Jennifer M. Ports
Lesson Objectives:
Students will be able to analyze depictions of Native Americans and Black slaves in colonial art, describe the relationship between the colonists and the Native Americans in Colonial America.
Lesson Steps:
Have students individually brainstorm what they know about Native Americans and slaves in Colonial America. Have students share their ideas as a class now. Make sure students share what they think they know about the relationship between the colonists and these two groups as well. Introduce the topic of today's lesson to the class.
Display
The Death of General
Wolfe and
William Penn's Treaty with the Indians in 1683
side by side and have students make observations about the Natives depicted. Have them respond to similarities and differences in their depictions. Challenge every student to participate in this discussion by giving students a bank of sentence starters to choose from to use in the discussion. Have students with lower confidence go near the beginning when their ideas are more likely to be new. This could also be done as a think–pair–share so students build confidence in their ideas before sharing with the class.
Have students complete the same exercise to compare slave representations, but with different image pairings:
Plantation Scene
and
View of Mulberry House
and Street
followed by
Henry Darnall III
and
Portrait of Phyllis Wheatly.
Have each student choose one of the slaves depicted in one of the following paintings:
Plantation Scene, View of Mulberry House and Street, Henry Darnall III, Portrait of Phyllis Wheatly, Sea Captains Carousing at Suriname,
or
Watson and the Shark
. Allow each student their own copy to work with at their desks to independently write a first–person narrative for one of the slaves depicted in the image they have in front of them.
Depending on the time remaining in class, have students volunteer to share their narratives and their painting with the class. If teacher wants all the students to be responsible for sharing theirs out loud, then they should be told that before hand.
Questions for discussion: How do you think slavery was able to flourish as it did in the colonies? Think about law/government, their society, the economy, etc. How has the relationship between colonists and these racial groups impacted us up to today? Feel free to cite related events that you know of in American history from colonial times up to today. Do you think countries built on slavery should pay compensation to the descendants of slaves? Do you think families that are rich now because their ancestors had slaves owe something to the descendants of the slaves? If so, what? Have lessons been learned from slavery? Does slavery still exist today? Have students explain their responses. Hand out one of two readings to the students from Free the Slaves' website, either the FAQ page or "Modern Slavery." Both can be found at www.freetheslaves.net under "About Slavery."
To close, refer back to the initiation activity and now have students brainstorm a list of what they learned today next to it.
Assessment Idea:
Have students complete a "See, Think, Wonder" on Thomas Gainsborough's
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Andrews
, a British painting from the same time period. Make sure they note similarities to American portraiture and use similar analytical techniques as they did in class. Have them then complete a "See, Think, Wonder" about Yinka Shonibare's
Mr. and Mrs. Andrews without their Heads
from 1998, and read his biographical information and then read about the piece, perhaps from the National Gallery of Canada's website. Have them then write about what they make of Shonibare's work. What do they believe he is trying to say? Do you like what he has done and how he has done it?
