Slavery in America

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Slavery in America Gateway
General Slavery Web Resources

Web site Evaluators
Jeff Gray - Charlotte Mecklenbury Schools, North Carolina
Marc Lundquist - South Middle School, Wisconsin
Laura Minnigerode - Marin Day Schools, California
Kent Willmann - Silver Creek High, Colorado

Web site Reviewer and Compiler
Tori Austin - Education Service Center, Texas

Site Ratings

1 = Poor

2 = Fair

3 = Good

4 = Excellent

Africans in America, PBS
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia
"African Americans is one of the finest web sites on slavery available to teachers." Developed as support to the PBS series, the site offers "volumes of information presented in various ways." In addition to the primary source documents such as images, documents, and biographies, teachers will find a Teacher's Guide which is an "excellent source" of information with "exceptional components" for classroom use. The site is "a must" for supporting the use of the video series, which is appropriate for middle and high school students.
Overall Rating: 4

Captive Passage: Arrival in the New World
http://www.mariner.org/captivepassage/arrival/arr015.html
This site is part of the online Mariner’s Museum, funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities. It describes the religion of the slaves arriving from African, and “how this religion shaped their practice of Christianity when they were converted.” The content is easily read by high school and advanced middle school students. Links lead to other sites relevant to the study of Slavery, which include information about music, funerals and hardships of life as a slave, among other things. “This should be a stop on everyone’s online tour of slavery. It is easy to navigate with tons of primary sources,” and includes “great pictures, easy to access narrative and plenty of interactive features. It does all the things a good history web site should.”
Overall Rating: 4

Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
http://www.yale.edu/glc
Teachers looking for resources to explore the institution of slavery in the American colonies and in the United States will find "a wealth of information" on this site. Site resources include primary source documents, essays on the topic, political cartoons, as well as commentaries on slavery, resistance, and abolition. The primary documents "provide great opportunities" for teachers in preparation for AP exams to develop lessons targeting DBQs (document based questions). In addition to the resources on which teachers could build instructional activities or units, there is a "complete and useful" set of lesson plans related to the Amistad case. The material "should be used with higher-level high school students." The documents "can be lengthy and unabridged; therefore making them difficult to use in classes." Overall, "coverage of this sensitive topic is fair and balanced."
Overall Rating: 3

Common Place
http://www.common-place.org/vol-01/no-04/
Scholarly debate, book reviews, and essays focused on slavery in the United States can be found on this site. The resource, appropriate for teachers and high-level students, provide background information on the topic. The site contains "political arguments" and involves discussion on a sensitive topic that some readers may find as a strong liberal or conservative bias. There are no teacher resources on the site and one reviewer suggested "not including this site as one of the links."
Overall Rating: 2

Remembering Slavery
http://www.rememberingslavery.org
This site, developed to support a series of books and audiotapes, includes "very strong and focused primary sources" such as interviews with former slaves depicting "their personal experiences with slavery and emancipation." These interviews bring an "authentic quality" to the topic and a "new level of understanding comes from listening and reading the interviews." There are, however, drawbacks to using this site. First of all, there is a fee for the plug-in to listen to the interviews and the plug-in may not be accessible with all computers. Secondly, site use is limited without access to the accompanying books and audiotapes. The site could be used to support instruction at the middle and high school levels, providing, access is available to connection resources.
Overall Rating: 2