Slavery: A Lesson based on the questions from students

Slavery: A Lesson based on the questions from students

In this lesson, we'll try to answer questions that students in history classes have been asking about slavery for years

Over the past 20 years, many questions have been asked by students about slavery.

This lesson tries to address some of the most frequently asked questions, to give a general understanding of some aspects and history of slavery. This lesson is not intended, nor does it come close, to addressing the deep and complex history of slavery in America. It is only a brief introduction.

The study of slavery in America is a hard history because of its nature and its own history in education.

Slavery, as a topic in American history, was restricted, omitted, and altered for a long time in American education. Its study stirs emotions ranging from anger to shame. Nonetheless, to ignore it means neglecting the racist legacy with which it has scarred America. One must study a disease to find its cure.

The platform for this lesson, Quizziz, is not intended to 'gamify' or trivialize the heavy, mature topic of slavery.

This platform was chosen because of the question/answer components, and a generally engaging presentation setup.

The questions included in this lesson, was seriously and thoughtfully made by 8th grade students. Answers are based on research and education from published secondary, web, and primary sources.

Let's begin.

Multiple Choice

Why did slavery begin? When did it begin? Who started it? Why did someone think it was okay to do this? What groups of people were enslaved in history?

• slavery began when farming began with the desire to make someone else do the hard work

• slavery is not attributed to one person or group of people in history, but was commonly known in the ancient world

• Greeks, Romans, Jews, Africans, serfs, Indigenous Americans, and millions of others in history were enslaved at some point in history

• All of these answers are accurate

Slavery began

when farming began, with the desire of someone to make someone else do the work. Farming began in the ancient world, in the Stone Age, so it has been around for thousands of years. Because economics can be intimately tied to culture, in many cases through time, slavery was just accepted by many, but always resisted as well.

Multiple Choice

Why Africa? Why were Africans targeted? Why was race a factor?

• European explorers tapped into an existing slave trade within Africa

• Europeans had items, like guns, that Africans desired to protect themselves from other enslaving tribes

• In exchange for such protection, some tribes would enslave others, to get guns, to protect their tribe from being enslaved

• ALL OF THESE----led to and perpetuated a vicious cycle that led to 12 million Africans being kidnapped, captured, and enslaved

Why?

The story of European exploration is also a story of exploitation. European colonizers attempted to enslave Indigenous Americans, but disease killed most of these slaves. Africans, being from the Old World, had immunities that people of the New World did not. The colonizers turned to a new source of slave labor, Africa. Once it was profitable, the Europeans did not want to stop.

Multiple Choice

When did slavery begin in America, in what becomes the United States?

• 1492, with Columbus

• 1619, at Jamestown, in Virginia

• 1776, when they deleted Jefferson's grievance against King George and TJ's call to end the slave trade

• 1789, at the Constitutional Convention with the 3/5ths Compromise

Slavery in "America" begins in 1619

Slaves arrived at Jamestown, Virginia (the colony). Efforts to end slavery failed when the Continental Congress' Southern faction held their votes hostage unless slavery was secured. Also, slavery nearly derailed the Constitutional Convention over the issue of counting slaves in the Census.

What language would an enslaved person from Africa speak? What happened to cultural traditions?

A captive from Africa was frequently restricted from using a native language, and had to learn English for survival. Native traditions was discouraged, but many survived in a new slave culture that developed in America over the next 200 years.

Multiple Choice

How does slavery relate to the Civil War? Does the Civil War end slavery? Did slavery cause the Civil War?

• slavery is the main underlying cause of a divided United States in 1861 when the Civil War began

• Slavery is the most divisive, controversial, and shameful issue in American history. It is intimately connected to the bloodiest, most vicious, and critical events in U.S. history, the Civil War

• the Civil War leads to the end of American slavery, beginning with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and followed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution

• ALL OF THESE, plus more events, factors, and people link slavery to the Civil War

There are multiple causes to the Civil War

Slavery is the central underlying cause of the Civil War. Other causes and events, ranging from secession, to Lincoln's election, or "cultural differences" are connected to slavery in America in one or multiple ways.

Antebellum is the time before the Civil War

One of our major goals for this unit is to understand how slavery and abolition were dividing factors in America that led the U.S. to Civil War. That story will include how many Americans resisted slavery, fought to establish freedom, and to end slavery entirely.

