Jamie Alvey
Eng 112b
May 9, 2007
Unit Plan
History: Slavery
Uncle Tom�s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
I
choose the topic of history because I had a book I mind. I had read Incidents in the Life of
a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs in another class. I originally wanted to have this book be my center piece,
but found that Uncle Tom�s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was an
alternative and a canonical work. I would like to try and find a way to incorporate my original
book into the unit plan. Uncle
Tom�s Cabin is a well known book that is widely taught. The themes include how religion and
slavery are not consistent with each other, the evils of slavery, and women�s
moral power. This novel was such
an influential book for it�s time. Students can take away from this, the power
of story telling. This novel can
also show students the ugly side of humanity to learn from the past. This unit should expand student�s
knowledge of slavery and take it form the basic facts of the Civil War to the
experience of a slave in America.
Launching the Unit
There
are many different things you can do to launch a unit for a book about slavery.
1. Write in journals.
Any of these prompts can get students minds thinking about the topic
they will be reading soon.
� What do you already know about slavery?
� What literature related to slavery have you already
read?
� What do you think life as a slave was like?
� Define slavery. Define freedom.
2. Before
introducing the story, have your students write a one paragraph description of themselves,
including as many details about their physical traits as well as character
traits, prioritizing them within the paragraph from most distinguishing feature
to least.
Have volunteers read their paragraphs aloud in class.
Pose the following open-ended questions to the class:
�
How many of you chose a
physical trait as your most distinguishing feature?
�
Where was your race or
skin color "placed" within the paragraph, if at all?
�
Do you think that in
your community today, race places an important role in defining people? What
other characteristics take a higher priority, in your opinion?
�
How do you think your
community may differ in its opinion about defining people by race compared to a
community in a totally different region of the U.S.?
3. Read
poems about slavery. Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a few poems on the topic of slavery. I felt this one fit best with the story
in the novel.
�The Slave�s Dream�
by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
Beside the ungathered rice
he lay,
His sickle in his hand;
His breast was bare, his matted hair
Was buried in the sand.
Again, in the mist and shadow of sleep,
He saw his Native Land.
Wide through the landscape of his dreams
The lordly Niger flowed;
Beneath the palm-trees on the plain
Once more a king he strode;
And heard the tinkling caravans
Descend the mountain-road.
He saw once more his dark-eyed queen
Among her children stand;
They clasped his neck, they kissed his cheeks,
They held him by the hand!--
A tear burst from the sleeper's lids
And fell into the sand.
And then at furious speed he rode
Along the Niger's bank;
His bridle-reins were golden chains,
And, with a martial clank,
At each leap he could feel his scabbard of steel
Smiting his stallion's flank.
Before him, like a blood-red flag,
The bright flamingoes flew;
From morn till night he followed their flight,
O'er plains where the tamarind grew,
Till he saw the roofs of Caffre huts,
And the ocean rose to view.
At night he heard the lion roar,
And the hyena scream,
And the river-horse, as he crushed the reeds
Beside some hidden stream;
And it passed, like a glorious roll of drums,
Through the triumph of his dream.
The forests, with their myriad tongues,
Shouted of liberty;
And the Blast of the Desert cried aloud,
With a voice so wild and free,
That he started in his sleep and smiled
At their tempestuous glee.
He did not feel the driver's whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!
4. Read short stories.
l Free!: Great Escapes from Slavery on the
Underground Railroad by Lorene Cary
l Growing Up in Slavery: Stories of Young Slaves as
Told By Themselves by Yuval Taylor
5. Watch a clip from a movie.
l Roots
l Gone With the Wind
l Beloved
6. Listen to music.
Pbs.org has a quite a few songs that can be played for students. This is
one that I choose.
�It Makes A Long Time Man
Feel Bad�
...she won't write to po'
me,
Alberta, she won't write to po' me.
She won't write me no letter,
She won't send me no word,
It makes a long, oh, long-a time man, Oh Lawdy, feel bad.
Captain George, he got the record and gone,
Captain George, he got the record and gone,
Captain George, he got the record and gone,
Oh, Lawdy, Lawdy,
Captain George, he got the record,
Oh, Lawdy, and gone.
Lawd, hit me with a brick!
It makes a long time man feel bad,
It makes a long time man feel bad,
An' it's the worst feelin'
That I ever had,
When I can't, oh can't get a letter,
Oh Lawdy, from home.
I know my baby don't know where I'm at!
My mother, she won't write
to po' me,
My mother, she won't write to po' me,
She won't write me no letter,
She won't send me no word,
It makes a long, oh, long-a time man, Oh Lawdy, feel bad.
Alberta, would you cry about
a dime?
Alberta, would you cry about a dime?
If you cry about a nickel,
You will die about a dime,
Alberta, oh 'Berta would you cry,
Oh, lawdy, 'bout a dime?
Lawd, have mercy!
It makes a long time man feel bad,
It makes a long time man feel bad,
An' it's the worst old feelin'
That I ever had,
When I can't, oh, can't-a get a letter,
Oh Lawdy, from home.
My uncle, he won't write to po' me,
My uncle, he won't write to po' me,
He won't write me no letter,
He won't send me no word,
It makes a long, oh, long-a time man, Oh Lawdy, feel bad.
My aunty, she won't write to po' me,
My aunty, she won't write to po' me,
She won't write me no letter,
She won't send me no word,
It makes a long, oh, long-a time man, Oh Lawdy, feel bad.
