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Freedom Fighter Frederick...(Douglass)
Carlene Jennings
Overview of The Abolitionist & Suffrage Movements
Students will examine census data from 1850. Students may compare and contrast data from The 1850 Census of Georgia Slave Owners.* Then students will read excerpts from the writings of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass and examine his main ideas. They will research details about his life to complete a scavenger hunt and create a KWL chart using key vocabulary terms.
*To peak local interest, the Georgia Census was used. However, teachers from other locales might want to access their own state census records.
http://www.census-online.com/links/GA/1850.html or see THE 1850 CENSUS of GEORGIA SLAVE OWNERS, compiled by Jack F. Cox (available at theTroup County Archives)
maps of Georgia (optional)
notebooks or filler paper for each student
Computer(s) with internet access (optional, but helpful)
Excellent video clip about Frederick Douglass with pictures, documents and quote available from United Steaming: http://www.gpb.org/. The video is titled "TLC Elementary School: American Diversity, and the segment titled "Abolition Movement-Ending Slavery" takes 5 min. and 33 seconds.
Website for picture of Frederick Douglass and sound clip:
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461545199_1741500823_-1_1/Frederick_Douglass.html
white board and dry erase markers or chart paper and markers
access to reference materials, computers, or media center
flashcards, sentence strips, or chart with Key Vocabulary Words: Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, orator, abolish, narrative, autobiographies, Underground Railroad, North Star, suffrage
markers, crayons, or colored pencils
white copy paper or construction paper
References may include:
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave in Slave Narratives, edited by William L. Andrews and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: The Library of America, 2000.
Douglass, Frederick. Autobiographies, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: The Library of America, 1994.
McClatchy, J.D. American Writers at Home. New York: The Library of America, 2004.
White, Deborah Gray. Let My People Go: African-Americans, 1804-1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Sweeney, Jacqueline. Incredible Quotations. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1997.
Douglass' works online:
http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Frederick+Douglass
Biographical websites for learning more about Frederick Douglass:
http://www.frederickdouglass.org/douglass_bio.html
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/all/douglas (*very kid-friendly site)
http://www.africawithin.com/bios/frederick_douglass.htm
http://www.nps.gov/frdo/fdlife.htm
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/biographies/douglass/
http://www.bridgew.edu/HOBA/Douglass.cfm (* this website includes audio of narrative)
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/daybyday/daybyday.cfm?db=abolition(a timeline of abolition)
50 minutes
3Y3
What constitutes a great leader?
Are great leaders made or born?
Content specific:
What was significant about the life of Frederick Douglass?
What were the realities of slave life during the preCivil War era?
Have students look at the website(http://www.census-online.com/links/GA/1850.html) or THE 1850 Census of GEORGIA SLAVE OWNERS,compiled by Jack F. Cox.
Write this assignment on the board or tell students:
"Who were some of the people living here in 1850? What questions does this bring to your mind?"
The teacher may wish to explain that the names of slave owners in Georgia are listed under the heading "Name". The number of slaves that the person owned is under the heading "Number", and the Georgia county in which the slave owner lived is listed under the heading "County".
Troup County teachers may wish to have the students highlight the names of all the slave owners in Troup County and the number of slaves that they owned.
The teacher may also wish to have students locate the counties listed on their pages on a map of Georgia.
(Georgia maps are available from the Georgia Visitors Center.)
Ask students, "What is your earliest memory? (Pause and allow students time to think and respond.)
Document excerpt heading:
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave on a plantation in Maryland. He later changed his name to Frederick Douglass. After escaping to freedom, Douglass became a famous author and abolitionist, someone who worked to put an end to slavery. He described life as a slave in his books, speeches, and a newspaper that he published. (The teacher may then read aloud or have students read aloud the following excerpts from his writing.)
