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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Gender, Sex, and Slavery

For Teachers 8th - 12th
While examining slavery's impact on women, historians compare and contrast the perspectives of a plantation mistress and an enslaved woman, both reflecting on the system of forced prostitution. Text analysis and written responses create...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What We Leave Behind

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students listen in on American historical events. In this colonial America lesson plan, students participate in an activity that requires them to watch video segments that detail slavery and participate in an Incidents in the Life of a...
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Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: How to Read a Slave Narrative

For Students 9th - 10th
This essay, written by English professor William L. Andrews, explores slave narratives and their influence in American literature in the late nineteenth century up to modern times.
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Primary
University of Nebraska

U. Of Nebraska: Railroads and Making of Modern America: Origins of Segregation

For Students 9th - 10th
Primary source materials that focus on the segregation of African Americans that took place on the railroads in the 1800s. Content includes newspaper articles, anecdotal accounts, letters, legal cases, etc.
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eBook
University of Michigan

Making of America: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

For Students 9th - 10th
At this site from the University of Michigan, you can read individual pages of Harriet Jacobs' book, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," and search the text for specific words and phrases.
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Primary
Other

Mo Ad: Slavery Narratives

For Students 9th - 10th
A collection of narratives taken from autobiographies, letters and diaries of slaves. Read the text or listen to the haunting stories.
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Primary
PBS

Pbs: Literature & Life: From Freedom to Slavery

For Students 9th - 10th
Some of the African-American writers and poets who spoke out eloquently about their experiences of slavery in the 1700s and 1800s are featured in this section of Literature & Life. Read powerful first-person accounts of Harriet...
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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: American Passages: Race and Identity in Antebellum America

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This unit features authors of Antebellum America and how they portray the American identity through their literature. Click on the tabs to explore the various resources available to enhance this unit.
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Website
Washington State University

Washington State University: Literary Movements: The Slave Narrative

For Students 9th - 10th
In addition to defining "Slave Narrative," this website includes information on the styles and influences associated with slave narratives. Also provided, are links to several examples of nineteenth- and twentieth-century slave narratives.
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Primary
University of North Carolina

Unc: Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl

For Students 9th - 10th
Here, read Harriet Jacobs' (1802-1880 CE) "Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl" and learn biographical information about Jacobs. Also provided at this website are several reports by Jacobs on the conditions of slaves and freedmen and...
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Unit Plan
NC State University

Scribbling Women: American Female Authors

For Students 9th - 10th
Alluding to a famous Hawthorne quote, "Scribbling Women" is collection of dramatized stories written by American female authors. Some resources may require a free membership.
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Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Harriet Jacobs: "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," 1861

For Students 9th - 10th
Several chapters from a slave narrative by Harriet Jacobs examining her abuse, her integrity, and her eventual escape from brutality, all of which raise important questions about power, equality, and gender roles in the mid-nineteenth...
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Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Teacher Serve: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs: American Slave Narrators

For Students 9th - 10th
Lucinda MacKethan, English professor at North Carolina State University, offers a comparison of two classic slave narratives: Frederick Douglass's 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave and Harriet Jacobs's...
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Website
Digital History

Digital History: American Ethnic Literature

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Educated white men weren't the only ones contributing to a truly American literature. Read about the literature written by Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Irish Americans. All added to the melting pot of...
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Primary
Other

Singapore American School: Slave Narratives

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the Singapore American School, Mr. Burnett's Classroom, provides links to a variety of different slave narratives. Included in the mix are: Harriet Jacobs, Allen Parker, American slaves, Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglas,...
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eBook
Other

New York Public Library: Incidents in the Life

For Students 9th - 10th
Here read Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl." The text is organized by chapter