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Lesson Plan
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Smithsonian Institution

John Brown’s Legacy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
So who exactly was John Brown? John Brown fought for abolition during the Civil War. Scholars learn all about his legacy through the variety of activities in the sixth of 15 lessons, including viewing and analyzing primary source...
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Unit Plan
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Colonial Tobacco Economy

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Tobacco as money? Middle schoolers investigate how eighteenth-century Virginia farmers used tobacco as a cash crop to buy tools, livestock, and household goods. They also examine the connection between tobacco production and the slave...
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Lesson Plan
History with Peters

A Clear Signal for Change: Multiple Interpretations and Nat Turner’s Rebellion

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Was Nat Turner a hero or a violent criminal? Using primary sources and images that discuss the rebellion of enslaved people he led in antebellum Virginia, scholars consider the question. Then, they create memorials to Turner and...
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eBook
Rice University

U.S. History

For Students 9th - Higher Ed
How did the discovery of the Americas change the world? A US history textbook covers topics such as the Americas, changes in European society, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Young academics also complete the assessment included in...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Deconstructing Reconstruction: The Reconstruction Era

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
High schoolers examine the Reconstruction programs instituted following the American Civil War, the potential for change these efforts offered, and the realities that occurred. Guided by a PowerPoint presentation, class members read a...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Spirits Across the Ocean: Yoruban and Dahomean Cultures in the Caribbean Brought by the Slave Trade

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Much of Latin American music owes its origins to the slave trade. Peoples from the Yoruban and Dahomean cultures brought with them the distinctive rhythms, time signatures, and eighth note patterns that now characterize Caribbean music....
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Lesson Plan
1
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National Park Service

Lesson 1: Journaling with Songs of Freedom

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
There's more to music than a memorable tune. The songs of those who were enslaved reveal the harsh realities of their lives. Using both songs and slave narratives, historians uncover this hidden history. The lesson incorporates a variety...
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Lesson Plan
1
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National Park Service

Lesson 4: Escape

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Some enslaved people decided to run for their liberation. Using lyrics of songs they sang, young historians look at these anthems of freedom. An assessment asks them to write the story of escape from the perspective of an enslaved...
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Lesson Plan
1
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National Park Service

Lesson 5: Coded Spirituals, Metaphor in African Spirituals

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
If a picture is worth a thousand words, song lyrics also can communicate many meanings. Using the lyrics of spirituals, young historians analyze them for coded messages about freedom. Resources include a chart to help individuals track...
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Lesson Plan
1
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National Park Service

Lesson 2: Hope

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
There's hope in music. Pupils discover what gave enslaved people hope by examining lyrics and music during their time of bondage. A series of prompts helps individuals investigate songs of enslaved people. The cumulative assignment...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: Retelling History Through Dance and Drama

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Scholars listen to several pieces of music in preparation for a discussion about how instruments and lyrics convey emotions. With Harriet Tubman as the focus, small groups create an original song or dance. A reflection piece concludes...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: An Informative and Impressionistic Look

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Informational text and impressionistic art lead a lesson about Harriet Tubman. Working in teams, scholars examine a variety of resources. They analyze, compare, and contrast the work.  Using their research findings, pupils create an...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Center

Harriet Tubman: Secret Messages Through Song

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
A lesson all about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad introduces scholars to African American spirituals. By way of reading, speaking, and listening, learners discover, analyze, and decode African American spirituals. They...
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Lesson Plan
1
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Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

George Washington: General, President, Slave Owner

For Teachers 8th
Times change; behaviors that were once considered acceptable can be seen in a very different light. Middle schoolers revisit the legacy of George Washington in a three-day lesson plan that uses primary sources to reveal Washington as a...
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PPT
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Livaudais-Baker English Classroom

Kindred Introduction

For Students 11th Standards
A 16-slide PowerPoint presentation introduces readers to the themes, motifs, and literary devices used by Octavia E. Butler in her time-travel, first person slave narrative.
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Interactive
Mr. Nussbaum

Harriet Tubman

For Students 4th - 6th Standards
Harriet Tubman is the focus of an interactive that challenges scholars to read an informational text and answer 10 questions about her. 
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

Emancipation: Does It Matter Who Freed the Slaves?

For Teachers 11th
Scholars generally agree on the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. This inquiry-based lesson asks high schoolers to consider more than the claims of who freed the enslaved people but the significance of the issues...
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Unit Plan
C3 Teachers

Reparations: Why Are Reparations Controversial?

For Teachers 8th
To understand why the topic of reparations is controversial, young scholars gather background information by reading articles, watching videos, and examining cases where reparations were made. Learners consider the lasting repercussions...
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Lesson Plan
1
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US House of Representatives

“The Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood,” The Symbolic Generation of Black Americans in Congress, 1870–1887

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The reading of a contextual essay launches a study of Black Americans who served in Congress from 1870 through 1887. Young historians identify the African Americans who served during this period, investigate the ways they won national...
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Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

African-American Communities in the North Before the Civil War

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Middle schoolers may be surprised to learn that before the American Civil War there were more slaves living in New York than there were in Kentucky! Young historians examine maps and census data to gather statistics about...
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Lesson Plan
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Women Abolitionists

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers examine the role of women abolitionists during the Civil War. Using essays and biographies, they try to identify the race and class of the different women activists and determine the expectations of the genders during this...
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

Thomas Day's Letter to His Daughter, Mary Ann

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Why is a letter a better way to learn about a person than a different primary source? Explore Thomas Day's ideas and advice to his daughter in a letter from 1851, which details the struggles of the American South before the Civil War....
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Lesson Plan
Crafting Freedom

Man in the Middle: Thomas Day and the Free Black Experience

For Teachers 5th Standards
How did free and enslaved blacks work to craft freedom for themselves and their families before the Civil War? Young historians read about the life of Thomas Day, a free black man who also owned slaves and had abolitionist ties in...
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Lesson Plan
Carolina K-12

Comparing Slave Trades: A Study of the Transatlantic and Trans-Saharan Slave Trades

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
While most people are familiar with the transatlantic slave trade, there is less knowledge of another major external African slave trade in world history: the trans-Saharan slave trade. Pupils work in groups to read informational texts...

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