In this unit, students will explore the concept of racism in America through the study of the slave narrative of Frederick Douglass. Douglass, from his birth to his escape to freedom, chronicles a life begun in bondage and  the moral corruption and dehumanizing impact of the institution of slavery.  Douglass effectively argues against the oppressive and racist belief that African Americans are not educable and “need” the slave system to survive. Douglass’s matter of fact accounting of the life experiences of an enslaved person details the anguish of being bought and sold as if no more than a piece of property and the brutality of this experience.  Douglass also illustrates the hypocrisy of enslavers who cloak themselves in the righteousness of their “slaveholding religion” while violating the basic tenets of their religion.  This first hand account gives students a view into the psyche of both enslaver and enslaved and provides a lens through which to examine racism and discrimination in the world today.  

Students will also access two supplemental texts:

• Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl, The narrative of Harriet Jacobs, which provides a female perspective on the hypocrisy and inhumanity of an institution that, cloaked in righteousness and under the guise of bringing salvation to the “poor ignorant negro,” allowed for the women to be sexually abused and often deprived them of their children.    

• Stamped, a 21st century text, that examines the history and legacy of racism in the United States.  The two authors, Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi, pull back the veil on the reality of racism and work to break down many of the false narratives that are part of the 400 years since the beginning of establishing ourselves as a nation.

Big Ideas: 

• The resilience of the human spirit is a triumph of will, determination and perseverance, even in the face of severe adversity.

• Throughout history, humankind has proven itself capable of great acts of cruelty and inhumanity in order to preserve social and racial hierarchies

    -- White farmers’ and plantation owners’ ability to “own” another human being cemented their economic and 

social status.

    -- The inhumanity of one race towards another is clearly revealed in the treatment of enslaved by white 

Southerners. 

• Education is a way out of poverty and oppression.

    -- Withholding education is a means of oppression.

• The actions and beliefs of Southerners, particularly enslavers, are hypocritical to Christian values and beliefs. 

    -- Enslavers deliberately misread and misrepresented biblical passages in order to justify their actions and the 

    concept of slavery.