A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Lesson Plan: Telling History Through Art
By Donna Hendry

Overview

In her paintings, Johnnie Mae Maberry-Gilbert depicts facets of the lives of the enslaved. Students will use these messages to arrive at a more complete view of life under slavery. They will also analyze the text that Maberry-Gilbert chose as her inspiration for each work.

Curriculum Standards

For a list of standards that this lesson addresses, click here.

Time Required

Two to three class periods.

Materials

Johnnie Mae Maberry-Gilbert Slave Narrative Series:

• Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs:
  http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs-t/wwm97255/@Generic__BookView



• Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass:
  http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography



• History of Mary Price:
  http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs/wwm97262/@Generic__BookView



• WPA Writer's Project, Ellen Butler, Louisiana Slave:
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/mesnbib:@field(AUTHOR+@od1(Butler,+Ellen))



• WPA Writer's Project, Sam and Louisa Everett:
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/mesnbib:@field(AUTHOR+@od1(Everett,+Sam+and+Louisa))



• WPA Writer's Project, Francis Black:
  http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/mesnbib:@field(AUTHOR+@od1(Black,+Francis))

The Lesson

Note to the Teacher:

The "N" word is used in all three slave narratives, and the content of Louisa Everett's narrative describes orgies of slave women being raped. You (and your students) also need to be prepared to understand that the WPA historians transcribing were trying to reproduce speech patterns, not trying intentionally to make the subjects sound ignorant. You should decide whether or not to use slave narratives based on the maturity level of your students, the prevailing opinion in your community, and administration policy on whether any material with the n-word is allowed under any circumstance. You should prepare students before the lesson begins by setting the documents into historical context, explaining how these expressions or graphic events reflect the times.

Anticipatory Set

1. On the board (or overhead), have students brainstorm problems that present day African Americans have to face.



2. Now, have students brainstorm what problems the slaves had to endure. Are there any problems that are the same? Are there any that have changed?

Procedures

1. Share the Johnnie Mae Maberry-Gilbert images with the class. Pose the questions: Do any of the images show someone having to deal with a problem that students already listed? Did they miss any? Then, have the students reconsider the topics in their brainstorming list and add to it as necessary.



2. Have students break up into small groups. Ask each group to decide on three topics, either new ones, or ones from the class brainstorming list. The group must then try to separate the images into one of the three topics.



3. Instruct each student to explain, using persuasive writing techniques, why the images fit within the theme the group placed them in.



4. With the brainstormed list of themes, have each group take a turn at listing where they categorized the images. Then have the class discuss images that fit within a number of different themes, looking at how a picture can convey that much information.



5. Now that students now a familiarity with the images, hand out a copy of the narrative notes found with the images in the Image Gallery. Break up the class into groups, assigning one image for each group. Each group will read the notes provided for their image, and then research the originating document.



6. Instruct students to read part or whole of the originating document and, in small groups, discuss how well the artist portrayed the scene.



7. Assign students to write a persuasive essay that deals with the effectiveness of the artwork, using information from the discussion, the image and the reading. Questions that might be answered could include:
   
   
   • Did the image make you feel an emotion?
   • What was it?
   • Was it the same emotion that was felt by the writer?
   • As a result of viewing the image, what did you learn about life under slavery that mere text would not convey?
   
   
8. Bring closure to the lesson through a class discussion on any changes in feeling toward the experiences of slaves that were evoked by the exercise.

Assessment

Assess students based on their participation in class/group discussion, oral presentations, and the quality of the essays they produce.

Follow-up activities

• Using the list of current African- American themes, have students create a piece of artwork or writing that addresses one or more of these themes.



• Have students choose and read another of the WPA narratives, then create a piece of artwork that exemplifies the themes it addresses.



• Have students view images (links listed below) from the period of slavery and write a narrative from the point of view of the slave.

Additional Resources

• WPA Slave Narrative Project:
  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/mesnbibnarrindex.html



• African-American Women Writers of the 19th Century:
  http://digital.nypl.org/schomburg/writers_aa19/



• Digital Schomburg Images of 19th Century African Americans:
  http://149.123.1.8/schomburg/images_aa19/slavery.cfm?dcao8999



• The Slave Trade:
  Slavery in America Image Gallery