LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Families in Bondage

http://edsitement.neh.fed.us/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=280

A lesson plan for Grades 11–12 United States History

Provider: National Endowment for the Humanities

About this resource

Appropriate grades
11–12
Subjects
social studies (African Americans, United States history)
Provider
National Endowment for the Humanities

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This two-part lesson plan draws on letters written by African Americans in slavery and by free blacks to loved ones still in bondage, singling out a few among the many slave experiences to offer students a glimpse into slavery and its effects on African American family life.

In Part I, students examine the letters of Hannah Valentine, an enslaved woman who lived on a Virginia plantation, drawing information from them to diagram her own family circle and the network of relationships to white society that defined her world. They next compare Valentine's letters to her daughter and husband with a letter to her master's wife, noting differences in tone and substance to draw conclusions about the emotional bonds within her family and the more problematic bonds that made her part of her master's family as well. Finally, students write a short analysis describing Valentine's complex family life.

In Part II of the lesson plan, students read letters from a fugitive slave to his still-enslaved wife and from a black Union soldier to his still-enslaved daughters, confronting directly the anguish of separation that was a constant factor in African American family life during slave times, when children and parents, husbands and wives, were routinely sold away from one another. Through these letters, students explore some of the ways African Americans sought to overcome this anguish, and using these letters as a lens, they re-examine Hannah Valentine's letters to discover a similar anguish in her seemingly secure family life.

Finally, students explore the emotional terrain revealed in these letters by comparing the response to separation voiced by Valentine with that voiced by the Union soldier and the fugitive slave.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Social Studies (2003)

Grades 11–12 — United States History

  • Goal 2: Expansion and Reform (1801-1850) - The learner will assess the competing forces of expansionism, nationalism, and sectionalism.
    • Objective 2.03: Distinguish between the economic and social issues that led to sectionalism and nationalism.

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 11 — English III

  • Goal 1: The learner will demonstrate increasing insight and reflection to print and non-print text through personal expression.
    • Objective 1.02: Reflect and respond expressively to texts so that the audience will:
      - discover multiple perspectives.
      - investigate connections between life and literature.
      - explore how the student's life experiences influence his or her response to the selection.
      - recognize how the responses of others may be different.
      - articulate insightful connections between life and literature.
      -consider cultural or historical significance.
  • Goal 2: The learner will inform an audience by using a variety of media to research and explain insights into language and culture.
    • Objective 2.01: Research ideas, events, and/or movements related to United States culture by:
      - locating facts and details for purposeful elaboration.
      - organizing information to create a structure for purpose, audience, and context.
      - excluding extraneous information.
      -providing accurate documentation.
    • Objective 2.03: Respond to informational texts by:
      - using a variety of strategies for preparation, engagement, and reflection.
      - paraphrasing main ideas and supporting details present in texts.
      -explaining significant connections among the speaker's/author's purpose, tone, biases, and the message for the intended audience.
  • Goal 3: The learner will demonstrate increasing sophistication in defining issues and using argument effectively.
    • Objective 3.01: Use language persuasively in addressing a particular issue by:
      - finding and interpreting information effectively.
      - recognizing propaganda as a purposeful technique.
      - establishing and defending a point of view.
      -responding respectfully to viewpoints and biases.
    • Objective 3.03: Use argumentation for:
      - interpreting researched information effectively.
      - establishing and defending a point of view.
      - addressing concerns of the opposition.
      - using logical strategies (e.g., deductive and inductive reasoning, syllogisms, analogies) and sophisticated techniques (e.g., rhetorical devices, parallelism, irony, concrete images).
      -developing a sense of completion.
  • Goal 4: The learner will critically analyze text to gain meaning, develop thematic connections, and synthesize ideas.
    • Objective 4.01: Interpret meaning for an audience by:
      - examining the functions and the effects of narrative strategies such as plot, conflict, suspense, point of view, characterization, and dialogue.
      - interpreting the effect of figures of speech (e.g., personification, oxymoron) and the effect of devices of sound (e.g., alliteration, onomatopoeia).
      - analyzing stylistic features such as word choice and links between sense and sound.
      - identifying ambiguity, contradiction, irony, parody, and satire.
      - demonstrating how literary works reflect the culture that shaped them.
    • Objective 4.03: Assess the power, validity, and truthfulness in the logic of arguments given in public and political documents by:
      - identifying the intent and message of the author or artist.
      - recognizing how the author addresses opposing viewpoints.
      - articulating a personal response to the message and method of the author or artist.
      -evaluating the historical significance of the work.
  • Goal 6: The learner will apply conventions of grammar and language usage.
    • Objective 6.01: Demonstrate an understanding of the conventions of language by:
      - decoding vocabulary using knowledge of Anglo-Saxon, Greek, and Latin bases and affixes.
      - discerning the relationship of word meanings between pairs of words in analogies (synonyms/antonyms, connotation/denotation).
      - revising writing to enhance voice and style, sentence variety, subtlety of meaning, and tone in considerations of questions being addressed, purpose, audience, and genres.
      - contrasting use of language conventions of authors in different time periods of United States literature.
      -analyzing the power of standard usage over nonstandard usage in formal settings such a job interviews, academic environment, or public speaking events.