Multiple Choice

Where did slavery exist in the United States? Was it only in the South? Why was slavery not common in the North?

• Slavery existed in the Southern states

• slavery existed everywhere

• slavery existed in Southern states, and in states where agricultural cash crops could be grown

Slavery was mostly in the South

The ability to grow cash crops like cotton, rice, tobacco, and sugar was isolated to states with warmer climates. Although slavery existed in Northern states during the Colonial era, it died out in the North by 1800. The cotton gin grew slavery in the South, where cotton could grown and became extremely profitable for planters.

Multiple Choice

What were living conditions like? What did they eat? What was their clothing and shelter like?

• most slaves lived in one room cabins with dirt for a floor

• Food and clothing materials were rationed to slaves on a regular basis

• life was difficult and harsh

• ALL OF THESE conditions demonstrate a difficult and stressful life in which a slave lived

A difficult life

Most slaves lived in one room cabins with dirt for a floors crowded with multiple individuals sharing living and sleeping spaces. Food and clothing materials were rationed to slaves on a regular basis, but were woefully insufficient. Many slaves supplemented their diets with a personal garden they might tend if any spare time allowed

Multiple Choice

How long did a slave have to work? What were the "hours" for work? When did a child begin work?

• slaves worked for a few hours a day; children did not have to work until they were 18

• slaves worked from sunrise to sunset, and even longer during harvest; children were expected to begin work at 12

At 12 years old a slave was expected to work

Prior to that time, a child might be expected to be a child. Work began at dawn and continued until dark, for most of the months of the year. Most work was hard, manual labor in agriculture. Some work might be as a servant in a house. Older women might work taking care of babies and small children.

Multiple Choice

Were children and babies considered slaves? How was a child determined to be a slave? Were women allowed to have children?

• Yes, babies and children were consider slaves, or property of the slave owner. The children of a slave woman were considered to be slaves.

• No, children and babies were not slaves because they did not work.

• Women were discouraged from having babies because it would stop them from working

Slavery was matrilineal,

meaning that the status of an individual was determined by the mother's status. A female slave gave birth to other slaves. Slave owners wanted the women to have children because it provided more slaves to that slave owner, thus increasing the property ownership of the planter (slave owner).

What would happen to a child of mixed race? Is it true that slave masters raped female slaves and then enslaved their own children?

Rape was a common example of abuse against enslaved women. In many cases, slave owners raped their female slaves, and then would enslave their mixed race children. Thomas Jefferson fathered six children with his slave Sally Hemings. All were enslaved. Hemings, herself, was of mixed race heritage.

Multiple Choice

Were there Presidents who owned slaves? How many presidents owned slaves?

• all presidents from George Washington to James Buchanan owned slaves at some point in their lives

• no presidents owned slaves

• Just George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, right?

• Twelve presidents held slaves at some point in their lives, eight of which held slaves while in office

Twelve presidents held slaves

• John Adams and Quincy Adams notably did NOT. Quincy Adams once argued before the Supreme Court for the release of captured Africans.

• Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, VanBuren, W.H. Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and U.S. Grant held slaves at some point

• Grant inherited one slave through his wife, Julia Dent who was from a slave holding family. Grant freed the man after one year, in 1859.

• Mary Todd Lincoln was from a Kentucky slave holding family, but she hated slavery, as did Abraham Lincoln.

Multiple Choice

Were slave children sold? How much did slaves cost? Did they separate parents from their children?

• No, they would not separate a child from their mother

• Yes, slaves, adult or child, might be sold and separated from kin

Slavery was highly economic

And completely devoid of morality. Nonetheless, auction houses facilitated the sale of slaves. Slaves might be sold for hundreds to upwards of two thousand dollars. Profits in cash crops would lead to more investments in slaves; More investment in slaves led to higher profits in cash crops.

Slaves often were separated from family

The sale of a slave meant that they were most likely being separated from family and friends. Children might be separated from mothers through the sale of either. Although producing children was encouraged for economic purposes, official marriages were illegal because of the contradictory content of vows to the concept of slavery.

Multiple Choice

Why didn't slaves just run away?

• it was too difficult

• fear existed of the unknown

• the consequences were severe

• all of these are legitimate reasons why a slave might NOT try to escape

Slaves did run away. It's called the "Underground Railroad."

Many slaves escaped over the hundreds of years of American slavery. However, it was difficult to MAINTAIN the escape. Slave owners took great lengths to capture runaways, and then punished them severely to discourage and place fear in slaves who might consider it.

