4th grade
by Shayla Lloyd
Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Teacher Page | Credits
"Life for you, sure ain't been no bed of roses!" You have spent all your life on a slave plantation working for da massa. You were separated from your family as a child, and you don't know where they were sent. You work all day in the cotton fields, with little time to rest. Pickin' cotton is all you know how to do. One day the Massa call a meetin' say he got sum news. He says you free, you ain't got to be a slave no mo! Da President dun said it ain't right fo you to be a slave. Free? What does that mean for you? What will you do now? Where will you go?
When President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves, he brought about a great deal of change in the South. African Americans had been owned by slave masters. They were required to work on plantations, and were usually treated very cruelly.
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The purpose of this activity is to give you knowledge about life as a slave before the Emancipation Proclamation. First you will read a variety of information about life as a slave. Secondly you will use this information along with other things we have read to write 4 first person journal entries.
* One journal entry should be about you as a slave. How old you are, your background, and your family.
*One journal entry should be about an experience you had as a slave.
*One journal entry should include your plans about your future as a free slave.
*The last journal entry should be written from the point of the slave owner, and what he plans to do since his slaves are free.
In addition to the journal entries, you must choose one of the following to complete:
* Write a letter to the Slave master agreeing
to stay on the plantation and continue to
work for pay. Include your expectations.
* Create an ad to be ran in the newspaper in
search of your missing family members
* A Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the
life of a slave to a free person, or life
before the war, and life after the
Emancipation Proclamation.
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You will begin by visiting the various links below. You should read 5 -7 passages, and take notes on information that can be useful in your writing.
The selections will give you the background information you need to complete your writing.
Life and sufferings of a slave
A father who sold his family (chapter 1 and 2)
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You should have 5 writing assignments when this activity is complete. Each assignment is worth 20 points. The total amount possible is 100 points.
A 93-100 B 85-92 C 84-77 D 76-70 U 69 or below
Click on each of the following to find out specific details, and a scoring rubric for the writing activities.
Journal Entries Letter to the Plantation Owner
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Life for slaves was often tough. They were usually treated unfairly and very cruel. The Emancipation Proclamation gave them freedom, however life was still a struggle. Some slaves stayed on the plantations once they were free because that's the only life they knew. Others moved on, and soon had their own land to sharecrop. Lots of slaves went North in search of a better life.
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* The purpose of this activity was to give the students a better understanding of the life of a slave so that they would realize the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation.
* Click here to view the Standards that this activity address.
* There are several slow learners that I have to make accommodations for in my class. These students go to a resource teacher daily. They were able to work in pairs in her room to complete the reading part of the activity. They were only required to do 3 journal entries, and the Venn diagram as their additional activity. The resource teacher helped them to complete all the writing. Each assignment was then worth 25 points. Grading was a little more lenient.
* Prior to this activity there had been a great deal of discussion in class about Slavery and how the people had been treated. We had read several books about slavery in general. We had also discussed the life of a plantation owner.
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All of the reading materials in this web quest were taken from the American Memory collection of the Library of Congress .
Civil War Clip Art had the flags, the background, and several other images.
