Geography of Slavery in America

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Image, March 14, 1766 slave ad, Geography of Slavery in America
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Transcriptions and images of more than 4,000 newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves and indentured servants between 1736 and 1803 can be browsed or search on this website. The runaways are primarily from Virginia, but also come from states along the Eastern seaboard and locations abroad. Materials include ads placed by owners and overseers as well as those placed by sheriffs and other governmental officials for captured or suspected runaway slaves. Additional advertisements announce runaway servants, sailors, and military deserters.

"Exploring Advertisements" offers browse, search, and full-text search functions, as well as maps and timelines for viewing the geographic locations of slaves. The site also provides documents on runaways—including letters, other newspaper materials, literature and narratives, and several dozen official records, such as laws, county records, and House of Burgess journals. Information on the currency and clothing of the time, a gazetteer with seven maps of the region, and a 13-title bibliography are also available.

Children and Youth in History

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Detail, homepage
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This website presents historical sources and teaching materials that address notions of childhood and the experiences of children and youth throughout history and around the world. Primary sources can be found in a database of 200 annotated primary sources, including objects, photographs and paintings, quantitative evidence, and texts, as well as through 50 website reviews covering all regions of the world. More than 20 reviews and more than 70 primary sources relate to North American history.

The website also includes 20 teaching case studies written by experienced educators that model strategies for using primary sources to teach the history of childhood and youth, as well as 10 teaching modules that provide historical context, strategies for teaching with sets of roughly 10 primary sources, and a lesson plan and document-based question. These teaching resources cover topics ranging from the transatlantic slave trade, to girlhood as portrayed in the novel Little Women, to children and human rights. Eight case studies relate to North American history, as do two teaching modules.

The website also includes a useful introductory essay outlining major themes in the history of childhood and youth and addressing the use of primary sources for understanding this history.

Why Slavery?

Description

Professor Clarence Walker discusses the origins of the institution of slavery in North America and what would become the United States. He looks back in history at different forms of slavery beyond North America and at how they differ and are similar to the North American and U.S. institution.

Exploring Amistad: Race and the Boundaries of Freedom in Maritime Antebellum America

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Barber, John W. "Hist of the Amistad" New Haven, Ct.: E.L. & J.W. B., 1840.LoC
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Presents more than 500 primary documents relating to the 1839–1842 revolt of enslaved Africans aboard the schooner Amistad, their legal struggles in the United States, and the multifaceted cultural and social dimensions of the case. The site features a searchable library that contains 32 items from personal papers, 33 legal decisions and arguments, and 18 selections from the popular media, including pamphlets, journal articles, reports, a playbill, and a poem.

In addition, 100 government publications, 28 images, 11 maps and nautical charts, and 310 newspaper articles and editorials are available. The website provides suggestions for using these materials in the classroom, a timeline, links to other resources, and a "living the history" component that encourages user feedback and participation. This visually attractive, well-conceived site provides a wealth of materials for students of slavery, race, politics, and print culture in antebellum America.

North American Slavery in Comparative Perspective

Description

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"The ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in December 1865 abolished slavery in the United States, formally, officially, and legally. A century and a half after emancipation, however, the question of slavery still roils the waters of American life. This seminar, led by Ira Berlin, will view the development of chattel bondage in mainland North America from the perspective of the larger Atlantic world. Topics include the nature of the slave trade, the distinction between societies with slaves and slave societies, the evolution of plantation slavery, the transforming face of the Age of Revolutions, the remaking of slavery in the nineteenth century, and the current debate about the meaning of slavery for American life."

Registration Deadline
Sponsoring Organization
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Phone number
6463669666
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
Free, $400 travel stipend
Course Credit
"The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is proud to announce its agreement with Adams State College to offer three hours of graduate credit in American history to participating seminar teachers. Teachers are required to submit a reflection paper and a copy of one primary source activity completed during or immediately after the seminar."
Duration
One week
End Date

The Carolinas

Description

This iCue Mini-Documentary describes South Carolina's founding by aristocratic settlers from England who establish the city of Charleston as a major center for the African slave trade as well as the trade of Native American slaves. Those who shunned slavery moved north to establish North Carolina.

This feature is no longer available.

African Studies Association Teachers' Workshop Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/08/2008 - 11:13
Description

The African Studies Association (ASA) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its first annual meeting in historic Chicago, IL. As part of the larger program, the event will feature scholars, artists, and community activists from the Chicago area who will facilitate panels, workshops, and discussions tailored especially to educators.

Contact name
Pressley-Sanon, Toni
Contact email
Sponsoring Organization
African Studies Association Teachers' Workshop
Phone number
1 608-265-9151
Target Audience
K-12
Start Date
Cost
$50
Course Credit
Eligible for professional development credit (CPDU).
Duration
Eight and a half hours
End Date

Teaching About Global Child Labor and Human Trafficking Conference

Description

The conference, which is geared towards secondary Social Studies, English and Spanish teachers, offers educators the opportunity to meet and interview former child laborers and trafficking victims, and attend a film festival and lectures by top scholars and human rights activists working in the field. The conference will provide the first forum in the United States for intensive training in the internationally acclaimed, interdisciplinary SCREAM—Supporting Children’s Rights through Education, the Arts and Media— program, developed by the International Labour Organization, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (ILO/IPEC). SCREAM offers cutting edge pedagogy, ideal for adapting and differentiating instruction to accommodate students' different learning needs and styles.

The highlight of the program will be the forum where former child laborers from South America and victims of trafficking within the US will share their stories. These stories will be videotaped for classroom use and conference participants will develop teaching ideas to accompany these narratives which will be published for use in the schools.

12.5 Professional Development Hours (1.25 CEUs) available.

Sponsoring Organization
Drew University, International Center on Child Labor and Education
Contact email
Location
Madison, NJ
Contact name
Swerlow, Linda
Phone number
1 973-408-3046
Start Date
End Date

Were Your Ancestors Slaves?

Description

"The story of slavery in the United States is told in stark and often chilling documents in the records in the National Archives. This workshop will focus on Federal court cases related to the slave trade and Slave Manifests which document the transportation of slaves between American ports."

Sponsoring Organization
National Archives
Phone number
1 770-968-2100
Target Audience
General Public
Start Date
Cost
None
Course Credit
None
Duration
One day