Unbroken Bonds: Middle and High School Mini-Lessons

Unbroken Bonds: The Meaning of Slavery and Abolition in a Northern Textile City

Mini-lesson

Note to teachers:

This Unbroken Bonds collection of activities allows students to examine primary sources that add nuance to their perceptions of regional views about slavery in antebellum America. Using these documents, students begin to explore the complex connections between southern plantations and northern textile cities like Lowell, Massachusetts.

To sample these resources, you may use just the following three activities, which touch on major issues addressed by the full collection. The activities can be taught together or individually. They are designed to encourage students to think about both regions of the country as contributors to the expansion of slavery in the first half of the 19th century.

Objectives:

After completing the following activities, students will be able to:

˜  Explain how both the South and the North were complicit in making use of, and expanding, southern slavery. (Activities 1, 2, 3)

˜  Describe what life was like for some enslaved workers on southern cotton plantations. (Activities 1, 2)

˜  Describe some of the strategies employed by abolitionists and antislavery activists in Lowell. (Activity 3)

˜  Give examples of the arguments against the abolition of slavery used by anti-abolitionists in Lowell.  (Activity 3)

Teacher prep for all activities:

Read Setting the Stage, an Introduction to the Collection and Notes on Language and Vocabulary.

Before beginning these lessons, share the Notes on Language and Vocabulary with the class to ensure all students understand the language choices made throughout the website.

Homework for all activities: Students watch the introductory video.