Finding Voices From The Past: Slavery Primary Sources

In February I read a piece in The Atlantic titled What kids are Really Learning About Slavery that was based on the research done by Teaching Tolerance. If you haven't read their article or if you haven't checked out Teaching Tolerances A Framework for Teaching American Slavery I would strongly suggest that you read these articles.

Teaching Tolerance's Student Quiz is also a good diagnostic of your own understanding of slavery as an institution in the United States. Teaching Tolerance also has a Podcast to go with their Framework I would suggest you check into that I shared in a previous post Summer Podcasts: PD On The Go Vol 2

As I reflect on my own educational experience in K-12 I know I was not taught much about the institution of slavery in my small rural town school in central Nebraska. Some of the US History courses I took in college also lacked depth to gain insight on the institution of slavery. Most of what I have learned on slavery has been through connecting to historians on Twitter and a summer workshop I took titled Civil War Washington. I wanted to share some website resources for teachers to check out if they are looking for resources to help students gain a deeper understanding of slavery. In my own teaching I've found the use of Primary Sources can be powerful way to humanize this part of our history.

(1) Teaching Tolerance Primary Source Collection:

There is a lot of pre-selected primary sources that you can search for by topic and grade level. You will have to create a free account with Teaching Tolerance, but this will give you access to lots of examples and ideas on where to start. Each primary source has a series of discussion questions to go along with the document as well as how it fits into the  A Framework for Teaching American Slavery If you are a new teacher or if you need just a starting place this is a good resource to check into.

(2) Voices From the Days of Slavery:

This resource from the Library of Congress has recordings made in the 1930's of former enslaved individuals sharing their stories and what they remembered living in the time of slavery (Read about the history of these recordings here). At first this might seem daunting to find specific examples, but The Library of Congress gives you help tp narrow your search. I would start with Subjects as a good place to start to look for specific examples to use with your students. I typically use these with a stations lesson I have students work on that focuses on these areas of study: Working Conditions, Living Conditions, Resistance, Controlling Slaves, Religion, Music, and African-American Traditions.

(3) Texas Runway Slave Project

Slave advertisements are a good way for students to examine how slaves were described by their enslavers and look at how the enslaved resisted. The Texas Runaway Slave Project is a good place to look for examples to bring into you classroom that lets you search by date ranges. Have students use their interactive map to examine the locations of where enslaved people escaped and the locations of capture.

(4) North Carolina Runaway Slave Advertisements

This is another useful database of runaway slave advertisements from North Carolina. Read Trends in Runaway Slave Advertisement for look at what researches have discovered about these advertisements. I really thought their recommendations for researches offered some great suggestions that I could see being used with students using this resource (i.e. students examine ads to explore slave literacy depictions, slave clothing descriptions, etc.)

(5) Civil War Washington: Petitions

I learned of this website from a summer workshop I took in Washington DC. During the early years of the US Civil War congress passed the Compensated Emancipation Act as a trial on emancipation efforts. Read more about this law and how it worked  here.  These petitions by slave owners near the nation's capitol give a lot of information about each freed person's age, gender, occupation, and value placed on their emancipation that students can use to compare and contrast.

(6) North American Slave Narratives

This is another good resource to look for slave narratives to use with your students. You can search by subject to help start your research. I've used excerpts from The Confessions of Nat Turner, The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southhampton, VA as an example to help students learn about examples of slave resistance.

(7) The Georgetown Slavery Archive

The University of Georgetown has put together some of their holdings and they have digitized them to make them available to the public. The Gallery is a nice starting place to see what documents they have. I have used Bill of Sales of slaves as a way to help students see the dehumanization of the enslaved person and how they were viewed as complete property. I have had students look at these documents to get names, ages, gender, etc... and than we discussed the implications of these types of purchase agreements. I have also shown students examples of modern day purchase agreements (Buying a House, a Car, etc..) to help drive home the point how enslaved were viewed as property not people.

Check out Census of Slaves To Be Sold in 1838 as a good example to share with students. There is a transcribed spreadsheet to make it easier to read and would help introduce students to the idea of the Second Middle Passage of how slaves from the upper slave states were sold to the deep south due to the rise of demand due to cotton production.

(8) Last Seen: Finding Family after slavery

This website allows you to search newspaper advertisements that were placed after the Civil War to help reunite famines separated by slavery. Start first with Browse Collections to begin your research. This would be a great resource to use during your lessons on Reconstruction after the Civil War to help students see the challenges faced after the war.

(9) The Mere Distinction of Colour: 6 . Ways understanding slavery will change how you understand American freedom.

This is an online exhibit from James Madison's Montpelier Home.  There are links to videos and interviews from descendants of enslaved people who lived there.

(10) "I remember the interior of that cabin"- Finding a Lost Diary
Monticello has a great video that used a recently discovered diary of John and Priscella Hemings who lived at Jefferson's Monticello.Watch the video below. There is also a new exhibit at Monticello that is trying to help make the story of Sally Hemings more visible at Jefferson's estate.






Check out some of these older posts connected to using Primary Sources and US Slavery
Getting Started with Primary Sources
Creating an Abolitionist Society Meeting
Helping Students Learn about US Slavery in 1800s: Sixteen Websites


Do you have any great resources to help tell the stories of enslaved people in the United States? I would love to hear about them in the comments below.