Materials

• Copies of a slave-narrative document
• Paper
• Pencil

Instructional Activities

1. Spend some time reviewing with the students the difference between primary and secondary sources. The Library of Congress’ Web site Learning Page: Using Primary Sources in the Classroom at <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/primary.html> offers useful lesson suggestions.
   
   
2. Explain to students that they will read from primary source documents relating the experience of a slave from West Africa.
   
   
3. Give each student a copy of an excerpt from a slave narrative. Some possible sources are
   • “Equiano’s Autobiography: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African.” Chapter 2. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h320t.html>.
   • American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology. <http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html>.
   • American Memory: Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writer’s Project, 1936–1938. Library of Congress. <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html>.
         Have students read the Oluadoh Equiano excerpt and one or two others.
   
   
4. After they have read both excerpts, have students compare the lives of West Africans with those of slaves in the comonies. Tell the students to find and use information from their text. Encourage them to create a graphic organizer, such as a Venn diagram, to make comparisons. Some questions are:
   • Why was slavery an economically effective labor system?
   • What were the consequences of adopting a system of slave labor?
   • How did the system of slavery clash with the ideas that were later expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States?
   
   
5. As a follow up to this lesson, show segments from the Africans in America series produced by PBS. The first program, The Terrible Transformation, discusses the evolution from indentured servitude to the institution of slavery. The companion Web site offers suggested lessons, a teacher’s guide, and additional resources. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html>.
   
   
6. Another follow up is to discuss with students the purpose and methods of oral histories. Ask students what they learned from the oral histories they read. Have them focus on a more recent historical event (e.g., September 11) and create an oral-history collection related to the event. The Library of Congress’ Web site The Learning Page: Using Oral History, located at <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/oralhist/ohhome.html>, offers lessons on how to conduct oral history.