Individual Lesson View
Slavery's Critics
and Defenders
From: EDSITEment!
Grade Level: HS, (College)
Remote Ready: With Modifications
Time: 4-5 Class Periods for All Activities
Length of Reading: Pages
A House Dividing,
Lesson 2:
Slavery's Opponents
and Defenders
Students examine secondary and primary sources concerning slavery's critics and defenders, including Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and John C. Calhoun, among others.
Activity 1: Students look at short secondary sources on the lives of 3 slavery critics--Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and William Lloyd Garrison. Students plug biographical information into a chart. Students then do similarly with the lives of 2 of slavery's defenders--John C. Calhoun and James Henry Hammond.
Activity 2: Students compare primary sources from William Lloyd Garrison and John C. Calhoun (2 pages each). They then fill in a chart and discuss.
Activity 3: In groups, students read either an Abraham Lincoln speech critiquing slavery or Senator James Hammond defending slavery (each is 1 1/4 pages long if you click on the PDFs instead of the full speech). Each group answers questions.
Image: “John Bull’s Monarchy, A Refuge From Brother Jonathan’s Slavery.” Anti-Slavery Almanac, Vol 1, No. 4. 1839, pg 9. Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/stream/americanantislav1839chil/americanantislav1839chil#page/9/mode/1up. Accessed: 6.9.2020.
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Grade Level: HS, College
- HS=High School
- Though HS is the specified grade level, this lesson would be excellent for college students as well.
Remote Ready: With Modifications
- Links to the reading assignments can easily be emailed or posted for students
- Paraphrase questions into your LMS so that students’ written responses will be easier to grade. Or students can photograph their completed graphic organizers and email them to you.
Primary Source Icon
This means that this activity utilizes primary sources
Secondary Source Icon
This activity contains secondary sources
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This activity calls for working in pairs or groups or having a class discussion.
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