How Did Slavery Shape My State?

5th Grade Slavery Inquiry How Did Slavery Shape My State?

J. Stephen Conn, “Cheapside Slave Auction Block Historical Marker,” in downtown Lexington, KY, October 31, 2011 Some rights reserved, CC BY-NC 2.0

Supporting Questions 1. Where did populations of enslaved people grow? 2. How did the slavery system differ from place to place? 3. How did your state’s former enslaved people describe their treatment? 4. How is the legacy of slavery visible in your community?

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5th Grade Slavery Inquiry How did Slavery Shape my State?

5.G.GR.1 Use a variety of maps, satellite images and other models to explain the relationships between Kentucky Academic Standards for Social the location of places and regions and their human and environmental characteristics. h Studies, 5 Grade 5.H.CE.3 Describe the social and economic impact of the slave trade on diverse groups.

Staging the Question Students generate questions around a local place name or landscape feature, considering how it reflects community history and grappling with the question: How does history shape our surroundings?

Supporting Question 1 Supporting Question 2 Supporting Question 3 Supporting Question 4

Where did populations of How did the slavery system How did your state’s UNDERSTAND enslaved people grow? differ from place to place? former enslaved people

describe their treatment? How is the legacy of slavery visible in your community?

Formative Formative Formative Formative

Performance Task Performance Task Performance Task Performance Task Complete a graphic Compare and contrast how Write a summary that Write a claim supported by organizer that explains slavery differed from place describes enslaved people’s evidence concerning how where slavery grew and to place using a graphic discussions of their the legacy of slavery is what geographic features organizer. treatment. visible in your community. led to its growth (e.g., proximity to waterways).

Featured Sources Featured Sources Featured Sources Featured Sources Source A: Interactive map, Source A: Excerpt from Source A: Kentucky Slave See teacher note below for “The Spread of U.S. Takaki, A Different Mirror Narratives, Works Progress source selection guidance. Slavery” Source B: Excerpt from Administration Records, Source B: 1860 Census Map “Slavery in Colonial British 1941 North America,” Teaching Source C: Slave Population Source B: Slave Auction History, Zagarri Statistics Advertisements, Kentucky Source C: Excerpt from A Digital Library, 1853-59 Concise History of Source C: Douglass, The Kentucky, Klotter Meaning of July Fourth for Source D: Excerpt from the Negro “Kentucky and the Question of Slavery,” KET Education

ARGUMENT How did slavery shape my state? Construct an argument (e.g., detailed outline, poster, essay) that Summative discusses the compelling question using specific claims and relevant evidence from historical and Performance contemporary sources while acknowledging competing views. Task EXTENSION Create a timeline of your state’s history, incorporating slavery’s influence. ASSESS Have a class deliberation about how the history of slavery is, and should be, memorialized in your Taking community. Informed ACT Write a class proposal to send to the mayor or other stakeholders, suggesting how to memorialize this Action history.

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Overview

Inquiry Description

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the influence of slavery on the history of Kentucky. By investigating the compelling question, students examine the growth and development of slavery, the ways in which the slave system differed from place to place, the violence endured by enslaved people, and how this portion of the country’s history is (or isn’t) being remembered. By completing this inquiry, students will explore how slavery had a significant impact on the development of the country and their particular region, while also providing space to consider the extent to which public memorializations appropriately reflect slavery’s historical impact. It is important to note that this inquiry requires prerequisite knowledge concerning the origins of slavery in the Americas. If needed, teachers can provide applicable sections from Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States and/or Ronald Takaki’s A Different Mirror for Young People. NOTE: This inquiry is expected to take six to ten 30-minute class periods. The inquiry time frame could expand if teachers think their students need additional instructional experiences (i.e., supporting questions, formative performance tasks, and featured sources). Inquiries are not scripts, so teachers are encouraged to modify and adapt them to meet the needs and interests of their particular students. Resources can also be modified as necessary to meet individualized education programs (IEPs) or Section 504 Plans for students with disabilities.

Structure of the Inquiry

In addressing the compelling question—How did slavery shape my state?—students work through a series of supporting questions, formative performance tasks, and featured sources in order to construct an argument supported by evidence while acknowledging competing perspectives.

Note on Language

Throughout this inquiry, the term “enslaved people” was used instead of “slave.” Likewise, “slave owners” was replaced with “enslavers,” where possible. (Language was not changed in resources or source excerpts). This semantic choice emphasizes the humanity of enslaved people, rather than reducing their lives to a commodity owned by others. Before the inquiry (prior to the Staging Task or Supporting Question 1), teachers should discuss the word choice with students. See more: Waldman, K. (19 May 2015). Slave or Enslaved? Slate. Accessed from: https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/05/historians-debate-whether-to-use-the-term-slave-or-enslaved-per son.html

Additional Resources

NATIONAL VERSION The national version of this inquiry is an adaptation of a 2017 version of this Kentucky-focused inquiry. It was created especially for Teaching Tolerance’s Teaching Hard History resources on American slavery. How did slavery shape my state? (2018). Teaching Hard History Inquiry Design Models. Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance. Accessed from: https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery/inquiry-design-models. JOURNAL ARTICLE Article describing writing and implementation of 2017 version of this inquiry. Muetterties, C. & Haney, J. (2018). How did slavery shape my state? Using Inquiry to Explore Kentucky History. Social Studies for the Young Learner 30(3), p. 20-25. Accessed from: https://www.socialstudies.org/publications/ssyl/january-february2018/how_did_slavery_shape_my_state_u sing_inquiry_to_explore_kentucky_history. PLACE NAMES To challenge the invisibility of history, author Caleb Gayle calls for a reconsideration of place names, in consideration of who and what is memorialized. This article complements the Staging Task and Taking Informed Action task. Gayle, C. (13 July 2020). Don't Stop at Statues. Demand a Reconsideration of Place Names Too. Time Magazine. Accessed from: https://time.com/5865753/oklahoma-indigenous-land/. IMAGES Use these sources to supplement formative performance tasks. Lewis, D. (25 May 2016). An Archive of Fugitive Slave Ads Sheds New Light on Lost Histories. Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed from: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archive-fugitive-slave-ads-could-shed-new-light-lost-historie s-180959194/ John Winston Coleman Jr. collection on slavery in Kentucky. Accessed from: https://exploreuk.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt74xg9f541m#fa-heading-ref26 Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ National Museum of African American History and Culture: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/collection

Staging the Compelling Question

Students generate questions around a local place name or landscape feature, considering Staging Task how it reflects community history and grappling with the question: How does history shape our surroundings?

Featured Sources Table: Common place names around Kentucky

Staging Question and Task

How does history shape our surroundings? To prepare students for this inquiry, the staging task has students reflect upon their own community to consider how visible (or invisible) history is across the landscape. For the staging task, students generate questions around a local place name or landscape feature, considering how it reflects community history.

