State Standards

Kansas

  • Reading
    • 5.1.2.2 (Corresponds to 6.1.2.2, 7.1.2.2, 8.1.2.2)
  • Theater
    • 2.B.1.1
    • 3.B.1.1
    • 3.B.2.3
    • 3.P.2.1
    • 3.A.2.1
    • 3.A.2.2
    • 4.P.3.2
    • 4.P.3.3
    • 5.P.3.5

Missouri

  • Fine Arts
    • PP1B5
    • PP1F4,5
    • PP1F6,7
    • IC2A5,6
  • Listening and Speaking
    • 2A4,5
  • Social Studies
    • 6E6,8

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Lesson 5: Listening to Slaves

Background

In this lesson students will read transcripts of interviews with American slaves in Missouri and Kansas conducted by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s. This rich resource is found on the Library of Congress Web site along with recordings and other resources to support the lessons in this unit on John Brown.

The purpose of hearing stories from the slaves themselves is to provide the students with an understanding of the context, life, and attitude of slaves in Missouri and Kansas during the time that John Brown would have been working toward their liberation. As these stories are told, have the students think about life as a slave as compared to their own lives at the ages of these slaves.

This lesson can be an extension of Remembering Slavery or it can stand alone.

Objectives

Following the completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Describe daily life as a slave;
  2. Differentiate slave life from life of a free person;
  3. Justify the position from the point of view of a slave and of a master;
  4. Represent the slave's story through dramatization.

Time

3+ days

Materials

Computers with access to the Internet

Library of Congress Web site:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html

Optional:
Props and costumes for the dramatic readings

Procedure

Day 1

Ask the students what they know about life as a slave. Their responses will probably mirror what they have seen in movies or studied about, including working in the fields, working in the big house, and perhaps enduring some types of punishment. If they have completed the lesson, Remembering Slavery, students will have more extensive information to share.

Have students go to the Web site, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html. When they arrive at the page, select "volume" and then select either "Missouri" or "Kansas". Once on the site, students can select a story can begin to read about slave life as told by the slaves themselves.

Have students choose one to read to the class as a dramatic reading. You may want to put the students into groups and let them examine all of the stories chosen by their group members. They can select one to read as a group with roles assigned to the slaves in the story. This approach will reduce the time spent in class on the readings but will allow each student to hear at least four stories from their group in addition to those presented in class.

Days 2 and 3

Give the students time to rehearse their readings. They may bring in props or costumes on the day that they perform their dramatic reading for the class.

After the students have read their stories, allow time for the class to reflect orally on what they heard. You may want to prompt their reflection with questions such as:

  1. What was the most surprising thing you heard?
  2. What did you hear that confirmed your previous knowledge about slaves or slavery?
  3. How did you feel when you were listening to the stories?
  4. If you lived in that time, how would you have felt about slavery?

Tell the students: "Choose one of the stories you heard. Answer these questions:

  1. Justify why the master/mistress acted as he or she did. What advantage did it provide for the master/mistress?
  2. Justify why the slave acted as she or he did. What advantage did it provide for the slave?

Extension

Students may want to investigate the stories more fully and create a dramatic reading for the school or other classrooms using some of the stories found on this site.

Essay Contest

Encourage your students to participate in the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Essay Contest. You can find more about it by visiting www.kcopera.org/About/johnbrowneducation/essay.

Lesson created by Martha A. Henry and Keith S. Murray, M.A. Henry Consulting, LLC.