Slave songs

This lesson plan allows students to learn more about the religious observances of slaves in the United States by presenting hymns from Slave Songs in the US digitized in the Documenting the American South Collection. This is a great lesson to introduce the intersection of religion and slavery in a US history or African American history class.

A lesson plan for grades 9–10 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Meghan Mcglinn

Learn more

• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/voices/ This site from American Memory provides the opportunity to listen to former slaves describe their lives. These interviews, conducted between 1932 and 1975, capture the recollections of twenty-three identifiable people born between 1823 and the early 1860s and known to have been former slaves. Twenty-eight songs (or song fragments) are included in the recordings.

Related pages

• 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.
• Religion and slavery in the American South: Comparing perspectives: In this lesson plan, students consult a variety of primary sources from the Documenting the American South Collection to uncover the varied impacts of religion in the lives of slaves in the American South. They are encouraged to seek out multiple, and sometimes contradictory, perspectives of this history.
• Lunsford Lane: A slave in North Carolina who buys his freedom: In this lesson plan, students read a primary source document to learn about the life of Lunsford Lane, a slave who worked in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Students answer questions about Lane based on his memoir to help them understand the details of his life.

Related topics

• Learn more about African American history, African Americans, American history, hymns, religion, slavery, social studies, spirituals, and themes.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn more about the role of religion in the lives of slaves.
• begin to evaluate major themes surrounding the issue of religion and slavery.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

20 minutes

Technology resources

• internet access
• computer lab
• Microsoft Word

Pre-activities

Have students read An Introduction to the Church in the Southern Black Community. It is only necessary for students to read the first section entitled “Slavery”.

Activities

1. Allow students to casually search through William Francis Allen’s Slave Songs of the U.S. Ask them to choose a favorite or striking hymn and copy this onto a Word document (make sure students include the identifying information such as title, etc.). Students should write a brief response to the hymn in which they highlight its key themes.
2. Next, have students copy Allen’s lengthy introduction and paste this under the hymn they selected. Now, ask students to go through the text and highlight, using the highlighter in the upper right hand of their tool bar, key themes which Allen identifies regarding slave hymns. For example, some themes include barbarity vs. civilization, minstrelsy, use in work such as on steamboats, the “shout” service, etc.
3. Once students have highlighted the key themes ask them to write a few sentences to summarize the major themes and whether or not these are evident in their hymn.

Assessment

Assess students based on their ability to complete the aspects of the assignment above. Give students feedback on their summarizing paragraphs.