STAGING AND TAKING INFORMED ACTION TASKS Framing the inquiry, this staging is complemented by the Taking Informed Action task. After completing the inquiry on the history of slavery in Kentucky, students return to the idea of community history and how the past is memorialized, or invisible, on the landscape. The Staging Task focuses on local well-known place names, whereas the Taking Informed Action task is an opportunity to consider less well-known places or place names.

For this task, it is not expected that students know the history of the chosen place names. Rather, this task is meant to generate student association with place names. ● For example, in Lexington, many places bear the name “Clay,” including multiple roads and schools. Though the Clay family has many prominent members (e.g., Laura, Cassius), Henry Clay is the most common namesake. Students may be able to identify many places named “Clay,” even if they don’t know who Clay is. By reflecting on place names, students are given space to consider who/what is memorialized in their communities and what memorialization communicates. This staging prompts students to critically reflect upon local history and consider how it “shapes” their community. Likewise, they consider who/what their community chooses to remember.

Teachers can implement this task using the following procedures:

1. Teachers select a local place name (county, city, street, building, school) or similarly recognizable landscape feature in their community. (See examples below). ● This name/feature should: ○ Be familiar to all or most students. ■ If a well-travelled street, but students are unfamiliar with the name, have them review a local map and identify what street(s) are important.

○ Ideally, the place/feature should have a connection to slavery, enslaved people, or slave owners/enslavers. ○ Teachers may also elect to use another name/feature as the Staging Task focus. What’s important is that teachers have historical context for the name/feature. ■ Example: Lexington is in Fayette County, named after Marquis de la Fayette. He was a French military officer, who commanded American troops in the American Revolutionary War. (Notably, he was a strong critic of slavery, advocating for its abolition in France and the United States). 2. No matter the chosen feature, use a photograph (or map) of the name/feature to frame students’ question generation. ● Display the image, preferably through a virtual presentation (e.g., PowerPoint, Google Slides) ● Ask if any students recognize the feature or know its name. ● Give opportunities for students to identify the picture, but also include a slide with the image and name. 3. Using the image and name, ask students to generate questions about the image/name. ● Tell students that they will be learning about the ways in which our history is all around us. ● With that idea in mind, ask them to generate as many questions as they can about the image/name. (This task can be organized as a Question Formulation Technique exercise). 4. Have students share some of their questions. Connect students’ questions to the questions below: ● What do you know about the person, if anything? ○ Responses can include other things that may bear the person’s name. ● Why do we name streets/buildings/schools after people? ● What does naming something after someone communicate about the person? ● When we name things after historical people, what does it communicate about how we see history? ● What does it communicate about what we value?

Featured Sources

The featured source is a table with possible names that teachers can use for this exercise. Teachers can use this list to select a name or to help generate their own name/feature in response to their students’ lived experiences. *Please share additional suggestions with The Reckoning.

Staging Task

Featured Source A Common place names around Kentucky

Below is a table with example place names from around Kentucky. These names were selected because they are names associated with prominent places, with which students may be familiar. This list was not designed to be exhaustive. Nor does this list include place names that students are less likely to recognize.

People and places below are listed with their connection to slavery in parentheses. Below the name is, at least, one example of a place named after that person

KENTUCKY LEXINGTON Henry Clay* (enslaver) Daniel Boone (enslaver) ● schools, roads, businesses ● county name, Daniel Boone National Forest, Garrett Morgan (son of enslaved people) Boonesburough, etc. ● elementary school Robert E. Lee (enslaver, Confederate general) John Breckinridge (enslaver, Confederate general) ● county name, various streets/highways ● elementary school Jefferson Davis (enslaver, Confederate president) ● Streets/highways, monument (Todd Co.) *Many Clays have places named after them. Do your research George Rogers Clark (enslaver) to determine which Clay it could be. Examples: Henry Cassius, ● County name, schools Laura, Samuel John Breckinridge (enslaver) ● County name, schools PADUCAH Isaac Shelby (enslaver) Lloyd Tilghman (enslaver) ● County name, city name, schools ● School, statue, museum Alexander Scott Bullitt (enslaver) ● County name, schools LOUISVILLE James Madison (enslaver) John Speed & Family (enslavers) ● County name, City name, schools ● museum John Hunt Morgan (enslaver, Confederate general, enslaved Colonel William Preston (enslaver) Garrett Morgan’s father) ● highway, schools ● Bridges, streets, school mascot (Trimble County High Alexander Bullitt & Family (enslaver) School “Raiders” are named for Morgan’s troops) ● highway, roads, shopping mall

**Several other Kentucky counties and cities are named after enslavers. BULLITT COUNTY Oxmoor family (enslaver) ● shopping mall

Supporting Question 1

Supporting Question Where did populations of enslaved people grow?

Formative Performance Complete a graphic organizer that explains where slavery grew and what geographic features led Task to its growth (e.g., proximity to waterways).

Source A: Lincoln Mullen, "The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860," interactive map. Accessed from: http://lincolnmullen.com/projects/slavery/

Source B: Hergesheimer, E. “Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the southern states of the United States,” Compiled from the census of 1860, Library of Congress, Featured Sources (1861). Accessed from: https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/1860_slave_distribution.pdf Source C: Jenny Bourne, “Slavery in the United States,” EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Whaples, 2008. Accessed from: https://eh.net/encyclopedia/slavery-in-the-united-states/

Supporting Question 1 and Formative Performance Task

The first supporting question—Where did populations of enslaved people grow?—helps students unwrap the geographic factors leading to the growth of slavery in particular areas over others. The formative performance task has students complete a graphic organizer that explains where slavery grew in consideration of geographic features. See Appendix A for an example organizer. Students make inferences using geographic and economic data concerning slavery over a 70 year period. Students could see that slavery existed beyond the South, but became concentrated in particular regions due to geographic variance in economies and politics. In addition to assessing national trends, students make inferences within individual states. For Kentucky specifically, comparing physical maps to slavery maps showed the concentration of slave populations in more central and western regions, with significantly fewer slaves in eastern Kentucky’s Appalachia, as there were fewer farms and fewer urban centers in the mountains.

Featured Sources

The featured sources were selected to help students apply geographic thinking to consider possible factors impacting slavery’s growth (or decline) in the United States based on regional differences. Teachers should annotate, modify, excerpt, or add/subtract sources based on student interests and needs. SOURCE A The first featured source for this question is an interactive map from historian, Lincoln Mullen, showing the spread of US slavery from 1790-1860. SOURCE B The second featured source is a choropleth map of the 1860 census of slave populations. SOURCE C The third source consists of two tables related to populations of enslaved people and slave-owning (enslaver) populations. The first table displays the population breakdown (white, free nonwhite, slave) for the original thirteen colonies from 1790-1860. The second table provides data as to the number of slaveholders and how many enslaved people they owned, separated by state.

