Lesson # 5 -- African Americans


Lesson Objective
In order for me to see that the students are understanding what they have learned, they will answer questions throughout the lesson and become “freed men and women” and travel from the “south” to the “north”.

Focusing Activity
First, I will start by reviewing what we did last week. I will ask the students, “What do you remember from last week? What did Ms. Houmes talk about with you guys?” (Segregation, Jim Crow, race riots. We did acting in the hallway by the drinking fountain.) Then I will ask the students if they remember our lesson about slavery. “Do you remember the two sides of the war? (the North and the South) Which side wanted slavery and which side didn’t? (the North didn’t like it and the South did.) What happened to many of the slaves when slavery ended? (they were free and went to the North.)
 
Purpose
I will tell the students, “The reason for teaching this lesson is so you can have a better understanding of the struggle African Americans went through to move on after the Civil War ended. Also, it is important to know why the African Americans wanted to escape the south now that they’re free.
 
Instruction
I will begin the lesson by telling the students what they will be doing. “Today, we are going to be learning how the African Americans traveled from the North to the South once slavery ended. The African Americans had many things that they carried in their suitcases on their travels to the North. Today, each of you are going to become a recently freed man or woman. Then I will ask the students if they remember any of the former slave states. They can get out their maps if necessary. (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, etc.)
 
Then I will put the students in groups of two and give each group a scenario. Each pair will be from a different southern slave state. One from Georgia (two different plantations), one from Mississippi (same plantation trying to escape owner) and one from Texas (separated siblings). Each pair will receive a scenario that tells them who they are and where they come from.  
 
Group 1
You are both recently freed slaves. One of you came from the northern part of Georgia and one of you came from the southern part of Georgia. You worked on two different plantations. You ran into each other on your way to the North and you discovered that you are both going to the same place – New York. You quickly became friends and are now taking the journey together.
Group 2
You are both recently freed slaves. You met while working on the same plantation in Mississippi. You became close friends because you were hurt a lot by your mean owner. You stuck together through the hard times and now you are taking the journey to freedom together. Both of you are going to Illinois.
 
Group 3
You are both recently freed slaves. You have known each other your whole lives because you are siblings, but you haven’t seen each other in years. When slavery began, you were separated and put on two different plantations in Texas. Neither of you expected to see each other again, and now you are traveling together. You will end up in California.
 
I will have them show me their route that they’ll be taking to get to the northern free states. Then I will ask them, “Does anyone think they know how these people got from a southern state to a northern state? Did they walk, drive a car, take a train, fly… (They took the train.) They will label their home in the south as “home” and then draw railroad tracks up to their home in the north, which they will label as “new home”. The pair from Georgia will be traveling to New York; the pair from Mississippi will be traveling to Illinois; and the pair from Texas will be traveling to California. Once all the pairs have done this, we will move into the hallway. I will explain to the students, “Each group will have a bag. Think of this bag as your suitcase. Inside your suitcase, there’ll be all the items that you are going to be taking on your journey north. Before you set out, though, I am going to ask that you tell me which items that you think would be able to fit in a real suitcase and which wouldn’t. Some you might have to leave behind.” (I can take the hairbrush, toothbrush, t-shirt, pants, shoes and bible. I can’t take the chair, bed or toy chest because they wouldn’t fit and the television wasn’t invented yet.) Do you think they rode in luxury or did they not have the money for that? (They were poor, so they bought the cheapest ticket possible.) The things that I will include are: a hairbrush, toothbrush, t-shirt, pants, shoes, a bible, a chair, a bed and toy chest, a television. Once the students have reached their destinations, I will ask them some more questions. I will say, “Where are you going to live now that you’re here? What were some of the reasons that you came here?” (Answer will vary from group to group. Some might live with family, friends, or not know. They came here because they wanted to escape their awful owners, better jobs, better schools, better life.) Once everyone has reached their destination, I will ask the whole group, “Does everyone know about World War I? (Yes.) Well, it was around that time and because of that in 1910 that the African Americans got jobs in the north.”
 
Once the students have traveled, we will move back into the classroom. I will pass out “suitcases” to them, where they will write reasons why the African Americans were traveling to the north. I will tell them the story of a family who was traveling to Chicago during this time, sometimes referred to as the Great Migration. Finally, I will invite the students to look at the Life magazine again, but this time they will look for the different things that they have with them and compare/contrast the differences in appearances to the present day.
 
Response Activity
Once we are done with the lesson, I will pass out half sheets of paper with vocabulary on them. The words that will be included are “Immigration”, “Migration”, and “Plantation”. Then they will have another page for their books.


                                                                                                                                             
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