Social Education (), pp. - ©  National Council for the Social Studies : Using Online Slave Narratives in the Classroom Cheryl Mason Bolick and Meghan M. McGlinn

The teacher of a local high school U.S. determining historical significance.”2 As to complete a Web-based project.3 These history course recently took her students such, teacher educators and classroom included reading and writing skills such as to the computer lab. She had selected a teachers are very concerned that social skimming, scanning, interpreting and sum- series of online primary sources for her studies students actively participate in the marizing, and technology and communi- students to analyze. This teacher believes development of their understanding. cation skills such as using search engines in providing students with opportunities New technology provides an increas- and sharing findings. Teacher guidance to interpret and analyze online historical ing array of tools with which teachers is therefore essential to the development texts so students may develop their own, can present realistic learning situations of student literacy in the use of online meaningful understanding of the past. Her that engage their students. Through the resources. By overtly coaching students students were eager to work in the lab and Internet, teachers and students can access in order to help them develop these skills, immediately started on their assignments. a wider variety of social studies informa- teachers can avoid many of the frustrations After a while, however, she started to notice tion such as primary sources, maps, videos, related to computer-assisted instruction flagging motivation and that students were photographs, discussion boards, and much and, over time, students will be able to sneaking off to “Ask Jeeves” and “Google” more in order to create inquiry-based more independently use hypertext to for help. Worse, their interpretations activities. develop social studies understanding. of the primary documents read online As the nature of social studies instruc- While educators cannot assume demonstrated only minimal understand- tion evolves due to the integration of tech- that student knowledge of computers ing. What had gone wrong? In the past, nology, so too is student literacy undergo- means content learning becomes easier her students all exhibited technological ing major changes—students now need to for students online, teachers need not be savvy and had regular experience using develop the skills necessary to use online dissuaded from using technology. In order the Internet for school and personal uses. texts meaningfully in educational settings. for students to effectively use hypertexts Why did this online learning activity seem- This literacy includes the ability to not in the social studies classroom, teachers ingly backfire? only locate appropriate hypertexts but must select appropriate online materials Teachers most interested in a con- also to critically read, analyze, evaluate and coach their students on how to use structivist approach to historical instruc- and make inferences about these texts. computer-based research materials. By tion like the one above often use new Too often, educators assume that using online primary sources while help- technology to provide realistic, inquiry- the younger generation, first referred ing students learn to analyze and interpret based learning situations for their students. to as the “Net Generation,” possess the hypertext, teachers achieve the dual Recent research in social studies learning prerequisite computer skills necessary for objectives of building on student under- has de-emphasized student memorization computer-assisted instruction. Teachers standing of social studies while aiding them of facts and text-based instruction in favor especially need to realize that, while to develop literacy skills useful in today’s of engaging students in historical inquiry.1 students may be able to navigate Web information age. Milson reports “the research base has pages and search engines or play realistic indicated that students learn history games with ease, they are not always able to Documenting the American South most effectively when they are engaged transfer this knowledge to school-related The University of North Carolina’s in asking historical questions, collecting tasks. Tancock, for instance, points out the Documenting the American South and analyzing historical sources, and multiple literacy skills required of students project is one example of an appropriate

