Overwiew
Our history of the American people—the Pequots, the Africans, and the English—begins not in 1492 but more than 40,000 years before the birth of Christ. Anthropologists agree that the first Americans were Asiatic, but it is probable that they represented different populations in Africa, Asia, and Europe, which had been mixing for years. Furthermore a new set of advanced stone tools indicates that there were people that originated in America. Later Americans developed diverse cultures on separate continents.
The sophisticated Africans developed agricultural methods, supplied gold to the western world, created empires in Ghana, Mali, and Egypt, started universities, and wrote codes of law. The Egyptians created the Pyramids, systems of taxation, a paper industry, and a writing system.
The Pequots, a handsome people, were stationary, but they shifted their dwelling-places several times each year depending upon the weather and sources of food. The Pequots had a monarchical government based on family descent. The title of the chief was
sachem
or
sagamore
. The Pequots developed plant domestication, advanced agricultural methods, and trading systems. They explored the American continent. American society owes its very existence to them. The energetic English created mechanical inventions and developed herds of domesticated livestock, agricultural systems, and urban settlements. The first group of English colonists came to America on a business venture and settled in Jamestown, Virginia. One of their primary purposes was to find gold. The largest group, the English Puritans, came for religious freedom. Their plan was to stress work as a way of serving God. After a time the English supplemented their labor force with Indian slaves and African indentured servants.
This unit can be divided into four general sections with each of the topics mentioned as one or more potential lessons. I expect to find/develop slides and to make materials available. 1 hope to have guest speakers and to take field trips to museums, local sites, and nearby cities.
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I.
Brief History of the Cultural Background of the African and the Pequot
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A. Community Organizations: African and Pequot/Indian
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1. Empires/Kingdoms/Tribal villages/Territories
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B. Political Organizations: African and Pequot/Indian
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1. Kings/Chiefs/Sachems and Tribal Councils
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C. Agriculture Systems: African and Pequot/Indian
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1. Farms, methods, and major crops
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D. Trading Systems: African and Pequot/lndian
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II. Interactions between the English and the Pequots/Indians
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A. Establishing English Settlements on the Pequots’ Land
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1. Building homes and obtaining provisions
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2. Smallpox Epidemics/Diseases—effects on Pequots
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B. Laws affecting the English and Pequots/Indians
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1. Land Charters, Massachusetts Bay, Governors
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C. Pequot and English Peace Treaties
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D. Pequot and English Viewpoints on Land
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E. Pequot War: Cause and Results
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III.
Slavery: Systems in Europe, Africa, and America
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IV.
African, English, and Indian Interactions
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A. African Indentured Servants: Laws, Social Conditions
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B. African Freedmen—Family Life: Paternal and Maternal
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1. Property owners, taxpayers, and organizations
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2. Soldiers
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3. Education
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C. African Slaves—Life on Plantations: Slave Marriages
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1. Broken Homes: Children/Parent Sold
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D. Laws: Slave Laws, Runaway Slave Laws, and the Gradual Emancipation Act of 1784
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E. Tasks in the English Labor System: pioneers/farmers/plant doctors/craftsmen/soldiers
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F. Abolition Movement: Leaders, Rebellions, Results
Note: Assign a Student Reading List and Research Projects. Make each topic in this unit into a test after studying it for comprehension. The test may be true-false items.
Lesson I: Two Weeks
Concept
Interactions of the Pequots and the English.
Objectives
Students will understand 1) what effect the English colonies had on the Pequots’ lifestyles; 2) the reason for the Pequot War; 3) vocabulary related to this topic.
Materials
: Excerpts on Pequots and the English from
The Indian and the White Man in Connecticut
pp. 13-84, history text, filmstrip and film projectors, Indian Map.
Activity 1
Vocabulary study. List on the board words in the reading which relate to the topic and other unfamiliar words. Here are some words for suggestions:
Topic-related
Pequot, immigration, sachem, maize, charter. Pronounce and discuss the meaning of the words.
Activity 2
Students will read together/separately the excerpts on the topic. Pose questions that raise issues for discussion. Examples:.
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1. What are some characteristics of the Pequot’s culture—diet, shelter, tribal government?
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2. How did the colonists feel about the Pequots?
