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Lesson Plan
African Americans
1800 ~ 1870
 Search
Strategies for Researching the Lives of African Americans
I.
Learning Outcomes and Standards
(These
standards are from the State of North Carolina, but can be adapted
to apply
to your own State, District or School)
A.
Social Studies Skills Competency Goals North Carolina
Skill Competency Goal
2: The learner will acquire strategies to access a variety of sources, and
use appropriate research skills to gather, synthesize, and report
information using diverse modalities to demonstrate the knowledge
acquired.
Objectives:
2.01
Use appropriate sources of Information
2.02
Explore print and non-print material
2.03
Utilize different types of technology
2.04
Utilize community-related resources such as field trips, guest speakers,
and interviews
2.06
Create written, oral, musical, visual, and theatrical presentations of
social studies information
B. North Carolina
African American Studies
Competency Goal 3
The learner will demonstrate an understanding of African American life and
cultural
contributions through 1860.
Objectives:
3.01.
Compare and contrast African American urban and rural communities in the
North and the South
3.02.
Discuss and analyze the black family in antebellum America
3.04 Identify the contributions of African Americans in science
and the arts.
C. Other
Learning Outcomes
Students will learn to search for and use primary sources to
complete their project and they will use proper
documentation format as prescribed
by the teacher.
II. Historical Background
This assignment is using a specific area of history
life of African Americans 1800-1870 to teach students not just the
factual content of this era in history, but also how to conduct research
using a variety of sources including special reference works, primary
documents, and interviews with experts. The
students will be guided by teachers to use area resources as well as
national resources to learn about the living and working environment of
both slave and free African Americans from places throughout the United
States.
Many times when teachers approach this period in American history,
the only discussion of African Americans is usually slave life on a
plantation with escape to the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass,
Harriet Tubman, Dred Scott and a few other known figures are emphasized,
but this is telling only part of the story of African Americans.
Although there were over three million slaves in the South at the
beginning of the Civil War, there were hundreds of thousands of free
blacks whose story goes untold. These free blacks, along with skilled
slaves who were hired out, maintained businesses and supported their
families.
This Lesson Plan will identify some figures for additional research
and guide students on how to research these unknowns to get a
broader understanding of African American life between 1800 and 1870. It
is our desire that teachers in each state will search out additional names
of people from their own communities or states to encourage students to
learn more about their own local history. The research skills that
students acquire, especially with primary sources, archival materials, and
historic sites, can be applied to other history assignments.
III. Procedures for Teachers
A. Develop a list of slaves or free blacks living in America during the antebellum era.
Try to include local/state citizens so students not only learn more about
their area, but also can locate special resources for the area.
These could be writers, business people, political people or
related topics such as quilting or carpentry.
Examples ~ Thomas
Day 1801-1861, cabinet maker, North Carolina
Charlotte Forten 1837 -1914 South
Carolina teacher from Philadelphia
Clara Brown 1803-1885 Laundress,
Colorado
Hiram Young ca1812-1882, wagon-maker/ blacksmith, Missouri
James Derham ca1757- physician, New Orleans
B.
Develop goals/parameters of what the students are expected to find out
about their person.
Lifestyle, family, education, special skill or contribution,
working environment,
later life
C.
Decide on the format of the end product.
Examples ~ a
research paper
a
creative writing story, letter, poem role playing the person or
about the person
an
oral presentation to the class
a
PowerPoint program
a
living history re-enactment
a
recording of an original document
IV.
Procedures for Students
A. Begin
with what the students know.
Read a textbook and/or general
encyclopedia to get an understanding of place, time, and occupation.
B. Develop
a list of questions.
Seek out specific material on the person and place,
then identify sources to hopefully reveal the information.
C. Begin
searching in the following places.
Must use at least ______ (to be
determined by teacher) of the following sources.
All information cannot come from one source.
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1-
Specialized
Reference books
a.
Example
African American Encyclopedia, Black
American Women
b.
Check the
bibliography or notes for other sources
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2-
Card
catalog to determine what is available in the local library
a.
Books
b.
Audio-visuals
(consider listing some PBS documentaries here)
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3-
Consult
recent (20th century) periodicals for articles on the
person or related topic
Examples ~
Smithsonian, National
Geographic, American Heritage, which may be in print, online database
(electronic), or microfilm
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4- Consult specialized journals (recommended for high school) with
scholarly topics
Examples ~ Journal
of Negro History, Journal of Southern History
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5-
Locate a
period newspaper (1800-1870) if available, usually on microfilm
a.
Look for
obituaries
b.
Ads for
businesses
c.
Political
information
d.
Editorials
on community aspects
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6- Interlibrary
loan what is available from other places
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7- Photographs/image
of people or related topics
a.
May be
found in print sources such as periodical or newspapers
b.
May be
found on
websites examples see Library of Congress American Memory
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8- Primary documents in state or local
archives
First determine what the local (town/county/district) library
may have in a special collection or on microfilm about the area. If these
are not available on a local level, determine where are they in the state
and what is available there.
a.
Census
records particularly 1850 to 1930 because names and occupations are given. Usually
these are on microfilm within each county. Some libraries include regional census records. These
documents can list names, age, family relationships,
occupation, and literacy. To learn more about using census records see: www.nara.gov.
b.
Vital
records birth, marriage and death records these vary from state to
state, but some are available in the 1800s, others not until the 1900s as
public records.
c.
City
directories these are only going to be available for urban areas but
they can give an address, an occupation, and sometimes family information.
d.
Church
records can be local or denomination headquarters can include
membership lists, baptism, marriage or death records.
e.
Land
records deeds, tax records, and
maps can indicate the wealth of a person in property and the location of
the specific property and place it in a specific environment in a busy
part of town, or out in the country.
Depending on state, these records may be in the county
courthouse, the local library or a state archive.
f.
Actual
writing by person poetry, letters, short stories ~ Example:
www.docsouth.unc.edu/ -
Documenting the American South which has primary sources of: slave
narratives, literature, first person narratives, church in the Black
community, and the Southern home front.
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9- Expert testimony/ authorities obtained from
interviews
Students should locate the experts using telephone or
internet directories, contact the person or place and arrange an
appointment for an interview. If a live interview is not possible,
consider conducting the interview via email.
a.
Museum
staff
b. Historic
sites
c. College
professors
d. Authors
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10- Historic markers and historic sites
a. Is there a state or local historic marker about the person?
b. Is there a historic site (state or national) that might have
information about the time or working environment that the person would
have been living in?
Example ~ Colonial
Williamsburg about colonial life in the South
Homestead National Monument in Nebraska about people settling the
west
Go to http://nps.gov to locate a
national historic park.
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11- Special internet sources
a.
PBS.org
b. Library of Congress
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V.
Suggestions for Assessment
Develop
a rubric to assess or evaluate the assignment based on the goals and
objectives of the assignment that is written using State Standards and
Learning Outcomes.
A. RUBISTAR ~ A
good web site for creating rubrics for project-based-learning activities
is
B. Kathy
Schrocks web pages ~ A collection of assessment rubrics and graphic
organizers.
C. Wiggins,
Grant. Educative
Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and
Improve Student Performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998. This book presents a rationale for learning-centered authentic assessment
and an overview of the tools, techniques, and issues that educators should
consider as they design and use assessments focused on learner needs.
D. Sample Rubric
for Assessing Any Role Play
E. Sample Performance
Checklist/Evaluation form for PowerPoint
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