Social Education A p r i l 2 0 0 4 198 199 digital library that can be used in the social the . For example, a analyze and interpret hypertext. Hence, studies classroom. The library houses little more than five years ago, I it is essential that teachers coach their more than 1,000 full-text, searchable read an excerpt of the Narrative of students through online resources using primary resources available at no cost to , A Fugitive appropriate pedagogy. users around the world. Documenting Slave. Several months ago, I read the American South is comprised of six the entire narrative. I was aware of The Life of Harriet Jacobs sections: First-Person Narratives of the some of his accomplishments, but Elsewhere in this issue of SOCIAL American South; Library of Southern through your site I have read more EDUCATION (see pp. 221-25), Hicks and Literature; North American Slave of his works and now understand Doolittle (2003) present the SCIM-C Narratives; The Southern Homefront, his true genius. I live and teach in strategy of historical analysis. This 1861-1865; The Church in the Southern Indiana, and these online works approach can help teachers structure Black Community; The North Carolina are not readily available in this area. activities that guide students through Experience, beginnings to 1940; and For me to have the opportunity to the analysis of digital historical docu- North Carolinians and the Great War. read these works, I would have to ments. To illustrate how this strategy can The project incorporates materials from travel great distances, if it were not be used, we have selected one resource a broad range of Southern experience; it for your site.5 from Documenting the American South includes the historical and social experi- that connects with many states’ standard ences of citizens from all social classes The student emails to Documenting course of study in U.S. history or state and walks of life. Materials for inclusion the American South also reveal great history, especially related to and are selected in consultation with a board appreciation for making the resources the antebellum era. The document we of faculty advisors from The University available. It appears that many of the stu- selected, Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in of North Carolina’s College of Arts and dents who access the site use it to conduct the Life of a Slave Girl, is one of the most Sciences. All material is made available for research for school projects and to supple- accessed and compelling documents from free from the university library sponsored ment the resources they have available in the digital library. website: docsouth.unc.edu. their communities. One student’s com- Harriet Jacobs was born in 1813, the The University of North Carolina’s ments highlights the overall sentiment: daughter of two slaves in Edenton, N.C. library opened Documenting the Thanks a lot for making this web- According to Jacobs, “I was born a slave; American South in 1994 with the North site. I am working on a research but I never knew it till six years of happy American Slave Narratives project. Project project for school (high school) childhood had passed away.” Her owner, organizers anticipated that the audience for and I needed this poem, “Summer Margaret Horniblow, treated Jacobs rela- this and the subsequent projects would Bower” by Henry Timrod. It must tively kindly and taught her to read and primarily be university and college-level have taken a long time to docu- write; as a little girl, Jacobs played with researchers and faculty. A review of over ment all this information. This is the white children of the family.7 This 1,500 email messages sent to the site since really what the Internet is about, all ended when Jacobs turned six and its inception revealed that other audiences though. The availability of qual- Horniblow died. Jacobs then became are also making use of the site, including ity information.6 the “property” of Dr. James Norcon, K-12 teachers, librarians, and students who Horniblow’s son-in-law, and her life find the site a valuable resource for bring- With teacher guidance, these materi- changed dramatically. ing primary materials to the classroom.4 als can enhance student understanding This narrative illustrates the devastat- The majority of teachers and school of the historical past and encourage the ing impact slavery had on the family unit. In librarians who contacted Documenting growth of student literacy skills aligned her writings, Jacobs highlights detrimental the American South wrote to thank the with the demands of the Information slave experiences such as the loss of child- university for making these resources Age. However, the concept of the digital hood, the inability to choose partners, and available and shared teaching suggestions library—an electronic system for archiving, the separation of families. Further, Jacobs’s of how they incorporated the project into retrieving, analyzing and manipulating story provides insight into the particular their instruction. One classroom teacher large collections of digitally formatted struggles faced by women. Jacobs explains, commented: materials—is a new and largely unfamiliar “No matter whether the slave girl be as I am a social studies teacher who technology to K-12 students. As discussed black as ebony or as fair as her mistress. greatly enjoys your site. I find it earlier, students may easily “get lost” within In either case, there is no shadow of law invaluable for my reading of 19th- digital libraries and become distracted to protect her from insult, from violence, or century African American writers from the learning objectives. Many of the even from death; all these are inflicted by and other notables. This site has online documents provided in this collec- fiends who bear the shape of men.”8 Not greatly increased my knowledge tion may prove difficult for students still only were mothers separated from their and understanding of the era and developing the necessary literacy skills to children, but female slaves, like Jacobs,

Social Education A p r i l 2 0 0 4 198 199 suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their owners. Her text provides a moral indict- ment of the institution of slavery. In order to escape the abuse, Jacobs hid in her grandmother’s narrow attic for seven years before making her escape to the North by boat in 1842. Once in New York, Jacobs reunited with her son and daughter and began to make a new life. Constantly under the threat of capture by her former master, Jacobs was forced to move several times. It was during the time that she settled in Rochester, New York, that Jacobs began to consider making her story public. Perhaps due to the pub- lication ’s Cabin or perhaps due to her friendships with feminists and abolitionists, Jacobs began sending anonymous accounts of her experiences to The New York Tribune. Hoping that her story would help the abolitionist cause, she completed a manuscript under the editorship of Lydia Marie Child, a prominent abolitionist. Thanks to the help of wealthy supporters, the text was published in in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War. Since this slave narrative is lengthy and classroom teachers may not have time to explore it in its entirety, we suggest that teachers identify particular sections for classroom instruction. Teachers should select excerpts that are appropriate for the students they work with. For example, sections dealing with Jacobs’s sexual vic- timization may be deemed inappropriate for younger students. In the example that follows, we begin with the title page, preface, and introduction and then move on to selections found deeper in the text. Jacobs’s narrative is available online at docsouth.unc.edu/jacobs/menu.html.

