Teaching Enslavement in American History provides classroom teachers with the resources necessary to navigate one of the most difficult topics in any history course. This volume is the product of a collaboration between three university professors and a team of experienced middle and high school teachers. Its nine chapters include the context for topics like the middle passage, the Constitution's position on enslavement, African cultural retention, and resistance to enslavement. The resources include 18 lesson plans and dozens of short primary and secondary sources modeled on document-based questions and the inquiry design model.
Real teaching requires courage, a deep understanding of the complexity of the subject matter, and skillful use of primary sources. Rather than teaching students what to think, Teaching Enslavement in American History pushes students to learn how to think: empirical argumentation, source evaluation, understanding of change-over-time, and analysis of historical context. The lessons in this book ask students to read, analyze, and contextualize a variety of primary sources, to identify the limitations of these sources and to articulate historical contradiction where it occurs. At the heart of this book is the belief that historical consciousness leads to societal change. Teaching about enslavement is not merely about teaching a curriculum, it is about molding citizens who will lead our democracy in its journey to become a more perfect union.
Real teaching requires courage, a deep understanding of the complexity of the subject matter, and skillful use of primary sources. Rather than teaching students what to think, Teaching Enslavement in American History pushes students to learn how to think: empirical argumentation, source evaluation, understanding of change-over-time, and analysis of historical context. The lessons in this book ask students to read, analyze, and contextualize a variety of primary sources, to identify the limitations of these sources and to articulate historical contradiction where it occurs. At the heart of this book is the belief that historical consciousness leads to societal change. Teaching about enslavement is not merely about teaching a curriculum, it is about molding citizens who will lead our democracy in its journey to become a more perfect union.
"According to a 2019 Washington Post poll of over 1700 educators, almost half indicate they do not feel competent to teach about slavery and claim the available resources are woefully inadequate. Historians argue most Americans know little about the three-hundred-year history of slavery in America with respect to peoples of African descent and almost nothing about the effect of slavery on the majority of white Americans. Filling this cavernous void in curriculum and knowledge, Dr. Chara Bohan, Dr. H. Robert Baker, and Dr. LaGarrett King have assembled an unprecedented resource for teaching the complex and honest history of American enslavement that centers the voices and experiences of Black Americans in Teaching Enslavement in American History. Their extensive research brings to the forefront the lives of enslaved people and the deliberate actions of the oppressors to maintain power. They challenge teachers and students to grapple with critical questions, such as 'When are the free really free?', using primary sources which cultivate healthy skepticism, empathy, and transformative historical inquiry. The plethora of sources and counternarratives found in each chapter should be a cornerstone of teaching American history and a professional learning tool for all social studies educators. This enlightened and justice-oriented resource uplifts Black resistance, agency, perseverance, dignity, joy, and cultural contributions which richly shaped the Western Hemisphere and the USA while also inspiring oppressed people across the globe. Drawing upon a collection of inquiry-oriented lessons using both the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) and Document Based Questions (DBQs), readers are empowered to courageously confront and deconstruct the institution of slavery and dismantle its legacy of injustice and inequality. The struggle of Black Americans to force the USA to honor its professed, democratic ideals serves as an inspiration to all richly told within the pages of this text. For far too long social studies curricula have either silenced or distorted the history of race, racism, and enslavement. Drs. Bohan, Baker, and King's book models the art of truth liberation and Black enlightenment through navigating ambiguity and paradoxes of the history of enslavement in American History."-Tina Heafner, Professor, University of North Carolina-Charlotte; Author of Targeted Vocabulary Strategies for Secondary Social Studies