Supporting Question 1

Lincoln Mullen, "The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790–1860," interactive map. Accessed Featured Source A from: http://lincolnmullen.com/projects/slavery/

Screenshot from website:

Supporting Question 1

Hergesheimer, E. “Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the southern Featured Source B states of the United States,” Compiled from the census of 1860, Library of Congress, (1861). Accessed from: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3861e.cw0013200/

See weblink to access high resolution image.

Supporting Question 1 Jenny Bourne, “Slavery in the United States,” EH.Net Encyclopedia, edited by Robert Featured Source C Whaples, 2008. Accessed from: https://eh.net/encyclopedia/slavery-in-the-united-states/

See Tables 1 & 4 **Teachers may pull the particular information they want to emphasize to students, rather than present the data in its entirety.

Supporting Question 2

Supporting Question How did the slavery system differ from place to place?

Formative Compare and contrast how slavery differed from place to place using a graphic organizer. Performance Task

Source A: Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America, excerpt, 2012, pp. 88-89, 92. Source B: Rosemarie Zagarri, “Slavery in Colonial British North America,” National History Education Clearinghouse, teachinghistory.org, web article, (n.d.). Accessed from: (See entire article here: http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25577) Featured Sources Source C: James C. Klotter, A Concise History of Kentucky, excerpt, 2008, pp. 91-95. Source D: KET Education, “Kentucky’s Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom,” (n.d.). Accessed from: https://www.ket.org/education/resources/kentuckys-underground-railroad-passage-freedo m/#kentucky-and-the-question-of-slavery

Supporting Question 2 and Formative Performance Task

After students established geographic knowledge, students build on these understandings to investigate differences in the system’s particulars. The second supporting question—How did the slavery system differ from place to place?—asks students to consider a location’s impact on the practice of slavery, including comparisons of rural versus urban settings, plantations versus small-farms, skilled versus unskilled labor, and border states versus the Deep South. This portion of the inquiry was designed to challenge simplistic portrayals of the slave system. Thus, the sources describe slavery within the scope of plantations, as well as small farms and urban areas. Building on the previous task, this question allowed students to consider how Kentucky geography intersected with different manifestations of slavery, while also showing how embedded slavery was in Kentucky life.

Featured Sources

The following sources are text-based descriptions of different forms of enslavement. Collectively, these sources complicate understandings of slavery’s history, dispelling homogenous depictions, in Kentucky and beyond. Teachers should annotate, modify, excerpt, or add/subtract sources based on student interests and needs. SOURCE A The first featured source is a brief excerpt from Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror for Young People, which succinctly describes the oppressive nature of the plantation system. SOURCE B Featured source B is an excerpt from an article on teachinghistory.org, from historian Rosemarie Zagarri. The select text provides an explanation as to how large and small farms differed, as well as describes slave life in more urban areas. SOURCE C The third featured source for this question is an excerpt from Kentucky historian, James C. Klotter’s

12 book, A Concise History of Kentucky. Within this excerpt, Klotter discusses slavery’s influence in the state’s founding, as well as provide an overview of some of the features of slave life in Kentucky. SOURCE D The last source is excerpted from a Kentucky Educational Television (PBS Affiliate) article discussing slavery in Kentucky. The chosen portions further elaborate on how the slave system operated within Kentucky. ● Though not included in this inquiry, the history of the state song, My Old Kentucky Home, is included in this article and may be used to supplement instruction.

Word Bank (in order of appearance) ● Urban – city or town ● Rural – country area, rather than city or town

Source A: ● Inferior – lesser than, not as good as someone else ● Bondage – enslaved, restricted ● Illiterate – not able to read

Source B: ● Peculiar institution – a phrase often used to refer to slavery ● Exponentially – rapidly, very quickly ● Profitable – resulting in financial gain ● Ironically – not what one would expect ● Scrutiny – closely watched ● Agriculture – related to farming ● Artisan – a skilled trade ● Arduous – difficult, tiring

Supporting Question 2

Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America, Featured Source A excerpt, 2012, pp. 88-89, 92.

On Southern Plantations Meanwhile, in the South in 1860, four million African Americans were slaves. They accounted for 35 percent of the total population of the region. The majority of them worked on plantations, large farms with more than twenty slaves. A slave described the routine of a workday: The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning, and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given to them at noon to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is full, they oftentimes labor until the midnight. To manage their enslaved labor force, masters used various methods of discipline and control. They sometimes used kindness, but also believed that strict discipline was essential and that they had to make their slaves fear them. Senator James Hammond of South Carolina, who owned more than three hundred slaves, explained, “We have to rely more and more on the power of fear. We are determined to continue Masters, and to do so we have to draw the rein tighter and tighter day by day.” Physical punishment was common. Masters also used psychological control, trying to brainwash slaves into believing that they were racially inferior and suited for bondage. Kept illiterate and ignorant, they were told that they could not take care of themselves. (p. 88-89) African Americans in Southern Cities Not all slaves lived and worked on plantations. In 1860 there were 70,000 urban slaves in the South, laboring in cloth mills, iron furnaces, and tobacco factories. Many had been “hired out” by their masters to work as wage earners. The masters received weekly payments from the slaves’ employers or from the slaves themselves. One slave in Savannah, Georgia, used the hiring-out system to his own advantage. First he bought his own time from his master at $250 a year, paying in monthly installments. Then he hired seven or eight slaves to work for him. (p. 92)

Supporting Question 2 Rosemarie Zagarri, “Slavery in Colonial British North America,” National History Featured Source B Education Clearinghouse, teachinghistory.org, web article, (n.d.). Accessed from: http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/25577

**Teachers are encouraged to further excerpt portions from these sections, if needed.

Slavery in Pre-Revolution America In the 13 mainland colonies of British North America, slavery was not the peculiar institution of the South. This development would occur after the American Revolution and during the first decades of the 19th century. Although slaves had been sold in the American colonies since at least 1619, slave labor did not come to represent a significant proportion of the labor force in any part of North America until the last quarter of the 17th century. After that time, the numbers of slaves grew exponentially. By 1776, African Americans [were] about 20% of the entire population in the 13 mainland colonies.

[ ] On the mainland British colonies, the demand for labor varied by region. In contrast to the middle and New … England colonies, the Southern colonies chose to export labor-intensive crops: tobacco in Chesapeake (Virginia and Maryland) and rice and indigo in South Carolina, which were believed to be very profitable.

Large vs. Small Plantations By the time of the American Revolution, slaves comprised about 60% of South Carolina's total population and 40% of Virginia's. While most enslaved people in the Chesapeake labored on small farms, many of those in South Carolina lived on large plantations with a large number of slaves. By 1750, one third of all low-country South Carolina slaves lived on units with 50 or more slaves. Ironically, those who lived on larger plantations were often allowed to complete their tasks for the day and then spend the rest of their time as they liked, free from white supervision. Those on smaller farms, however, often found themselves working side-by-side with their white masters, hired white laborers, and only a small number of slaves. As a result, they faced more scrutiny from whites, were expected to labor for the entire day, and had fewer opportunities to interact with other enslaved African Americans.