Using the SCIM-C Strategy to Study Harriet Jacobs Summarizing and Contextualizing form the same year the Civil War broke The SCIM-C strategy is based upon fi ve To begin, students should identify the out. The work was written by a slave girl phases: Summarizing, Contextualizing, type of historical document, the subject and published in a northern town, Boston. Inferring, Monitoring, and Corroborating. and purpose of the document, and the The quotations on the title page lead the We will use the guiding questions associ- intended audience. Students should then audience to predict that they are about to ated with each of the phases to explore situate the document within the historical read a negative account of slavery. Harriet Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a context. An examination of this slave When students move beyond the title Slave Girl. narratives’ title page (see above) reveals page, to the Preface and Introduction, they that it was a narrative published in book perceive that the narrative will tell the story

Social Education A p r i l 2 0 0 4 200 201 of a former slave woman then living in the the institution of slavery, in particular additional narratives to compare and North. The woman tells her story in order about the life of an enslaved black woman. contrast. Because of the vast number of to share the horrors of slavery as an institu- Teachers could then prompt students to narratives in the collection, teachers may tion in the South: reflect upon how this narrative differs choose to select the narratives for students I have not written my experiences from narratives written by men found in to compare and contrast. Teachers may in order to attract attention to the Documenting the American South also wish to select additional narratives myself; on the contrary, it would collection. Students may also seek to learn to focus the students on specific themes have been more pleasant to me more about the role women played in the or to insure the accessed narratives are to have been silent about my own abolitionist movement. appropriate. However, teachers may also history. Neither do I care to excite Teachers may lead students through allow students to develop their own line sympathy for my own sufferings. inferring and monitoring with class discus- of inquiry and identify additional narra- But I do earnestly desire to arouse sion or through a variety of creative teach- tives to read. the women of the North to a real- ing activities. Sample teaching activities At a workshop for teachers, Professor izing sense of the condition of two to guide students through the narrative William Andrews highlighted a series of millions of women at the South, include having students, narratives that students may find interest- still in bondage, suffering what • design a picture book or a documentary ing to read and corroborate their findings I suffered, and most of them far PowerPoint in which they trace the life on Harriet Jacobs’s narrative.10 The first of worse. I want to add my testimony of Harriet Jacobs for young readers (this these is by William Brown (1814–1884). to that of abler pens to convince can also be done in the form of a time- Brown is remembered as a well-known the people of the Free States what line); abolitionist, lecturer and late nineteenth- Slavery really is. Only by experi- • create a newspaper that may have century author. He traveled throughout ence can any one realize how appeared during Jacobs’s lifetime (either Europe and the United States, often giv- deep, and dark, and foul is that pit in the South or North)—include local ing talks against slavery. His narratives are of abominations. May the bless- news story, American news story, world filled with rich accounts of the antislavery ing of God rest on this imperfect news story, illustrations, advertisements, movement and life in the South. His final effort in behalf of my persecuted editorial letters, political cartoons, cre- book, My Southern Home: Or, the South people!9 ate a title/city/banner headline; and Its People, was published in 1880. • write a letter from Jacobs that describes George Moses Horton (ca. 1797– It is at this point that teachers should her situation at different points through- 1883) was a North Carolina slave who guide students through selected excerpts out her life; was well known throughout the South as a of the narrative. For example, reading the • develop a series of questions they would poet. For a number of years, he lived close section in which the author discusses Nat like to ask Jacobs and then conduct to the campus of the University of North Turner’s insurrection can help to contextu- research to hypothesize how she might Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, he wrote alize the institution of slavery during this respond; and sold love poems for the students and time period, “NOT far from this time Nat • write a persuasive essay on a topic such faculty. He is also known for essays and Turner’s insurrection broke out; and the as religion, exploring how it was used by poems he wrote on rural North Carolina. news threw our town into great commo- Jacobs’s slave owners to control slaves Solomon Northrop (b. 1808) titled his tion. Strange that they should be alarmed and exploring how it was used by slaves narrative, Citizen of New York, Kidnapped when their slaves were so ‘contented and to subvert their owners; in Washington City in 1841 and Rescued happy!’ But so it was.” This rich narrative • prepare a book review of Life of a Slave in 1852, From a Cotton Plantation near is packed with references to themes such Girl; write a review that may have been the Red River in Louisiana. This account as: family, love, childhood, resistance, published in a northern newspaper and provides an introspective account of the life escape, punishment, lack of fairness, and a review that may have been published of a man who was once a freeman and was justification of slavery. Students can use the in a southern newspaper. forced into slavery. Solomon had a number SCIM-C strategy to read their excerpts of owners. His narrative sheds light into the and discover more questions or areas for Corroborating wide variance of how slave owners treated future research. The final step in the SCIM-C strategy their slaves. Each of these described nar- prompts students to substantiate their ratives, along with hundreds of others are Inferring and Monitoring inferences with other sources. Here stu- located on the project website. The next phases of the strategy call upon dents look for contradictions and simi- Teachers may also encourage students students to revisit the facts and make larities across sources. Because Harriet to corroborate their findings with sources inferences about the source. After reading Jacobs’s narrative is one of numerous beyond Documenting the American through select sections of Jacobs’s narrative, slave narratives available within the South. One suggestion is to have students students begin to make deductions about digital library, students may easily access read the picture book, The Daring Escape