Multiple Choice

How many escape on the Underground Railroad?

• a few

• hundreds

• thousands

• over 100,000

The Underground Railroad

Over 100,000 slaves escaped via the Underground Railroad in the two and half centuries of American slavery. It includes all efforts, methods, and routes used by individuals to escape slavery in America.

Multiple Choice

How severe were punishments? Did they kill slaves for not doing work or running away? Did they really punish slaves for reading or writing?

• Yes, they killed slaves frequently for the slightest of resistance

• Punishments were not that harsh, most slave owners were kind to their slaves

• Punishments varied from isolation to restraints (like being tied to something), to reduction in rations, and/or whippings

Punishments could be very severe

Law books protected the slave owner's right to punish slaves. In some cases, a slave might be restrained for hours without food or water for a minor resistance. Whippings might be used in any case either, such a violation of a reading prohibition.

Multiple Select

Why was reading and writing illegal?

• "Once your learn to read, you will be forever free." --Frederick Douglass

• "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave." --Frederick Douglass

• “The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery."--Frederick Douglass

Literacy, or the knowledge to read and write,

was liberating to a slave. They could learn about their rights. They could read about slave revolts. They could write testimonies, petitions, and essays about the evils of slavery. Frederick Douglass published his own abolitionist newspaper and autobiography, both of which were dedicated to the eradication of slavery.

Multiple Choice

Why couldn't they just pass laws to make slavery illegal?

• Some states, in the North, did make slavery illegal. However, some Federal laws supported slavery and cancelled the power of state laws to restrict it.

• state governments in the South supported slavery

• slavery was in the Constitution (through the 3/5 Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Clause) and therefore, could not be restricted unless the Constitution was amended

• ALL OF THESE attempt to explain the legal hurdles that existed to making slavery illegal

Slavery was protected by the Constitution

and this made it nearly impossible to eradicate. Northern states passed laws against slavery, but Federal laws, like the Fugitive Slave Law, cancelled attempts to prohibit slavery. Political support in the South made it almost impossible to end it. The Civil War and the 13th Amendment ultimately solve the legal obstacles.

Multiple Choice

Does slavery still exist today? Are slavery and human trafficking the same?

• yes

• no

• yes and no

Human trafficking is considered modern day slavery

Chattel slavery, or the legal ownership of a person as property, was the variety that predominated the 18th and 19th Centuries. Modern slavery and human trafficking are internationally illegal, but not criminally prosecuted in many countries. Human trafficking is performed in many cases beyond the vision of law enforcement.

Modern day slavery exists around the world, and in the U.S.

Modern day slavery includes:

-Sex Trafficking & Child Sex Trafficking (prostitution)

-Forced Labor and Bonded Labor or Debt Bondage (forced to work to pay off a debt)

-Domestic Servitude

-Forced Child Labor

-Unlawful Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers

Multiple Choice

Why didn't slaves fight back? Why didn't they resist?

• they did not know how

• they were afraid

• they did resist, from the beginning, and throughout the duration of slavery in ways that varied from simple avoidance of work to full scale slave revolts

A myth is that slaves did not resist

"Resistance was present from the beginning" argues Dr. John Hope Franklin. Captives resisted being taken, individuals resisted in various small ways, and in some cases, violent revolts. In these revolts, slaves often found themselves unmatched to firepower, the law, and manpower used to stop the resistance.

Multiple Choice

Were there people who tried to help the slaves? Were there people who tried to end slavery?

• No, the slaves were on their own

• No, nobody tried to stop it

• Yes, and they are called ABOLITIONISTS

Abolitionists are the greatest heroes in American history

There were not many in 1830, but their movement grew. They dedicated their lives to resisting and trying to end slavery. They worked in the Underground Railroad, they worked in newspapers, they worked to convince politicians, and ultimately, when the Civil War comes, they fight.

Although this lesson may not have addressed all questions you may have had, it attempted to answer some of the most frequent questions by students over the past two decades

Thousands of questions have been submitted, but this lesson concentrated and collated questions thematically as efficiently as possible.

In this unit, we'll try to elaborate on these questions and answers to gain a deeper understanding of this history, and how it led to a Civil War

We'll examine some primary sources, focus on resistance, Abolitionists, and the Underground Railroad before moving to other political events that divided the nation.