Slaves in the Urban North Although the largest percentages of slaves were found in the South, slavery did exist in the middle and Northern colonies. The overall percentage of slaves in New England was only 2-3%, but in cities such as Boston and Newport, 20-25% percent of the population consisted of enslaved laborers. Other large cities, such as Philadelphia and New York, also supported significant enslaved populations. Although enslaved people in cities and towns were not needed as agricultural workers, they were employed in a variety of other capacities: domestic servants, artisans, craftsmen, sailors, dock workers, laundresses, and coachmen. Particularly in urban areas, owners often hired out their skilled enslaved workers and collected their wages. Others were used as household servants and demonstrated high social status. Whatever the case, slaves were considered property that could be bought and sold. Slaves thus constituted a portion of the owners' overall wealth. Although Southern slaveholders had a deeper investment in slaves than Northerners, many Northerners, too, had significant portions of their wealth tied up in their ownership of enslaved people.

Supporting Question 2

Featured Source C James C. Klotter, A Concise History of Kentucky, excerpt, 2008, pp. 91-95.

**Teachers are encouraged to further excerpt portions from these sections, if needed.

Between Kentucky’s statehood in 1792 and the start of the Civil War in 1861, the commonwealth grew rapidly. On the surface, visitors found the state a good place to live. [ ] … One visitor wrote that in Kentucky, “every man stands on his own individual merits.” But that was not true. Behind the nice towns and the friendly people that these visitors described, there was another Kentucky that refused to let a large number of people in the state stand on their own merits and abilities – the enslaved. The visitors said little or nothing about the slaves, even though much of Kentucky’s wealth came from slave labor. Slaves’ lives were part of the hidden story of the state.

Slavery Long before the English began to settle in Kentucky, slavery existed in America. During the trip from Africa across the ocean to the New World, many slaves died. Once the survivors arrived in North America, they had to adopt a new language and a new religion. They had to learn about new crops and new ways of doing things. They kept some of their old ways, however, such as singing African songs and retaining some African words, which are now part of the English language. The culture that the slaves developed was not truly African, nor was it fully European, for each group changed the other. It was American. Slavery had been in America for more than 150 years when Kentucky was settled. People from Virginia and other places brought slaves with them into the new area. Early explorer Christopher Gist had only his black slave with him when he traveled to Kentucky in the 1750s. Daniel Boone turned back after his trip to settle the land, but slaves had been part of that group. On his next try, a slave and a white man died in an Indian attack. [ ] … When Kentuckians met to write a constitution in 1792, they voted on whether to keep slavery or end it. They kept it by a vote of twenty-six to sixteen. Those twenty-six had seemingly forgotten that blacks and whites had fought as equals against their shared enemy. They did not consider that both groups had worked to build a state out of the wilderness. They could not throw off their old ways totally, even on this new frontier. So they planned for their freedom as a new state, but they excluded slaves from that freedom, and slavery continued. [ ] …

Slave Life Many people have tried to compare slavery to some situation in modern life. Some have likened it to being a private in the army: you have to obey orders and do what people say, but you have some free time to yourself. Others have compared life as a slave to being in a jail: there might be some time when you can do what you want, but you are limited by the walls around you and the guards watching over you. Of course, the main difference is that you can be discharged from the army, and a prison term can end. Slavery was for life. Those in the system were born into it and died under it. [ ] … How people treated slaves differed from one place to another. Some masters might treat slaves as well as could be expected under the system. Others might abuse them badly. Some owners might provide food and clothes similar

16 to those given to free workers. Others might give slaves very little. In such ways, slavery differed everywhere, from place to place, and from one person to person. One thing, however, was the same: the buying and selling of human beings revealed a cruel, harsh system. People would read newspaper ads like this one from Bardstown in 1809: “For sale a negro man and woman, each about twenty-four years of age, both of excellent plantation hands, together with two children. They will be sold separately or together.” Some slaves sold at slave markets stayed in the state. Others were shipped farther south. Perhaps 80,000 Kentucky slaves never saw their Kentucky homes again after they went on the auction block. Even if a slave owner did not want to sell them, they could be sold after his or her death to pay off the owner’s debts. Under the law, slaves were just property, just like a horse or a house. Eleven-year-old slave Isaac Johnson and his family were put up for sale. He was sold first. His four-year-old brother Ambrose went next, sold to someone else. When Isaac’s mother came before the crowd, she held baby Eddie in her arms. Someone yelled out to sell them separately. The auctioneer took the baby from her and sold him; then he sold the mother to another person. Isaac never saw any of his family again. Slavery harmed all it touched, black and white.

Supporting Question 2

KET Education, “Kentucky’s Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom,” (n.d.). Accessed from: Featured Source D https://www.ket.org/education/resources/kentuckys-underground-railroad-passage-fre edom/#kentucky-and-the-question-of-slavery

**Teachers are encouraged to further excerpt portions from these sections, if needed. Excerpt below. For full article, see section: “Kentucky and the Question of Slavery.”

Many Kentucky slaves resided in Louisville; Henderson and Oldham counties along the Ohio River; and Trigg, Christian, Todd, and Warren counties in the tobacco-growing southcentral section of the state. Few slaves lived in the mountainous regions of eastern and southeastern Kentucky. Those slaves that were held in eastern and southeastern Kentucky served primarily as artisans and service workers. Unlike in the Deep South, with its large cotton plantations and longer growing seasons, Kentucky slavery operated with greater diversity and on smaller plantations. In addition to providing the much-needed labor force to raise and harvest Kentucky tobacco and hemp, Kentucky slaves worked in salt mines, in iron works, and on bridge and road construction. In Kentucky’s urban centers, slaves worked in the better hotels and performed all the household chores in the homes of the white elite. Unlike slaves in the Deep South, Kentucky slaves lived on farms, not plantations, in units that averaged about five slaves. Only 12 percent of Kentucky’s masters owned 20 or more slaves, and only 70 persons held 50 or more. Fluctuating markets and seasonal needs characterized Kentucky slavery. Congress prohibited the importation of slaves into the United States in 1808, and Kentucky prohibited the importation of slaves into the state for sale in 1833. However, because of the lucrative nature of the slave trade, slaves continued to be bought and sold, despite legal restrictions. In order to gain maximum benefit from their slaves, Kentucky slaveholders also frequently hired out skilled slaves as carpenters, blacksmiths, brick masons, coopers, herders, stevedores, waiters, and factory workers. In 1860, James Klotter estimates, roughly one-quarter of Louisville’s enslaved were hired out. The hiring-out system provided masters with considerable flexibility in using slave labor and afforded the enslaved a sense of freedom and perhaps a small measure of independence not experienced on larger plantations in the Deep South. The invention of the cotton gin and the implementation of better-growing cotton and rice seeds and improved agricultural techniques caused demand for slave labor in the South to grow at alarming rates. To capitalize on expanding markets and to meet the needs of Southern planters, Kentucky quickly became a major supplier of hogs, corn, African slaves, and “fancy girls.” By the time of the Civil War, Kentucky was known as a “slave-growing” state, responsible for supplying African slaves for Southern plantations. According to historian George Wright, “Ownership of slaves was profitable to Kentucky whites; the slave trade shipped approximately 80,000 Africans southward between 1830 and 1860.” In addition to enslaved African communities, Kentucky maintained small but vocal “free” black hamlets throughout the state. Kentucky’s free black population ranked third among the slave states that remained loyal to the Union in 1861 and seventh overall among slave states and the District of Columbia. The number of “free” blacks in Kentucky prior to the Civil War is uncertain, but noted scholars such as Wright list the total at about 11,000 in 1860, compared to a total of 211,000 enslaved Africans at that time.