It makes a long time man feel bad,
It makes a long time man feel bad,
An' it's the worst feelin'
That I ever had,
When I can't, oh can't get a letter
Oh Lawdy, from home.
pbs.org. 2004. Educational Broadcasting Company. 8
May 2007 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/feature10.html>.
Through the Unit
While reading the novel
there are activities you can do in the classroom.
4. Break students into groups and assign
sections of the reading. Each group will have a
different section to discuss. They
should do a close reading
of the section and discuss it in their groups first then discuss each section
with the class.
5.
Quiz every week on the novel. The
questions should be simple like basic plot
and character questions. This is
only used to keep students on track with
the readings.
Extending the Unit
Compare
the narratives to any of these novels:
�
Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
�
Narrative of the Life of
Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself by Fredrick Douglass
�
Beloved by Toni
Morrison
� Slave trade
� Underground Railroad
� Civil War
� Emancipation Proclamation
� Reconstruction
Concluding Activities
After
completing the novel you can wrap up the unit by doing one of the two
possibilities.
l 1987 TV version
l 1927 silent film
l 1903 silent film (one of the first �full length�
movies)
Annotated Bibliography
Topic: Slavery
Cary,
Lorene. Free!: Great Escapes from Slavery on the Underground Railroad; Third World Press: Chicago, 2006.
This book is a compilation of stories based on actual incidents of people escaping slavery. Lorene
Cary adapted these tales from narratives and records that were first told by
William Still who was one of the key organizers of the Underground Railroad.
This book would be good to incorporate
because it is based on actual events and gives students a better insight into
the life of slaves.
DeRamus, Betty. Forbidden Fruit: Love
Stories from the Underground Railroad; Atria Books: New York, 2005.
This is a book of love stories that the
writer has taken from oral stories, memoirs, magazines, and other unpublished
sources. The stories are about
couples who are free, enslaved, black, and white who try against all odds to be
together.
This book could be taught on its own or
used for an individual story to supplement another unit. Stories of love and hope can give
students another perspective of the time period and also give them appreciation
for their own time.
Douglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the
Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself; WW Norton & Co: New York, 1997.
This story is an account of the life of a
slave written by a slave. This
book had a major impact on how people viewed slavery abroad. This edition includes extra contextual
essays to help expand discussion of the text.
It is important to have students read
influential texts like this. It
gives them a more personal connection to the events they read about in
textbooks, since this is autobiographical.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life
of a Slave Girl;
Cambridge Press: New York, 1996.
This book is about the life of Harriet
Jacobs and the events that took place in her life. She was a slave in the South, but escaped from her master
while hiding in her home town.
This version includes essays about the story that can help students
discuss the issues.
This book is important because it is the
true events of someone�s life and it can give students a historical context
while reading something literary.
I have read the story myself for another class, and this is actually the
book that made me choose this topic.
Lyons, Mary E. Letters from a Slave
Girl: the Story of Harriet Jacobs; Simon Pulse: New York, 2007.
This book is based on Harriet Jacobs�
autobiography and is a fictionalized account of that story. It is told by means of personal letters
that she has written.
This would be a great supplement to Incidents
in the Life of a slave Girl.
You could incorporate letter writing as a means of story telling into a
lesson.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved; Vintage: New York, 2004.
This novel is about a woman born into
slavery who escapes to Ohio. Even
after 18 years of freedom, she is still haunted by her child, beloved.
This novel is written with a poetic style
and can be used to discuss difficult issues that come up throughout the story
with students. The novel can also be used as a centerpiece for a unit plan.
Smucker, Barbara. Runaway to Freedom:
A Story of the Underground Railroad; Harper Trophy: New York, 1977.
This book is about a young girl who is
taken from her mother by a slave trader and sold deep into the South. Her new master beats her often and so
she escapes with a friend. They
run toward Canada and hide with the help from the Underground Railroad.
This book seems like it would be good for
students to read because it gives them a perspective of someone close to their
own age running away from slavery and doing it on her own.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle
Tom�s Cabin; WW Norton & Co: New
York, 1994.
This book is about a slave, Tom, who was promised
freedom after saving his masters daughter. The master dies before Tom can be freed, and more hard times
follow. This particular version
includes background and contextual information. The extras are useful for students to get a full picture of
what was happening during the time this book was written.
This is a canonical work that is often taught to
students. This literary work was
also very popular during the time it was written, so it is good to have
students read something that was so important to the time period.
Taylor, Yuval. Growing Up in Slavery:
Stories of Young Slaves as Told By Themselves; Lawrence Hill Books: Chicago, 2007.
This book is a compilation of 10 stories
of young people enslaved. The
stories are arranged chronologically and range from 1745 to the 1860s. Each story includes notes about the
author.
This book would be good for a unit on
short stories. Also, individual
stories could be taken to supplement another unit.
Yates, Elizabeth.
Amos Fortune, Free Man;
Puffin: New York, 1989.
This
book tells the story of an African boy sold into slavery in Massachusetts. He never gives up his dream of freedom
and they begin to come true after being enslaved for 60 years.
This book is also based on a true
story. This novel would be good to
read for the discussion of perseverance and hope.
Websites Consulted
<http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ma02/harris/utc/intro.html>
<http://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_lp_uncletomcabin.htm>
<http://bindings.lib.ua.edu/gallery/uncletom.html>
<http://www.americanwriters.org/classroom/resources/tr_stowe.asp>
<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/feature.html>
<http://rememberingslavery.si.edu/RememberingSlavery/res1.html>
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/uncletom/>