Teaching Lab 3

This lesson was inspired from Khalil Muhammad's 1619 Project "Sugar" essay.  In this inquiry-based lesson students analyze a Whitney Plantation map, and engages with primary sources of engravings of slavery from New Orleans, LA. Teachers reported that the targeted questions I developed over the enslaved auction helped them better understand how to teach about the economic drivers and impact of slavery. This lesson also provided ideas for having student learning on the role of enslaved people in the agricultural developments of the pecan trees and kola nuts.

Enslaved people have always resisted and refused their oppression. This lesson includes multiple activities for looking at different forms of resistance. The first half of the lesson teachers divided types of resistance into three categories: cultural, psychological, and physical. Following this lesson teachers watched a read aloud of Harriet Powers.  Many of the teachers believed this story, its connection to the 1619 Project, was accessible for their elementary students. Teachers also submitted student work in which they made their own quilts.

Other Suggested Resources

• Whitney Plantation

• Stirring Up Indigo Where Slave Cabins Still stand

• Kwanza Symbols

• The Art of Disenfranchised Powers’ Quilt Stories full unit

Quilts