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Writing A Slave's Diary to Show Understanding of Slave Culture
By Barbara Bureker
Overview
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.
National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson
For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.
Time Required
Depending on how much homework is given, this lesson will take from four to six days. An additional day can be added for the sharing of diary entries
Materials
- A copy of Slavery and the Making of America: Seeds of Destruction
- Large piece of butcher paper
- Post-It notes
- Computers and access to the Internet
The Lesson
Anticipatory Set
- KWL (What do you Know, What do you Want to know, What did you Learn?)
- Before class, take a large piece of butcher paper and draw two vertical lines on it, to divide the paper into three sections. Label the left side with a K, the middle with a W and the right side with an L. Hang this on the wall.
- Put a number of Post-It Notes on each desk. These can be handed out after students arrive.
- Begin by asking students to think about what they know about the living conditions and culture of slaves in America. Ask them to write three to five things that they know--each one on a separate Post-It Note.
- Then ask them to write down questions they have about the slave culture. What do they want to know? Have them write one question per Post-It Note.
- At this point, students should get up and put their Post-It Notes on the appropriate section of the butcher paper.
- Depending on time, read some or all of the "Knows." Ask the questions: Where did you learn these things? How valid do you think those sources were/are?
- Then read some or all of the "Want to Knows." Ask the question: What would be good sources for answers to these questions?
- Hopefully they will come up with this--otherwise tell them: One of the best sources for information about a culture or living conditions of a group of people are stories about and by people within that group. Best of all is when those stories are told in their own words.
- Optional: If students have not been taught about Primary Sources and Secondary Sources, this could be a good time to introduce these terms. If desired, a discussion could take place about the strengths and weaknesses of primary and secondary sources.
- For the most part, students will be looking at primary source material during this lesson, although the TV show will include both.
- Tell them that during the next few days they will be viewing and reading stories told by and about slaves. Afterwards they will take on the persona of a slave and write a series of diary/journal entries showing what they have learned about the slave culture and living conditions.
Procedures
- View the show: Slavery and the Making of America: Seeds of Destruction. If preferred, segments of the show can be shown, rather than the entire show, which is one hour in length. After watching, discuss: Was anything surprising to the students? Did they learn anything they didn't know before? Have other questions come up as a result of the show? What do they want to know more about?
- At this point, the handout, "A Slave's Diary Handout" can be passed out. Go over it briefly, but let them know that you will go into the writing part of the assignment in more depth after they have done the research part.
- They will now do further research, using the Internet. Pass out the Website handout--or give students the website information in another format if preferred (overhead or online for example). Many of the sites are accessible from the Slavery in America Gateway. Links will be listed by topics.
- A couple of additional sites that may be useful for more mature researchers and readers are:
- Slave Narratives: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html--extensive collection of WPA narratives. Students may need some help with this site.
- Tell students to consider the questions they wrote down at the beginning of this lesson as well as other questions that have occurred to them since, as they do their research. Remind them that, just as for them, slaves' lives and culture included many aspects: food, traditions, religion, music and other forms of entertainment, relationships and more. Tell them to pay attention to the "voices" as well--not just what is being said, but how it is being said; the emotions and personalities that are expressed.
- Depending on time and maturity of the researchers, specific expectations may be given. The expectations on the handout can be modified to fit student and teacher needs. All students should read a number of slave narratives. Beyond that, students may be expected to visit a minimum of other sites and learn about a minimum number of specific topics. The teacher may choose to ask students to do additional searching on their own, or may ask them to stick to the sites given on the handout. Depending on number of computers available, students may work in pairs. They should take notes as they research. Remind them that if they write down any direct quotes, they should write down the source--they should be expected to cite any direct quotes used later in their journal entries.
- Researching may take from one to three days, depending on time and how involved the students become. This may also be partially done as homework. Once researching is done, it is time to write.
- Discuss what kinds of things can be found in a diary: events (big and small--community, family and personal), emotional responses, thoughts, questions, goals, dreams, plans ... Remind them that a diary is usually very personal, and therefore presents the personality of the writer. The ‘voice' of the writer is strong and evident in most diaries. It is important that they know as much as possible about the person whose voice they are taking on before beginning to write their diaries.
- Ask them to create a "slave persona" for themselves. They should write down:
- Their name
- What kind of a household they live in
- What kind of a person or family owns them
- What kind of work they are expected to do
- Any relatives they may have--do they live with those relatives?
- Anything else that might be important
- Next, they are to write a series of at least five diary entries. Refer to the handout for specific expectations. At this time, hand out the Rubric and encourage students to refer to it as they draft, revise and edit their diaries.
- Writing the diaries can be done as homework, rather than in class if desired.
- Before turning their diaries in, students could share one or more entries, either in front of the entire class, or in small groups. This sharing could include questions by the audience--questions about the slave writer and about items in the diary entries.
- As a closing activity, pass out Post-It notes. Ask students to write down new things that they learned as a result of their research, and after hearing other students' diary entries. They should write down one thing per Post-It note. Have them stick them up on the KWL chart in the appropriate section ("L" - What I Learned). If time allows, read some or all of these notes; check to see that all questions ("W"--What do I want to know) have been answered. If some have not, it might be of value to discuss those--are there answers, or are some questions about the past unanswerable?
Assessment
Teachers can create their own rubric based on criteria they choose.
Related Works
Students might be interested in and encouraged to read complete autobiographies of slaves. These include (but are not limited to):
- From Fugitive Slave to Free Man: The Autobiographies of William Wells Brown by William Wells Brown and William L. Andrews
- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet Ann Jacobs
- Autobiographies: Narrative of the Life, My Bondage & My Freedom: Life & Times by Frederick Douglass and Henry Louis Gates
- The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African by Olaudah Equiano
- Memories of Childhood's Slavery Days by Annie L. Burton (online at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/burton/burton.html)
- Voice of the Fugitive by Henry Walton Bibb
- Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853 by Solomon Northup
Interdisciplinary Links
This lesson could be used in either a United States History class, or an American Literature class, during a unit on slave literature and narratives.
This lesson was submitted by Barbara Bureker, a Language Arts teacher in Vancouver, Washington.
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