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Poetic Slavery

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Poetic Slavery POETIC SLAVERY (American History Lesson Plan) Lynne O’Toole September 2011 POETIC SLAVERY Introduction This Grade 5 lesson plan promotes inter-curricular integration of student American History studies and Language Arts. When studying Colonial America in past years, our coverage of the southern colonies happens to coincide with the grade-wide Language Arts unit about poetry. It is my intention that this lesson plan helps to integrate these two areas. Not all fifth graders seem able to grasp the full impact that the institution of slavery had on the enslaved African Americans. African American poetry of the Early 19th century provide both insight into the lives and feelings of early African American people. Such poetry can give a “picture” of life under slavery that augments what can be found in traditional textbooks. I hope that this unit helps to humanize the African American people of this time, helping today’s children see them and thus their lives as real. This unit will select poems that demonstrate the various stages of the slave trade, and the impact on the lives of those who were held in bondage. It is designed to extend student learning by showing not just how slavery affects the physicality of a person, but also the personality of the slave. The objective of the lesson is for students to make a more personal connection with the plight of the African American slave by experiencing this topic in another genre. The poetry unit utilized in our grade has been designed to help students analyze poetry they encounter. Significant time is spent on recognizing figurative language and its effects upon the reader. Another focus of this unit is instructing students on how to identify the voice, tone, and mood of a poem. I plan to reinforce this instruction as the students utilize their analysis skills to interpret the “slavery” poetry selected. In addition, students will provide a brief biography of the poem authors. The purpose of such a study helps to put into perspective the author’s motive and possible bias for writing. Massachusetts State Frameworks for Grade 5 5.12 - Explain the causes and establishment of slavery in North America. Describe the harsh conditions of the Middle Passage and slave life, and the response of slaves to their condition. Objective Students will be able to utilize Language Arts skills on interpretation of poetry to make personal connections regarding the harsh conditions of the slave trade and the slave institution throughout Colonial America. Time Frame This activity will span two to three class periods. The first two will be used for introduction of the project and research. The remaining four periods will be utilized for presentation and extension activities. References Social Studies text – Silver Burdett Ginn Our United States Needham, MA 1997 - Houghton Mifflin United States History, Boston, MA 2005 History of US –Volume 3 by Joy Hakim www.youtube.com Procedure Day One - A power point presentation will be made of the first poem to be studied. As a whole class I will guide the students through analysis of the poem. The first activity would be the initial reading of the poem. Next, the class will discuss what types of stylistic techniques, poetic devices, and figurative language is being utilized, what is the voice of the “speaker”, and what affect these aspects have on the mood and tone of the selection. Once that has occurred, there can then be a second reading of the poem to begin the analysis of its content. Day Two – Students will be broken up into three groups. Each group will be assigned a different poem. Their objective is to identify poetic devices, and figurative language, and then analyze the poem assigned. Students will also be required to provide a brief biography of the poem’s author, and discuss the author’s motive for writing. Each group will present a oral reading of the poem, and a 2-4 minute presentation on their analysis of it, and the content it was designed to shed light upon. Day Three – culminating activity is the presentation of the youtube clip “Anti-Slavery Alphabet”, were recognizable figures succinctly present a poem that shows the far reaching effects of slavery upon the colonial slaves. Background Information Phyllis Wheatley Phyllis Wheatley was the first published African American poet. She was born in Gambia, Senegal and was forced into slavery at the age of seven. She was brought to Massachusetts in July of 1761 and was purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston to be a servant to Mrs. Wheatley. Unlike most slaves, Phyllis was taught to read and write by her owners because they were amazed at her literary ability; leaving household chores to be done by other enslaved persons owned by the family. Phyllis Wheatley’s studies began to gravitate toward the area of poetry. By 1770 she began to receive widespread acclaim for her poetic works. Her poetry most often revolves around Christian themes, many dedicated to famous personalities. Though she rarely mentioned her own situation in her poems, two famous ones were published that talks about the plight of being a slave. One is “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and another “To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth”. To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Mayesty's Principal Secretary of State for North-America, Etc. Hail, happy day, when, smiling like the morn, Fair Freedom rose New-England to adorn: The northern clime beneath her genial ray, Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful sway: Elate with hope her race no longer mourns, Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns, While in thine hand with pleasure we behold The silken reins, and Freedom's charms unfold. Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies She shines supreme, while hated faction dies: Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd, Sick at the view, she lanquish'd and expir'd; Thus from the splendors of the morning light The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night. No more, America, in mournful strain Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain, No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain, Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land. Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatcli'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my parent's breast? Steel'd was that son] and by no misery mov'd That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway? Wheatley met William Legge, the earl of Dartmouth, when she was in England for the publication of her collected poems. She knew he was a friend of some other aristocrats, who were supporters of the abolishment of slavery. Wheatley hoped that the earl shared this opinion and she made a personal appeal for his help in this poem. As with many of her poems she frequently equated Great Britain’s tyrannical control over the American colonies to that of the plight of the African American slaves being held in the colonies. This poem starts out with New England’s enthusiasm that Legge has been appointed to a position of authority over that region, and that his position against the Stamp Act is a precursor to the beginning of making past “wrongs” right between Britain and New England. The second stanza moves from the perspective of all New England to a personal one, her love of freedom. As a slave, Wheatley knows the value of liberty. As with all slaves, even those that had an easier life than most, Wheatley had suffered the lack of control over her own life that is a common experience for all slaves. With this appeal, she wants to spare others the pain she has known in her loss of freedom. Throughout the rest of this poem Wheatley sets aside writer’s restraint and speaks from the heart. The decision to express her feelings about her bondage was a risky one because it drew attention to the issues of slavery; and it was possible that her owners would no longer allow her to engage in her writing endeavors. In the fourth stanza Phyllis Wheatley clearly references the cruelty of the African slave trade, especially the acquisition of slaves in Africa and their forced transport across the ocean to North America. She refers to the “cruel fate” of being kidnapped from her African homeland and of the anguish this would have caused her parents in losing their “babe belov’d.” Even though slavery was an acceptable practice in the 18th century, it brought more than just physical pain to those who were abducted, but also brought anguish to the families of those taken. This passage shows the wide-spread emotional ramifications of slavery. It was Wheatley’s intention to force her readers to evaluate their views on this institution. I think it was ingenious of her to tie the colonists’ quest for equality with Britain, to that of her and her fellow slaves as they quest for freedom from their oppressors. Frances E. W. Harper Frances E. W. Harper was a famed African American author of the nineteenth century.. Frances was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to free parents. After her mother died in 1828, she was raised by an aunt and uncle who were both abolitionists.
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