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.

A lesson plan for grades 8 and 10–12 Social Studies

By Meghan Mcglinn

Learn more

• An Introduction to the Church in the Southern Black Community Essay provided by Documenting the American South

Related pages

• 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.
• Slave songs: In this lesson, students 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.
• 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.

Related topics

• Learn more about African American history, African Americans, American history, Emancipation, churches, cooperative learning, history, jigsaw, religion, slave narratives, slavery, social studies, and spirituals.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• gain a sense of changing experiences of African American’s living in the South over time.
• learn more about the central role of the church in the black community.
• discover the important role of women in the southern black church community.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

One to two days

Materials/Resources

• internet connection
• at least four computers or one for every five students
• Multimedia projector
• Microsoft Word or PowerPoint
• Copies of the Black Church Grid — one per student

Pre-activities

This lesson should coincide with student study of the American South, slavery, and/or Reconstruction.

Activities

1. Have students first read the essay entitled An Introduction to the Church in the Southern Black Community by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp.
2. Students are then assigned to one of four groups, coinciding with sub-categories in the essay:
   • church during slavery
   • emancipation
   • growth and development of the church
   • women in the church

   Of course, there can be multiple groups assigned to one of these categories, depending on the number of students in the classroom.

3. Students, meeting in groups, jot down key points made by the historian in the essay on the Black Church Grid about their assigned subject.
4. Using the jigsaw method, students join others assigned to the four sections. Each student “teaches” his/her section, while the classmates writes notes on their chart. Once all of the charts are completed, students return to their original groups.
5. In their groups, students should search the site to find evidence related to their main topic. They can use the essay as a guide. For example, Maffly-Kipp writes “They also encouraged worship in ways that many Africans found to be similar, or at least adaptable, to African worship patterns, with enthusiastic singing, clapping, dancing, and even spirit-possession.” Students could then search for copies of hymns or descriptions of services. The teacher needs to encourage the students to look for evidence that either confirms or negates the author’s interpretation.
6. When the students locate a particular piece of evidence this can be copied and pasted into a Word document or PowerPoint presentation to complete the “scavenger hunt.” The teacher may require any number of artifacts. Eight to ten artifacts are probably more than enough.

Assessment

Students will be assessed based on completed charts, class participation, and a final class presentation in which the primary source documents found are shared with classmates and briefly described.

Class presentations may follow a variety of formats, depending on the technological capability of the classroom. If a projector is available, students can project their presentations on a large screen or TV. If no projector is available, the students may print out their artifacts and arrange them on poster board or in a literal scrap book, passed around the room or put on display.