Social Education A p r i l 2 0 0 4 200 201 2. Andrew J. Milson, “The Internet and Inquiry Learning: of Ellen Craft, by Cathy Moore and Mary Conclusion Integrating Medium and Method in a Sixth Grade Social O’Keefe Young (illus.).11 This picture book These teaching suggestions provide a small Studies Classroom.” Theory and Research in Social details the heroic escape of a married slave sample of the potential learning opportu- Education 30, no. 3 (2002): 330-353. 3. Susan Tancock, “Reading, Writing, and Technology: A couple, Ellen and William Craft. The wife nities made available to teachers and their Healthy Mix in the Social Studies Curriculum,” is very fair-skinned and presents herself as students through the Documenting the (International Reading Association, 2002), Available from www.readingonline.org. Retrieved November 15, a white woman, and her husband as her American South website. By using these 2003. personal slave. Students could compare resources in conjunction with sound 4. Joe A. Hewitt, “Keep Up the Good Work(s): Readers’ Harriet Jacobs’s escape with the Crafts’ approaches to teaching students literacy Comments on Documenting the American South” (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2002). Available online: escape. Or they could compare the pic- skills useful for extracting information docsouth.unc.edu/readers.pdf. Retrieved March 15, ture book account of the Crafts’ escape from hypertext, teachers avoid many of 2004. with William Craft’s personal slave narra- the pitfalls associated with computer- 5. Ibid., 23. 6. Ibid., 22. tive (online at docsouth.unc.edu/neh/craft/ assisted instruction. Over time and with 7. William Andrews, Biography of Harriet Ann Jacobs menu.html). careful coaching from their teachers, (1813-1897), 2003 [cited March 15 2004]. Available Additional online resources of slave students will be able to delve into these from docsouth.unc.edu/jacobs/bio.html. 8. Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. narratives include: resources more independently and with Written by Herself: Electronic Edition (1861). Chapel ▶ The University of Virginia’s Slave greater ease. As they do, they will better Hill, N.C. Available online at docsouth.unc.edu/jacobs/ Narratives: An Online Anthology capitalize on their technological savvy for jacobs.html: 45. 9. Ibid. xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/ school-related outcomes. 10. William Andrews, “Documenting the American South: wpahome.html Using Slave Narratives in Instruction” (Paper presented ▶ The Library of Congress’s Born in Notes at the Documenting the American South Summer Workshop, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Slavery Project 1. Keith Barton and Linda Levstik, “Why Don’t More History Teachers Engage Students in Interpretation?” Hill, 2003). memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/ Social Education 67, no. 6 (2003): 358-361; Matthew 11. Cathy Moore and Mary O’Keefe Young (illus). The Daring Escape of Ellen Craft. (New York: Lerner snhome.html T. Downey and Linda Levstik, “Teaching and Learning History: The Research Base,” Social Education 52, no. Publishing Group, 2002). ▶ The New Deal Network WPA Slave 6 (1988): 336-342; Stuart J. Foster and C.S Padgett, Narratives “Authentic Historical Inquiry in the Social Studies Classroom,” The Clearing House 72, no. 6 (1999): newdeal.feri.org/asn/asn.htm 357-363. References Berson, Michael. “Effectiveness of Computer Technology in the Social Studies: A Review of the Literature.” Journal of Research on Computing in Education 28, no. 4 (1996): 486-500. Diem, Richard A. “Can It Make a Difference? Technology and the Social Studies.” Theory and Research in Social Education 27, no. 4 (2000): 493-501. Doolittle, Peter, and David Hicks. “Constructivism as a Theoretical Foundation for the Use of Technology in Social Studies.” Theory and Research in Social Education 31, no. 1 (2003): 72-104. Harrison, Teresa M., and Timothy Stephen, eds. Computer Networking and Scholarly Communication in the 21st Century University. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. Hicks, David, and Peter Doolittle. “Reading History: A Practical Guide for Teaching Historical Primary Source Documents.” Unpublished, 2003. Leu, Donald. “Literacy and Technology: Deictic Consequences for Literacy in an Information Age.” In Handbook of Reading Research III, edited by M.L Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson and R. Barr. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000.

Cheryl Mason Bolick is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her writing and research focuses on integration of technology into social studies education. Meghan McGlinn is a doctoral student in the Culture, Curriculum, and Change program in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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