This is how he described his earliest memory:
'My first experience of life, as I now remember it, began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather, Betsey and Isaac Bailey....Whether because she (Grandmother Betsey) was too old for field service, or because she had so faithfully done the duties of her station in early life, I know not, but she enjoyed the special right of living in a cabin separate from the other cabins, having given her only the charge of young children and the burden of her support...The practice of separating mothers from their children and hiring them out at distances too great to allow their meeting, except after long periods of time was a marked feature of the cruelty and hardness of the slave system...My grandmother's five daughters were hired out...and my only recollections of my own mother are of a few hasty visits made in the night on foot, after the daily tasks were over, and when she had to return in time to answer the driver's call to the field in the early morning. These little glimpses of my mother under such conditions and against such odds, meager as they were, are permanently stamped upon my memory.' (Douglass 140-477)
Another time he wrote, 'Why am I a slave? Why are some people slaves and others masters? These were perplexing questions and very troublesome in my childhood.'
If a computer is available, the teacher may wish to show students a picture of Frederick Douglass and have them listen to a sound clip from one of his best known speeches at the website:
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461545199_1741500823_-1_1/Frederick_Douglass.html
Post the Key Vocabulary Words and ask the students if they know what they mean and how they relate to Frederick Douglass. Explain that they will use the Key Vocabulary Words on a scavenger hunt and on a KWL chart.
Ask students to draw a KWL chart in their notebooks. (They are to create three columns and write the headings K, W, and L above the columns.) The teacher models this on the board.
Ask, "What do you already know about Frederick Douglass now? Make a list of facts that you KNOW in the K column." (For example, Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist.)
Allow students to share their responses and write them on the board.
Ask students what they WANT to know about Frederick Douglass and to write their responses in the W column. The teacher may suggest questions such as:
When was he born? When did he die?
What were his major accomplishments?
How did he learn to read and write?
Explain to students that they are to work in collaborative pairs or small groups to find the answers to questions their questions and to fill in the blanks on a Frederick Douglass Scavenger Hunt.
Distribute the Frederick Douglass Scavenger Hunt. After they fill in the blanks, they are to write what they have learned in the L column in their notebooks and report back to the class.
The teacher may wish to assign each pair or small group at least one question.
Assist the students in locating their answers. If computers are available, the teacher may wish to bookmark certain sites for students to use such as:
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/all/douglas (*appropriate for elementary readers)
http://www.bridgew.edu/HOBA/Douglass.cfm (* this website includes audio of narrative)
The teacher may wish to show a video segment available from United Streaming. Troup County teachers have access to United Streaming video through Georgia Public Broadcasting, www.gpb.org. The video "TLC Elementary School: American Diversity (24:23) gives a great synopsis of the abolitionist and suffrage movements. If the teacher wishes to show only the segment titled "Abolition Movement: Ending Slavery" (5:33), he/she may select "Video segments" to show the part that includes information about Frederick Douglass which begins with his quote, "Without struggle, there is no progress."*
Allow at least ten minutes for checking the answers to the Scavenger Hunt and for summarizing at the end of class.
Students who finish early may create a commemorative stamp to honor Frederick Douglass.
The teacher may collect the Scavenger Hunt papers to check or have students check their own papers as the answers are read and written on the board. Ask students to share any other interesting facts that they have learned from their searches.
Their "ticket out the door" is to tell what they think is most important about the life of Frederick Douglass.
As a homework assignment or extension activity on another day, the teacher might give this assignment:
"Pretend that you are Frederick Douglass. Write a newspaper editorial that states your reasons for demanding an immediate end of slavery."
In Jack F. Cox's introduction to The 1850 Census of Georgia Slave Owners, he notes that less than ten percent of the population of Georgia owned slaves in 1850. The largest number of slave owners were in Glynn County, a coastal county famed for rice production at the time.
*If the teacher has difficulty with this, he/she may contact their media specialist.
Teachers may wish to use documents related to slavery in Virginia from this website:
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/gos/
Teachers may wish to visit this website of the United States National Slavery Museum:
www.usnationalslaverymuseum.org
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