1. Drawing the Color Line (pg 37)
2. The Southern Class System (pg 38)
3. Africans Resist and Adapt to Slavery (pg 39)
HW: ENSLAVEMENT Acrostic (pg 40) - DOWNLOAD HERE
Today in class we began by taking a look at the roots of slavery in Virginia with a one-page reading from Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States." We learned that slavery began largely because Englishmen settling Virginia were either not equipped to, or not willing to, do the work needed to establish the colony of Virginia. Because they couldn't enslave the Native Americans, they had to resort to enslaving Africans, thus beginning black slavery in America.
We then focused on the Southern Class Pyramid, and learned that actually very few Southern whites owned slaves. Often times, the slave system was upheld by non-slaveowning whites simply because it was a social system that kept even the poorest whites above blacks in the South.
We finished by learning the different ways African-Americans resisted, and adapted to, slavery. Slavery was a horrible system that ripped families apart and denied an entire race of people their freedom. In spite of this, African-Americans tried hard to keep their families together and to preserve their culture for themselves and their children.
Next time, we examine the violent slave rebellions of Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey, the horrible middle passage, and--on a lighter note--the Brer Rabbit stories of Joel Chandler Harris.
RVI
2 comments:
Mr. Ippolito, you forgot to give period 5 the homework. so should we just forget about it and get it tomorrow or get it from another person?
D'oh! You're right; I did forget to hand it out.
OK, you have some options. I've now posted it to the blog, so you can download the homework and turn it in tomorrow -OR- you can get it from me tomorrow and turn it in on Friday. Either way, you will still need to do it, so you might as well get it done now. It's up to you. :-)
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