Activity 3
Show the following film and filmstrips to students—“More than Bows and Arrows” and filmstrips “Woodland Indians—Iroquois,” “New England Indians.” Discuss the film and filmstrips after showing them.
Activity 4
Indian Map Study—have students locate areas where Pequots lived (map included in unit material).
Activity 5
Art Project: Have students make examples of Pequot structures and crafts: homes, corn husk dolls.
Lesson II: Three Weeks
Concept
African’s Change in Status from Indentured Servant to Slave
Objectives
Students will understand 1) what the change in status from indentured servant to slave meant to Africans in America; 2) that the English depended on slave labor to work their plantations; 3) the lifestyle of the African Freedmen; 4) the Abolition Movement; and 5) topic vocabulary.
Materials
Excerpts on
Africans from In their Own Words
, pp. 3-182, teacher’s lectures from
Black Majority
, pp. 35-169, history text, filmstrips, film and Work Map.
Activity 1
Vocabulary study. List on the board words in the reading which relate to the topic and other unfamiliar words. Here are some words for suggestions:
Topic-related
indentured servant, herbs, maternal, status. Pronounce and discuss the meaning of the words.
Activity 2
Students will read together/separately the excerpts on the topic. Pose questions that raise issues for discussion. Examples:. 1) What African skills were used by the English colonists? 2) What languages were spoken by the Africans? How did the Africans communicate with the English?
Activity 3
Show the following filmstrips and film to students—“African Background and Early Days, Part 1” and “Afro-Americans’ Life From 1770-1861, Part II,” and film: “Out of Slavery, 1619-1860.” Discuss the film and filmstrips with the students after showing them.
Activity 4
World May Study. Have students trace the slave triangle routes: Africa, West Indies Islands, America.
Activity 5
Poetry Study: Have students read the following poems after you read them. Discuss the poems with the students in terms of the African’s American dream, pride, and future. If they wish, they can memorize the poems.
“America” by Langston Hughes (Excerpts):*
Little dark baby,
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America—the dream,
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at the Boston Tea
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Little Jew baby,
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America—the vision.
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Party;
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Little outcast
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America—the star-
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Jimmy Jones in the
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America is seeking
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seeking I.
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ranks
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the stars,
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of the last black
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America is seeking
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Who am I?
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troops
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tomorrow.
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You know me:
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marching for
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You are America.
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I am Crispus Attucks
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democracy.
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I am Sojourner Truth preaching and
praying for the goodness of this
wide, wide land;
Today’s black mother bearing tomorrow’s
America.
“The White Ones” (Hughes)*
1 don’t hate you,
For your faces are
beautiful, too,
I don’t hate you,
Your faces are whirling
lights of loveliness
and splendor, too;
Yet why do you torture me,
O, white strong ones,
Why do you torture me?
“To Negroes” by Howard J. Young*
You who carry
The lance of laughter
and the sword of song,
Let this be blazoned on
your pennons:
Whatever the color of man,
The shadow must always be black.
Lesson 111: Three Weeks
Concept
The English Start Colonies in Indian Lands.
Objectives
Students will understand that 1) the lands the English settled on were owned and inhabited by 70,000 Indians; 2) the London Company sold land charters to the English, which gave them illegal title to lndian lands; 3) the Puritans established the largest colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had two branches: Massachusetts and Connecticut; 4) Pequots and other tribes shared and gave land to the English, and helped them to survive in America; and 5) topic vocabulary.
Materials
Excerpts on the English Colonies from
The lndian and the White Man in Massachusetts and Rhode Island
, pp. 38-99,
Indian and
White Man in Connecticut, pp. 33-62, history texts, filmstrips.
*Poetry from Sochen, June,
The Black Man and the American Dream
. Chicago:
Quadrange Books, 1971.
Activity 1
Vocabulary study. Follow directions in other lessons. Here are some words for suggestions:.
Topic
colonist, Puritan, charter, inhabited, migration.
Activity 2
Students will read together/separately the excerpts on the topic. Pose questions for discussion. Examples: What explorers illegally claimed Indian lands for England in America? What did the English learn from the Pequots and other tribes?
Activity 3
Show two filmstrips—”The First Settlers,” and “Connecticut.” Discuss the filmstrips after showing them.