Individual Lesson View
Twelve Years a Slave
(2 Passages, 7 Pages)
From: EDSITEment!
Grade Level: HS
Remote Ready: With Modifications
Time: 1 Class Period
Length of Reading: Pages
Twelve Years a Slave: Analyzing Slave Narratives
2 activities available. There is a short background text and a link to a 12 Years a Slave movie trailer. Students read two 3-4 page sections of Solomon Northup's narrative about being kidnapped into slavery and what he saw once enslaved. One section is about an enslaved mother losing her children. The other is about an enslaved woman being whipped. The activity contains good overarching questions for discussion though the discussion focuses on how slavery undermined families and this brings up mature and sexual themes. The second activity involves the editor's intro to Northup's narrative and his verification methods.
Activity 1: Students watch a 2 min trailer for the movie 12 Years a Slave. They then have the opportunity to read the synopsis at the beginning of the lesson (the PowerPoint link is broken). In pairs, students read from Northup's account about a woman named Eliza losing her children (3.5 pages) and answer/discuss questions at the bottom and/or the overarching question at the top. The teacher then may choose to assign the section of Northrup's text called "The Soul Murder of Patsey" (2.5 pages) about a brutal whipping (this can be found after an awkwardly placed heading labeled "Assessment"). The teacher may ask students to answer and/or discuss the overarching question at the top. Again, the overarching questions are good though they focus on how slavery corrupted the family and this brings up mature and sexual themes.
Activity 2: We prefer the first activity to the second. In the second activity, students read the 1/2 page editor's preface to the Northup narrative and discuss why the editor was so keen on verifying the story.
Also, a quiz is available.
4A
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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.
- The sexual assault of a slave is mentioned very briefly so this may not be appropriate for middle school students.
Remote Ready: With Modifications
- Links to the reading assignments can easily be emailed or posted for students
- Group work (pairs) might be difficult, though questions could be answered individually
- Discussion can be had via typing on your LMS or over video conferencing
Primary Source Icon
This means that this activity utilizes primary sources
Group Work Icon
This activity calls for answering questions about primary sources in pairs. However, these questions could be answered individually. It also calls for group discussion.
Movie Icon
This means that a movie is involved. In this case, it's a 2 minute YouTube trailer for the film 12 Years a Slave
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Twelve Years a Slave (7 Pages)
Pros
- Students are shown the horrors of slavery via well-chosen, brief passages
Cons
- The second reading briefly mentions the sexual assault of Patsey in the description though the passage itself describes a whipping. While historically accurate, this may be inappropriate for younger students and difficult for older ones.