Classroom Activity 2
Topic- Bacon’s Rebellion and the Evolution of Slavery
Background- Bacon’s Rebellion is cited as one of the leading causes of the creation of laws restricting the mobility of enslaved people’s legal status in the United States. During Bacon’s Rebellion, black and white servants alongside slaves rebelled against the colonial elite and government, and caused severe damage. Those in power became fearful of this type of alliance, and created laws that gave poor whites more power and took away rights from blacks as a way to hopefully avoid this type of alliance in the future so that those in power could maintain their dominance.
Rationale- This lesson helps students to see the connections between slavery and the growth of race, racism and white supremacy in the United States. This is not always the norm when teaching slavery. As Kate Shuster supports, “We rarely connect slavery to the ideology that grew up to sustain and protect it: white supremacy. Slavery required white supremacy to persist. In fact, the American ideology of white supremacy, along with accompanying racist dogma, developed precisely to justify the perpetuation of slavery” (12). If this connection is not taught it leaves out a crucial truth about our history that still deeply impacts the realities in our society today.
Guiding Question- How and why did Bacon’s Rebellion change the laws regarding slavery in America and add to the creation of white supremacy?
- Warm Up: Provide students with a copy of the 1905 painting by Howard Pyle of Bacon’s Rebellion (link available in the Resources section below). Ask students what they notice and what they wonder. Give them time to think and write about it individually and then have them share their thinking with the class.
- Activity:
- First, students will read the text “Inventing Black and White” from the book Holocaust and Human Behavior (link available in the Resources section below), a Facing History and Ourselves publication. This text describes the role that Bacon’s Rebellion played in creating stricter laws regarding the possibilities for enslaved people as well as creating a distinction in laws between white people and black people. Students will then be broken into small groups to answer the following questions:
- What did Bacon and Berkeley disagree about? What were the two differing perspectives?
- What did Bacon do when Berkeley did not do what he wanted him to do? Who helped Bacon and why?
- What were Virginia’s wealthy planters afraid of after the rebellion?
- What did Virginia lawmakers do after Bacon’s Rebellion in reaction to this fear? Describe the impact on people of African descent and people of European descent.
- Second, students will add on to their timeline from Classroom Activity 1 using the information from the questions to process their learning on the topic and guiding questions. They will add the year 1676. For this new addition, students will describe in at least two sentences, what the evolution of slavery looked like in America regarding possibilities for enslaved people and the laws regarding them after Bacon’s Rebellion. This will help students start to build a picture of how slavery continued to evolve.
- Closing/Reflection: Lastly, students will be asked to reflect on their new learning by responding to their choice of 3 or more of the following questions:
- How did this new learning make you feel? Explain your answer.
- What are your thoughts about this new learning?
- What surprised you? What was surprising about it?
- What did you find the most interesting? Why?
- How did this new learning challenge or confirm your understanding of slavery and/or racism?
- What are you wondering after this new learning?
- This can be done using a variety of teaching strategies. Below are a couple of potential options. More details about each option can be found in the “Teaching Strategies” section of Facing History and Ourselves (link available in the Resources section below).
- Option 1: Journals
- Using journals allows students to discuss their thoughts and feelings about what is being studied individually. It can help them process and deepen their understanding of what is being learned. Journals can provide a safe place for students to share their thinking and can provide opportunities for relationship building between teacher and student through reading and providing comments.
- Option 2: Graffiti Boards
- Using graffiti boards allows students to discuss their thoughts and feelings about what is being studied as a collective. This allows students to hear each other’s ideas and can help in building a classroom community.
Classroom Activity 3
Topic- Justifications of Slavery
Background- The sources of racist ideas have many origins and evolved over time. Racist ideas have been used as justification for the enslavement of Africans and include justification such as biological factors and religious justification, just to name a few. This activity will utilize the text Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. This text was specifically written for young adults, being adapted from the original text Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, also written by Ibram X. Kendi. This book argues that the idea of race was constructed to create and maintain power. This idea has been perpetuated throughout systems and helps explain why things are the way they are today. It also explains how racist ideas have been easily created and spread but also provides hope as to how they can be discredited.
Rationale- This activity utilizes Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You to help students understand the history behind racist ideas and how they were used to justify the institution of slavery. This helps address and discredit the dominant narrative that exists about why African Americans were enslaved in America. The sections of the book that will be used in this activity, covers the time period of 1415 to the mid 1700s. This section was chosen to help students understand the origin and evolution of racist ideas and how they were used to justify slavery in America from its inception and on.
Guiding Question- How were racist ideas used to justify the enslavement of Africans in America?
- Warm Up: Pose the following question to students, give them time to think and write about it individually and then have them share their thinking with the class. Where does racism come from?
- Activity:
- First, students will be broken up into groups to learn about and then share their findings on various justifications for slavery. Before this happens, the class will read Chapter 1: The Story of the first Racist in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibrim X. Kendi. While reading students will focus on how the enslavement of Africans was justified according to the text. They will record their findings. Students will then repeat this same process for their assigned additional topic. Once they have recorded their findings, they will share their learning with the class and the class will take notes. This will allow all students to have a complete introduction to the history of the evolution of racist ideas that were used to justify slavery in America. The additional topics are as follows:
- Chapter 2: Puritan Power in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
- Chapter 3: A Different Adam in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
- Chapter 4: A Racist Wunderkind in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
- Chapter 5: Proof in the Poetry in Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
- Second, students will process their learning by writing a well-constructed paragraph answering the guiding question: How were racist ideas used to justify the enslavement of Africans in America? Students will be asked to use at least three examples from the text to support their answer.
- Closing/Reflection: Lastly, students will be asked to reflect on their new learning by responding to their choice of 3 or more of the following questions:
- How did this new learning make you feel? Explain your answer.
- What are your thoughts about this new learning?
- What surprised you? What was surprising about it?
- What did you find the most interesting? Why?
- How did this new learning challenge or confirm your understanding of slavery and/or racism?
- What are you wondering after this new learning?
- This can be done using a variety of teaching strategies. Below are a couple of potential options. More details about each option can be found in the “Teaching Strategies” section of Facing History and Ourselves (link available in the Resources section below).
- Option 1: Journals
- Using journals allows students to discuss their thoughts and feelings about what is being studied individually. It can help them process and deepen their understanding of what is being learned. Journals can provide a safe place for students to share their thinking and can provide opportunities for relationship building between teacher and student through reading and providing comments.
- Option 2: Graffiti Boards
- Using graffiti boards allows students to discuss their thoughts and feelings about what is being studied as a collective. This allows students to hear each other’s ideas and can help in building a classroom community.