The differences cited above in how Africans experienced slavery in Kentucky have led many historians to speculate that Kentucky provided a “milder” form of slavery for its African population. Despite seeming differences in work and living conditions, Kentucky slaves suffered the same grueling work schedules; separation from family; threat of death or severe punishment; and mental, physical, and spiritual abuse experienced by slaves farther south. In many ways, enduring slavery in Kentucky was made even harder because of the nearness of freedom in the free states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Supporting Question 3

Supporting Question How did your state’s former enslaved people describe their treatment?

Formative Write a summary that describes enslaved people’s discussions of their treatment. Performance Task

Source A: Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Slave Narratives: Volume VII: Kentucky Narratives, (1941). See more information: https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to- 1938/about-this-collection/ Featured Sources Source B: Reproduction of advertisements for the purchase of slaves by slaver dealers Silas Marshall, George S. Marshall, and Joseph H. Northcutt. Accessed from: https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt74xg9f541m_9_6?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=John+W inston+Coleman+Jr.+collection+on+slavery+in+Kentucky&per_page=100

See additional source options below.

Supporting Question 3 and Formative Performance Task

The third supporting question—How did your state’s former enslaved people describe their treatment?—has students engage with narratives from formerly enslaved people to add the human factor to their inquiry into the slave system. This question provides a voice to the enslaved people in order to better humanize their experiences. For this task, students write a summary that describes enslaved people’s discussion of their treatment. An alternative task is for students to create an open-minded portrait, where they fill in portrait outlines with a summary reflecting individuals’ expressed thoughts and feelings, plus students’ fact-based inferences. Students are able to summarize the enslaved people’s discussions in multiple ways: through descriptions, listing of key phrases, and drawings. TASK NOTE It is vitally important that teachers take care to correct students who trivialize or dehumanize people’s experiences, whether intentionally or not. As noted above (Note on Language), reducing people’s experiences to commodities rather than people, minimizes their experiences. Though this task asks students to make inferences, teachers should not expect students to make assumptions or put students “in their shoes.” Such activities can reinforce shallow views of enslavement.

Featured Sources

Teachers should annotate, modify, excerpt, or add/subtract sources based on student interests and needs. SOURCE A The first source for this question are excerpts from the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA’s) Slave Narratives, which are interviews with elderly formerly enslaved people, collected in the 1930s. These excerpts from the Kentucky collection explicitly mention Kentucky locations. The chosen excerpts highlight both everyday aspects of enslavement, as well as how violence permeated slave life. One particular aspect highlighted in the narratives is the division of families in slave auctions. SOURCE B To supplement the WPA Slave Narratives, the second featured source are slave auction advertisements

20 that mention locations in Kentucky, also mentioned in the slave narratives. These advertisements further connect the narratives to students’ communities.

Additional Sources

The following sources can be used in addition to the featured sources. SOURCE C Source C is an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, wherein he discusses the violence endured by enslaved people, as well as condemns the entire country for the hypocrisy of celebrating Independence Day while slavery continued to exist. Teachers can bridge this source to discussions of making Juneteenth a national holiday. SOURCE D This source is an interview, audio and transcript, with a former enslaved person, Fountain Hughes, discussing several aspects of his everyday life within the slave system, including slave auctions. SOURCE E Source E is a collection of well-known images depicting slavery. The images add visual representation to the previous sources’ descriptions. The first is an image from the American Anti-Slavery Society, “Am I not a man and a brother?” The next is a color lithograph depicting an enslaved person being whipped. The third picture is a medical examination photo of an enslaved person, Gordon, showing the bodily effects of repeated whippings on his back. The last two images depict slave auctions, including separation of families.

Note on Sources

NARRATIVES Though these are oral histories of formerly enslaved people, teachers should be highly conscientious about helping students consider the limitations of this particular source type. In particular, the dynamic between interviewer and interviewee could certainly have shaped interviewees’ responses – most interviewers being white Southerners. Some oral histories are also told in first person, others in third person. ● Teachers are encouraged to read a brief overview of the project from the Library of Congress for context. (See: https://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/narratives-slavery/). IMAGES Some of the materials contain graphic material, which could shock or upset students. Teachers should be sensitive to the possibly traumatic nature of the sources and consider the appropriateness of using the images. Teachers should take time to prepare students before engaging them in the content.

**It is important to consider appropriateness while not providing a sanitized version of slavery.

Supporting Question 3

Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Slave Narratives: Featured Source A Volume VII: Kentucky Narratives, (1941). Accessed from: https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn070/

NOTE ON LANGUAGE The title of each excerpt below uses the exact description of the original WPA narrative. Teachers may use this opportunity to explain why the preferred language is enslaved person versus slave, as noted in the Inquiry Description. ● In some instances, the interviewer is named, rather than the interviewee.

Interview with George Henderson, former slave: “Out clothes were made of jeens and lindsey in winter. In the summer we wore cotton clothes. They gave us shoes at Christmas time. We were measured with sticks. Once I was warming my shoes on a back, log on the big fire place, they gell over behind the logs and burnt up. I didn’t marry while on the plantation. “My master and mistress lived in the big brick house of 15 rooms with two long porches. One below and one below. My mistus was Miss Lucy Elmore before she married. Her children were named Miss Mat, Hiss Emma, and Miss Jennie. “I saw the slaves in chains after they were sold. The white, folks did not teach us to read and write, we had church on the plantation but we went from one plantation to another to hear preaching.”

… “I remember one slave named Adams who ran away and when he came back my old master picked up a log from the fire and hit him over: the head. We always washed up and cleaned up for Sunday. Some time the older ones would get drunk.”

Interview with Will Oats, ex-slave of Mercer Co., KY: “Will was owned by Lewis Oats and. his sister; they lived in a two story house, built of log and weather boarded. They were very wealthy people. The farm consisted of over 230 acres; they owned six slaves; and they had to be up doing their morning work before the master would wake. "When working and the slaves would disobey their master, they were punished in some way; but there was no jail. They didn't know how to read or write, and they had no church to attend. All they had to do when not at work was to talk to the older folks. On Christmas morning they would usually have a little extra to eat and maybe a stick of candy. On New Year’s Day their work went on just the same as on any other day.”

