Individual Lesson View
Democracy in Early America: Servitude and the Treatment of Native Americans and Africans
From: Gilder Lehrman
3 Day Activity. Students are divided into 5 groups. Each group is assigned one of the following topics: Indentured Servants, Native Americans, African Americans, Religion, or Early Signs of Democracy. Students read a number of lengthy, predetermined primary and secondary sources on their topics (mostly secondary sources). Each group discuss a the most important facts in their readings in order to create a museum exhibit on their subject. Each group presents to classmates. Finally, each students writes an essay or op-ed answering the 2 overarching questions.
On the first day, each group gets a hefty list of secondary source readings unique to their topic. There are a couple of issues here, but we still recommend this lesson. First, while most of these are web-based readings, in a couple of cases, sections of books, textbooks, or textbook-affiliated readers are recommended. Teachers may find a couple of those books at the library, buy them, or choose to eliminate the sources as there are plenty of others. Also, a few of the links are broken; you may be able to track these down on the internet or eliminate them (again there are many other sources). Teachers may also elect to assign readings as homework to save class time. After reading the, each group discusses their 20 most important key points that answer the 2 key questions.
On the second day, students create a museum exhibit based on stated specifications.
On the third day, students visit each other's museum exhibits. Each group gives a 5-minute presentation. And audience members write down answers for the 2 overarching questions.
Finally, students write an essay or editorial in answer to the 2 overarching questions.
Grade Level: HS, College
Remote Ready: With Modifications
Time: At least 3 class periods if you assign readings as Homework. More if you don't.
Length of Reading: Chapters
Our Summary of:
Democracy in Early America: Servitude and the Treatment of Native Americans and Africans prior to 1740
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Lesson Identifier: 4YImage: “The indenture of Henry Mayer to Abraham Hestant of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on 29 September 1738.” Wikimedia Commons, Auburn: Derby and Miller, 1853, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indenturecertificate.jpg. Accessed: 6.9.2020
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Grade Level: HS, College
- This lesson is recommended for high school (HS) and college students.
Remote Ready: With Modifications
- Links to the reading assignments can easily be emailed or posted for students.
- It’s much easier for small groups or pairs to coordinate a phone call or video conference meeting than for the entire class to sync their schedules. Have these small groups post answers, a synopsis, or a video of their discussion to your LMS.
- Paraphrase questions into your LMS so you can grade student’s written answers online rather than in an email or on a worksheet. Or if a graphic organizer is amazingly well done, you could have your students take a picture of their completed work and email it to you.
Primary Source Icon
This means that this activity utilizes primary sources
Secondary Source Icon
This activity contains secondary sources
Group Work Icon
This activity calls for working in pairs, a group, and/or having a class discussion
Writing Icon
This icon represents a long writing assignment such as an essay or a several paragraph response to a prompt. Almost all activities require students to answer questions, but that's not what this icon represents.
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This means that a computer is required for this activity. We will NOT use this icon when print-outs are possible.
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