Slavery across North Carolina

In this lesson, students read excerpts from slave narratives to gain an understanding of how slavery developed in each region of North Carolina and how regional differences created a variety of slave experiences.

A lesson plan for grade 8 Social Studies

By Dayna Durbin Gleaves

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Learn more

• Experience of Uncle Tom Jones, Who Was for Forty Years a Slave This primary source from Documenting the American South provides the full text of the memoirs of Thomas H. Jones, who wrote his biography to purchase his son's freedom.
• Recollections of My Slavery Days This narrative by William H. Singleton is from the Documenting the American South collection and tells of his life in slavery.
• Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy From the Documenting the American South collection, this primary source tells the story of Moses Grandy's life and how he bought his own and his family's freedoms.
• The Narrative of Lunsford Lane From the Documenting the American South collection, this page has the full text of Lunsford Lane's narrative.
• Narrative of James Curry, a Fugitive Slave The full text of Jame Curry's narrative is available here, through Documenting the American South.
• Fannie Dorum narrative This links to the first page of Fannie Dorum’s five-page narrative, part of the Library of Congress’ collection of slave narratives recorded in the 1930’s for the Federal Writers’ Project. Follow the site’s “next page” links to access all five pages.

Related pages

• Mountain dialect: Reading between the spoken lines: This lesson plan uses Chapter 13 of Our Southern Highlanders as a jumping-off point to help students achieve social studies and English language arts objectives while developing an appreciation of the uniqueness of regional speech patterns, the complexities of ethnographic encounter, and the need to interrogate primary sources carefully to identify potential biases and misinformation in them. Historical content includes American slavery, the turn of the century, and the Great Depression.
• Spirituals and the power of music in slave narratives: In this lesson, students will learn about the importance of music in the lives of slaves by reading slave narratives and listening to recordings.
• Exploring the church in the southern black community: Students explore the Documenting the American South Collection titled, the “Church in the Southern Black Community.” Beginning with a historian's interpretation of the primary sources that make up the collection, students search the collection for evidence to describe the experiences of African Americans living in the south during the Antebellum through the Reconstruction Period centering on their community churches. The activity culminates in student presentations of a digital scrap book.

Related topics

• Learn more about African American history, African Americans, American history, North Carolina, North Carolina history, history, mapping, oral histories, slave narratives, and slavery.

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Often our impression of slavery is one of slaves toiling in the fields of a large plantation, but slaves in North Carolina had diverse experiences. Although some North Carolina slaves did work on large plantations, many more worked on small farms. Others labored as skilled artisans, performed domestic work, worked in the shipping industry near the coast, or were able to “hire out” their time and work for themselves. In this lesson, students will read excerpts from slave narratives written by North Carolinians from different parts of the state. Taking what they’ve learned from the narratives, students will then create a map illustrating the differing types of labor associated with each region.

Learning outcomes

• Students will recognize the variety of slave experiences.
• Students will understand how slavery developed in each region of North Carolina.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

Two to three hours

Materials needed

• North Carolina state map for each student
• North Carolina atlas or online map
• Art supplies to illustrate map (pencils, pens, markers, magazines, scissors and glue for collage, etc.)
• Print and online sources for research (see Supplemental Information below)
• A computer with internet access for each student to read narratives, or printed copies of the narratives for each student
• Slave narrative excerpts:
  • Coastal area
    • Excerpt from Experience and Personal Narrative of Uncle Tom Jones (1850s) by Thomas H. Jones, Wilmington, N.C.
    • Excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy (1843) by Moses Grandy, Camden County, N.C.
    • Excerpt from Recollections of My Slavery Days (1922) by William Henry Singleton, New Bern, N.C.
  • Urban areas
    • Excerpt from The Narrative of Lunsford Lane (1842) by Lunsford Lane, Raleigh, N.C.
  • Piedmont
    • Excerpts from Narrative of James Curry, a Fugitive Slave (1840) by James Curry, Person County, N.C.
  • Western North Carolina
    • Excerpt from Federal Writer’s Project interview with Fannie Dorum, Franklin, N.C.

Pre-activities

• Students should have basic background knowledge of slavery in North Carolina.
• Teachers should read through the slave narrative excerpts in preparation for the lesson.

Note: The slave narrative excerpts used in this lesson have been selected for grade-level appropriateness and avoid the most shocking themes of the slave narratives, such as extreme violence and sexual abuse. Links to the full-length narratives, available on the Documenting the American South website, are provided in the sidebar. If students choose to read further in the online slave narratives, teachers may wish to lead an additional discussion on some of the difficult themes they may encounter, such as violence, sexual abuse, and use of racist language, before students read the narratives.

Activities

1. As a class, brainstorm images that come to mind when you think of slavery. Record these ideas in a place where you can refer to them again later. If the class comes up with images such as cotton fields, plantations, etc., ask where they have seen or heard of these images.
2. Explain that while many slaves did work on large plantations, slaves in North Carolina did a variety of jobs. Depending on where they lived, slaves may have worked on small farms, performed domestic labor, been skilled artisans, worked in the boating and sailing industry, or even become entrepreneurs.
3. Tell students that they will be reading parts of slave narratives, or autobiographies written by slaves to share their experiences, from slaves who lived in North Carolina.
4. Have students read the excerpts from the slave narratives, taking notes as they read. Then ask students to plot the hometown or home county of each narrative’s author on their maps.
5. Have students illustrate the different types of labor described by the slave narrative authors in the area of the map where slaves may have performed that type of labor. Students may need to do additional research about slavery in different regions of the state to complete their maps; possible sources are identified below in the Supplemental Information section.
6. As a class, look back at the list created in step one. How do students’ initial impressions of slavery compare to those recorded on their maps?

Assessment

Students should have correctly plotted the locations of the slave narratives (Raleigh, Wilmington, Person County, New Bern, Franklin, Camden County) as well as correctly illustrated the different types of slave labor, demonstrating an understanding of the diversity of slaves’ experiences in North Carolina.

Alternative assessment

Rather than creating a map, students may choose a region of the state and write a brief slave narrative as a slave living in that area. Students should demonstrate understanding of the regional differences of slavery by writing about the type of labor a slave may have performed in that region.

Supplemental information

These texts can be used by teachers or students to further research slavery across the state.

• Cecelski, D. (2001). The Waterman’s Song : Slavery and Freedom in Maritime North Carolina. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
• Crow, J. (1992). A History of African Americans in North Carolina. Raleigh: NC Department of Cultural Resources.
• Inscoe, J. (1989). Mountain Masters, Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.