Interview with Uncle Edd Shirley, Janitor at Tompkinsville Drug Co. and Hospital, Tompkinsville, KY: “I am 97 years old and am still working as janitor and support my family. My father was a white man and my mother was a colored lady. I was owned three different times, or rather was sold to three different families. I was first owned by the Waldens; then I was sold to a man by the name of Jackson, of Glasgow, Kentucky. Then my father, of this county, bought me. “I have had many slave experiences. Some slaves were treated good, and some were treated awful bad by the white people; but most of them were treated good if they would do what their master told them to do. “I onced saw a light colored gal tied to the rafters of a barn, and her master whipped her until blood ran down her back and made a large pool on the ground. And I have seen negro men tied to stakes drove in the ground and whipped because they would not mind their master.”

Union Co., Ruby Garten: "I remember the slaves on my grandfather's farm. After they were freed they asked him to keep them because they didn't want to leave. He told them they could stay and one of the daughters of the slaves was married in the kitchen of my grandfather’s house. After the wedding they set supper for them. Some of the slave owners were very good to their slaves; but some whipped them until they made gashes in their backs and would put salt in the gashes.”

Garrard Co., Story of Aunt Harriet Mason, age 100 - a slave girl: "When I was seven years old my missis took me to Bourbon County, when we got to Lexington I tried to run off and go back to Bryantsville to see my mammy. Mas’r Gano told me if I didn’t came the sheriff would git me. I never liked to go to Lexington since.”

Boyd Co., Carl F. Hall (interviewer): “John's master, in allowing his slaves to marry, was much more liberal than most other slave owners, who allowed their slaves no such liberty. “As a rule negro men were not allowed to marry at all, any attempt to mate with the negro women brought swift, sure horrible punishment and the species were propogated by selected male negroes, who were kept for that purpose, the owners of this provileged negro, charged a fee of one out of every four of his offspring for his services.”

Laurel CO., Perry Larkey (interviewer): “Concerning slaves of this section of the country, I will quote experiences and observation of an old negro lady who was a slave, Mrs. Amelia Jones, living in North London, Kentucky. ‘Aunt Amelia’ as she is known around here is eighty-eight years of age, being sixteen years of age at the close of the Civil War.”

… “Master White was good to the slaves, he fed us well and had good places for us to sleep, and didn't whip us only when it was necessary, but didn't hesitate to sell any of his slaves, he said, “You all belong to me and if you don't like it, I'll put you in my pooket” meaning of course that he would sell that slave and put the money in his pocket. “The day he was to sell the children from their mother he would tell that mother to go to some other place to do some work and in her absence he would sell the children. It was the same when he would sell a man's wife, he also sent him to another job and when he returned his wife would be gone. The master only said “don’t worry you oan get another one”.

… “Mrs. Jones has a sister ninety-two years of age living with her now, who was sold from the auction block in Manchester. Her sister was only twelve years of age when sold and her master received $1,220.00 for her, then she was taken south to some plantation. Also her father was sold at that place at an auction of slaves at a high price, handcuffed and taken south. She never saw her father again. She says the day her father was sold there was a long line of slaves to be sold and after they were sold and a good price paid for each they were handcuffed and marched away to the South, her father was among the number. “The Auction block at Manchester was built in the open, from rough-made lumber, a few steps and a platform on top of that, the slave to be sold. He would look at the crowd as the auctioner would give a general description of the ability and physical standing of the man. He heard the bids as they came in wondering what his master would be like.”

Floyd Co., John I. Sturgill (interviewer): “Many folk went over to Mt. Sterling or Lexington to auctions for trading servants. (The same manner is used trading stock today). “Slave traders came into the county to buy up slaves for the Southern plantations, and cotton or sugar fields — Slave families were very frequently separated, some members mean, theiving, or running away niggers were sold (first) down the river. Sometimes good servants were sold for the price, the master being in a financial strait or

23 dire need of money. Traders handcuffed their servants purchased, and took them by boat or horse-back down the river or over in Virginia and Carolina tobacco fields.” Clay Co., Pearl House (interviewer): “The following story of slave days is the exact words of one who had the bitter experience of slavery. Sophia Word, who is now ninety-nine years of age, born February 2, 1837. She tells me she was in bondage for nineteen years and nine months. I shall repeat just as she told the story.”

… “Our Master didn't auction off his slaves as the other masters would for he was a better master than most of them. When he started to sale one of us he would go out and talk to the old slave trader like he wuz g’wine to sale a cow or sometin and then he would come back to git the slave he wanted. This wuz the way my mothers brother and sister wuz sold. When the other masters at other places sold a slave they put the slave on the auction block and the slave trader had a long whop that he hit them 4W with to see if they could jump around and wuz strong. The largest and brought the money. “I wuz a slave nineteen yeahs and nine months but somehow or nuther I didn’t belong to a real mean pet of people. The white folks said I was the meanest nigger that ever wuz. One day my Mistress Lyndia called fer me to come in the house. but no, I wouldn't go. She walks out and says she is gowine make me go. So she takes and drags me in the house. Then I grabs that white woman, when she turned her back, and shook her until she begged for mercy. When the master comes in, I wuz given a terrible beating with a whip but I din'nt care fer I give the mistress a good'un too.”

Garrard County. Ex-Slave Stories. (Eliza Ison) [HW: Ky 11] Aunt Harriet Mason--Ex-Slave: We had no overseer or driver. We had no "Po white neighbors". There was about 300 acres of land around Lick Skillet, but we did not have many slaves. The slaves were waked up by General Gano who rang a big farm bell about four times in the morning. There was no jail on the place and I never say a slave whipped or punished in any way. I never saw a slave auctioned off.

Jefferson Co., Byers York (interviewer), Susan Dale Sanders: “The following is a story of Mrs. Susan Dale Sanders, #1 Dupree Alley, between Breckinridge and Lampton Sts., Louisville, an old Negro Slave mammy, and of her life, as she related it. “Some of the other old Masters, who had lots of slaves on fa'ms close by, was so mean to the slaves they owned. They wo'ked the women and men both in the fields and the children too, and when the ole Master thought they was'n't do'n' 'nuf wo'k, he would take his men and strip off their shirts, and lash them with cow-hide whips until you could see the blood run down them poor niggers backs. The Nigger traders would come through and buy up a lot of men, and women slaves, and get a big drove of them and take them further south to work in the fields, leavin their babies. I'se never can forget. I know'd some mean ole masters. Our ole master Dale that raised my Mammy and her family never was hard or mean like that. He would let us go to church, have parties and dances. One of the ole salves would come to our cabin with his fiddle and we'd dance.”

