in conjunction with the essay, African Crops and Slave Cuisine. Students learn about African foods that were brought to North America by the enslaved. Students then hypothesize and research about food and its place in the culture of African Americans, and in their own ethnic groups.
Target grade levels: Middle and High School
For use with: African Crops and Slave Cuisine essay

Slavery and Sanctuary in Colonial Florida
To be used with or as a follow-up lesson on slavery in the United States and the essay, "Slavery and Sanctuary in Colonial Florida," this lesson will provide students a better understanding of distinct European cultures, values, and institutions of European economic life that took root in the colonies. Students will explore their cultural interactions and their battles for control of North America and the Caribbean. In the process, students will more deeply comprehend the reasons different European peoples colonized in North America, why they brought enslaved Africans to their colonies, and how the institution of slavery shaped their and Africans' lives.
Target grade levels: Grades 9-12
For use with: Slavery and Sanctuary in Colonial Florida essay

African Slaves' Burial Grounds: A Monument to Remember
This lesson complements the essay, "New York City's African Burial Ground." Students design a historical marker or monument to those buried on the site. They also will contemplate the reasons behind the idea that northern states, such as New York, downplayed their own past with slavery.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school
For use with: New York City's African Burial Grounds Essay

Using NPR in the Classroom: A Beginner's Guide
National Public Radio is a useful tool for introducing and discussing history content topics with students. This is a simple guide for using NPR in your classroom, along with some teaching activity suggestions on how to make the most of the experience for your students.
Target grade levels: Upper Elementary, Middle School, and High School

Freedom for Whom? A WebQuest on Slavery and the American Revolution
This WebQuest focuses on the role of African Americans in the Revolutionary War. Students research figures from history using pre-selected Internet Websites and create a living History Museum to exhibit the information they discover.
Target grade levels: Grade 6-9, High School

Slavery and the Seminole
Building on the essay on Slavery and the Seminole Indians, this lesson plan asks students to examine the history of the Seminole Indians in Florida and to take a stand on whether the black Seminoles should be accepted as Native Americans, thereby granting them full rights and privileges of being Native American.
Target grade levels: High School
For use with: Slavery and the Seminole Essay

Quilting and Culture: Using Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" To Learn About African-American Quilting
Using the text of Walker's short story as a springboard for research about quilting, this lesson culminates with students designing their own quilt patterns while giving them a better understanding about the link between quilting and African-American culture.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school, with literature adaptation to upper elementary.

Trans-Atlantic Passage: The People and the Pain
At a very personal level, students research the participants of the slave trade, from the enslaved, to the captain of the ship, to the slave trader at the destinations. This lesson should be used with the Slave Ports and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade maps .
Target grade levels: Middle and high school
For use with: Slave Ports and Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade maps in the Image Gallery

Using the SlaveryinAmerica.org Image Gallery In Your Classroom
In this lesson, students will study the images, pictures, cartoons, and documents in the Image Gallery as historical documents. They will learn about bias and how using images can help history come alive.
Target grade levels: Middle and high school
For use with: Slaveryinamerica.org Image Gallery