African Americans in motion - from slave trade to migrations throughout history
The "Lost Friends" column, from the newspaper Southwestern Christian Advocat in New Orleans in 1877. It was published and distributed throughout the South to thousands of subscribers. The column "Lost Friends" featured messages from folks who were looking for loved ones impacted by slavery. Share these letters ito meet a variety of lesson goals.
America's journey through slavery is presented in four parts. Each era includes:
historical narrative
images
documents, stories, biographies, and commentaries
and a teacher's guide for using the content of the website and television series in U.S. history courses.
Covers a wide variety of images. Check out "Miss Button's Dressmaking Class" from:
What is a FINDING AID? - teach your students how to use this handy index to archival resources. Here is the Library of Congress Rosa Parks materials finding aid:
Check out the full Library of Congress archive of Rosa Parks Papers - loads of primary source material here for classroom use!
Discover how events happen in places...
From the Memorial Art Gallery, these link directly to a wide variety of slave narratives, papers, diaries and publications.
Images and transcripts of interviews with those who had been enslaved can be powerful voices for study. These transcripts may be difficult to read not only because of language, but because of story. Take some time with students to investigate the stories within this WPA project. The collection, held at the Library of Congress covers many states and the stories are vast.
Begin with this highlight page: VOICES AND FACES FROM THE COLLECTION to help students accustom themselves to the way people spoke by highlighting unfamiliar words. Then dig into the story. Students can illustrate (think: graphic novel style) the stories, or place them on a timeline and/or map to show the diversity as well as the similarity of experiences across the country.