Jefferson Co., Joana Owens: “The following is the life and traditions of Joana Owens, 520 E. Breckinridge St., Louisville, Kentucky, an old negro mammy who was born during slavery. “I will never forget how mean old Master Nolan Barr was to us. I was about fourteen years old and my sister was a little younger. We lived in an old log cabin. The cracks was filled with mud. My Mother done the housework for Master Barr's house. My father and sister and me had to work in the fields. He had a big farm, and owned lots of slaves, and when the old master got mad at his slaves for not working hard enough he would tie them up by their thumbs and whip the male slaves till they begged for mercy. He sure was a mean old man. I will never forget him as long as I live. I don't know exactly how old I is, but I am close to ninety now.”

Tale of Mary Wooldridge: (Clarksville Pike--Age about 103.) "Mary and her twin sister were slaves born in Washington County, Kentucky, near Lexington, belonging to Bob Eaglin. When Mary was about fourteen years old she and her sister was brought to the Lexington slave market and sold and a Mr. Lewis Burns of the same County purchased her. Mary doesn't know what became of her sister.”

Supporting Question 3

Reproduction of advertisements for the purchase of slaves by slaver dealers Silas Marshall, George S. Marshall, and Joseph H. Northcutt. Accessed from: Featured Source B https://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt74xg9f541m_9_6?f%5Bsource_s%5D%5B%5D=John+Win ston+Coleman+Jr.+collection+on+slavery+in+Kentucky&per_page=100

Screenshot of item:

Supporting Question 3

Frederick Douglass, The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro, speech in Rochester, NY, Featured Source C July 4, 1852. Accessed from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html

What! Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No - I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply. [ ] … What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim There is not a nation of the earth guilty … of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

Supporting Question 3

Interview with Fountain Hughes, Interview by H. Norwood, June 11, 1949, Voices from Featured Source D the Days of Slavery: Former Slaves Tell Their Stories, Baltimore, Maryland. Audio and transcript accessed from: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc9999001.9990a

Hermond Norwood: Who did you work for Uncle Fountain when ... ? Fountain Hughes: Who'd I work for? Hermond Norwood: Yeah. Fountain Hughes: When I, you mean when I was slave? Hermond Norwood: Yeah, when you were a slave. Who did you work for? Fountain Hughes: Well, I belonged to, uh, B., when I was a slave. My mother belonged to B. But my, uh, but, uh, we, uh, was all slave children. And after, soon after when we found out that we was free, why then we was, uh, bound out to different people. [names of people] and an all such people as that. And we would run away, and wouldn't stay with them. Why then we'd just go and stay anywheres we could. Lay out a night in underwear. We had no home, you know. We was just turned out like a lot of cattle. You know how they turn cattle out in a pasture? Well after freedom, you know, colored people didn't have nothing. Colored people didn't have no beds when they was slaves. We always slept on the floor, pallet here, and a pallet there. Just like, uh, lot of, uh, wild people, we didn't, we didn't know nothing. Didn't allow you to look at no book. And then there was some free born colored people, why they had a little education, but there was very few of them, where we was. And they all had uh, what you call, I might call it now, uh, jail centers, was just the same as we was in jail. Now I couldn't go from here across the street, or I couldn't go through nobody's house without I have a note, or something from my master. And if I had that pass, that was what we call a pass, if I had that pass, I could go wherever he sent me. And I'd have to be back, you know, when uh. Whoever he sent me to, they, they'd give me another pass and I'd bring that back so as to show how long I'd been gone. We couldn't go out and stay a hour or two hours or something like. They send you. Now, say for instance I'd go out here to S.'s place. I'd have to walk. And I would have to be back maybe in a hour. Maybe they'd give me hour. I don't know just how long they'd give me. But they'd give me a note so there wouldn't nobody interfere with me, and tell who I belong to. And when I come back, why I carry it to my master and give that to him, that'd be all right. But I couldn't just walk away like the people does now, you know. It was what they call, we were slaves. We belonged to people. They'd sell us like they sell horses and cows and hogs and all like that. Have a auction bench, and they'd put you on, up on the bench and bid on you just same as you bidding on cattle you know. Hermond Norwood: Was that in Charlotte that you were a slave? Fountain Hughes: Hmmm? Hermond Norwood: Was that in Charlotte or Charlottesville? Fountain Hughes: That was in Charlottesville. Hermond Norwood: Charlottesville, Virginia. Fountain Hughes: Selling women, selling men. All that. Then if they had any bad ones, they'd sell them to the nigga traders, what they called the nigga traders. And they'd ship them down south, and sell them down south. But, uh, otherwise if you was a good, good person they wouldn't sell you. But if you was bad and mean and they didn't want to beat you and knock you around, they'd sell you what to the, what was call the nigga trader. They'd have a

28 regular, have a sale every month, you know, at the courthouse. And then they'd sell you, and get two hundred dollar, hundred dollar, five hundred dollar. Transcript excerpt (7:37-11:25)

Supporting Question 3

Featured Source E Image Collection

“Am I not a man and a brother?” American Anti-Slavery Society. Woodcut. New York, 1837. Summary: The large, bold woodcut image of a supplicant male slave in chains appears on the 1837 broadside publication of John Greenleaf Whittier's antislavery poem, "Our Countrymen in Chains." The design was originally adopted as the seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in England in the 1780s, and appeared on several medallions for the society made by Josiah Wedgwood as early as 1787. Here, in addition to Whittier's poem, the appeal to conscience against slavery continues with two further quotes. The first is the scriptural warning, "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. "Exod[us] XXI, 16." Next the claim, "England has 800,000 Slaves, and she has made them free. America has 2,250,000! and she holds them fast!!!!" The broadside is advertised at "Price Two Cents Single; or $1.00 per hundred.

Accessed from: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661312/

“The Lash” Henry Louis Stephens, lithograph, Philadelphia, c. 1863.

Accessed from: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93505071/

Carte de Visite portrait of Gordon, medical examination photo of enslaved man, Gordon, 1863. Carte de Visite portrait of Gordon. A facsimile printing of an original Official Report to Colonel L.B. Marsh. "Camp Parapet, LA, Aug. 4, 1863. I have found a large number of the four hundred contrabands [slaves] examined by me to be as badly lacerated [cut] as the specimen represented in the enclosed photograph, signed F.W. Mercer, Asst. Surgeon, 47th M.V."

Accessed from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Escaped-Slave-Gordon-CDV-Portrait,-1863.png

“Slave auction at Richmond, Virginia,” wood engraving, 1856. Enslaved woman being auctioned off in front of a crowd of men.

Accessed from: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98510266/

“A slave auction at the south,” wood engraving, 1861.

Accessed from: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a06254/

Supporting Question 4

Supporting Question How is the legacy of slavery visible in your community?

Formative Write a claim supported by evidence concerning how the legacy of slavery is visible in your Performance Task community.

Supporting Question 4 and Formative Performance Task

For the fourth supporting question—How is the legacy of slavery visible in your community?—students connect what they learned about the history of their region to consider how slavery is (or isn’t) memorialized in their community. They consider how history can become visible, facilitating deliberations over appropriate ways to depict and, thus, remember the past. The formative task asks students to write a claim supported by evidence concerning how the legacy of slavery is visible in their community. See Appendix C for a sample evidence-based claim graphic organizer. The first component of the Taking Informed Action piece of the inquiry is embedded in this task. To understand the extent to which slavery is or isn’t appropriately remembered, students should read sources concerning ways the legacy of slavery is visible in the community. History is visible in the broader Kentucky community in the form of preserved historical sites, memorials/markers to slavery, and statues/memorials to slave owners. The evidence of history does not need to be limited to physical landmarks. Kentucky’s state song, “My Old Kentucky Home,” is about an enslaved person lamenting leaving Kentucky after being sold to a sugar cane farm. SELECTING TASK FOCUS Focus for the task should reflect local circumstances and student interests. Below are three possible focuses for this task. Teachers may select one or incorporate all of them into this task. 1. Local places named after an enslaver, enslaved person, or other connection to slavery (e.g., county/city name, streets, building, schools) 2. Local efforts to memorialize slavery’s legacy 3. The absence or erasure of local slavery history

STAGING AND TAKING INFORMED ACTION TASKS The staging task first introduced students to the ways in which slavery’s legacy may be woven into their communities—through place names and other memorializations across the landscape. In this formative task, students are preparing to apply what they’ve learned about Kentucky’s slavery history in a Taking Informed Action (TIA) task. After completing the inquiry on the history of slavery in Kentucky, students return to the idea of community history and how the past is memorialized, or invisible, on the landscape. While the staging task focused on the local household place names, the Taking Informed Action task is an opportunity to lift up the less recognizable people or place names.

Teachers can implement this task using the following procedures:

**Select (or allow students to select) the approach that most resonates with the class.

1. Return to the person/place identified in the Staging Task. ● Research their connection to slavery, and evaluate the ways in which they are memorialized. ○ Consider if there is any information about: the person’s connection to slavery; whether it is a positive or negative portrayal; what additional information is needed to better document the legacy of slavery; etc.

EXAMPLE For Henry Clay, research his connection to slavery. This research can include: ● Reviewing information and/or contacting the Henry Clay Estate at Ashland ● Reviewing information about Charlotte Dupuy, the woman enslaved by Clay, who (unsuccessfully) sued for her freedom ● Find the number of things in Lexington that have the name “Clay”* Determine what/if anything should change to better illuminate this part of Kentucky’s slave history. *Note: some things may refer to his family members, including Laura Clay and Cassius Clay.

2. Research additional places around your city that have a connection to slavery. These connections can be to slavery sites (e.g., plantations, farms with enslaved people, slave markets, rock fences/stone walls), enslaved people, and enslavers. **If you are having trouble, contact the city’s historical society (if applicable) or the Kentucky Historical Society. ● Evaluate how the history of slavery is displayed or invisible.

EXAMPLE Various historical farm homes enslaved people for generations. Students can research slavery for the county, including at the home. Using this research, and their research from the inquiry, they can evaluate whether the historic home’s website provides sufficient information about its history of enslavement.

3. Students evaluate how slavery is/isn’t memorialized in their community and contrast slavery’s visibility that with another place name/feature on the landscape (e.g., monument, memorial, street name, etc.) that is connected to slavery. Students consider how well slavery’s history is visible or invisible and offer a suggestion to the public based on their understanding of the legacy of slavery.

EXAMPLE Cheapside Park in Lexington, which was the site of one of the South’s largest slave markets, had two statues** of slave owners on the site, with no mention of their history as enslavers. Cheapside is also neighboring Henry Clay’s law offices. Students can consider what historical markers are there, at present, and whether they think more information is needed or not needed. **The two statues were removed and placed in Lexington’s cemetery, at the respective graves of both men.

Note on Sources

For this task, students complete research and/or teachers provide resources to frame students’ investigations into how the legacy of slavery is visible in the community. Use the instructional guidance (above) to guide source selection.

IN THE ORIGINAL VERSION of this inquiry (2017), students read different perspectives about Lexington, Kentucky’s Cheapside Park, a location that was once a prominent slave market. At the time, the historical marker documenting its history as a slave market had been vandalized and removed. What remained at the site were two statues of slave owners and Confederate generals, John C. Breckinridge and John Hunt Morgan. In recent years, Take Back Cheapside and other civic groups campaigned for the statues’ removal, and in their place would be a public memorial about the history of slavery there. Erected in 1887 and 1911 respectively, the statues reflect the post-Reconstruction historical revisionism that heralded the “Lost Cause” of the Civil War. One manifestation of this movement was the construction of Confederate memorials throughout the South. Despite Kentucky being a border state and remaining in the Union during the Civil War, the National Register of Historic Places reports that memorials to the Union account for roughly only ten percent of Civil War memorials in the state. Only one quarter of Kentuckians who fought in the Civil War did so on behalf of the Confederacy. Since the original writing of the inquiry, the two statues have been removed and placed in Lexington’s cemetery, at the respective graves of both men. DESCRIPTION OF CHEAPSIDE Talbott, T. “Cheapside Slave Auction Block,” ExploreKYHistory. Accessed from: http://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/171.

CHEAPSIDE DEBATE SOURCES Teachers may use these articles as examples of different perspectives regarding addressing how slavery is memorialized (or rendered invisible) in communities. Teachers are encouraged to excerpt portions from these articles. Articles are presented here in chronological order. James, Josh. (8 July 2015). Community Talks Controversial Monuments, Mayor Announces New Review. WUKY. Accessed from: http://wuky.org/post/community-talks-controversial-monuments-mayor-announces-new-review#stream/0 Wright, Will. (31 July 2015). Historical slavery marker in Lexington broken; group balks at including it in discussion of Confederate statues. Lexington Herald Leader, July 31, 2015. Accessed from: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article44613147.html Ward, Karla. (21 September 2015). Lexington board hears pros, cons about keeping Confederate statues downtown. Lexington Herald Leader. Accessed from: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article42620964.html. Musgrave, Beth. (17 February 2016). Confederate statues to remain in Lexington, Ky., courthouse square. Lexington Herald Leader. Accessed from: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article60902437.html Adkins, David. (28 February 28 2016). Confederate statues: city’s shameful graffiti. Lexington Herald Leader. Accessed from: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article62718482.html.

Allen, Russell. (27 March 27 2017). Free Lexington’s heart of monuments to traitorous slaveholders; it’s really not that complicated. Lexington Herald Leader. Accessed from: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article141068618.html

Summative Performance Task

Compelling Question How did slavery shape my state?

Construct an argument (e.g., detailed outline, poster, essay) that discusses the compelling Summative question using specific claims and relevant evidence from historical and contemporary Performance Task sources while acknowledging competing views.

At this point in the inquiry, students have examined how slavery was a part of the growth of the United States, how the system varied from place to place, the violence endemic to slavery, and how slavery is represented in historical memory, specifically within students’ communities. Students should be expected to demonstrate the breadth of their understanding and their abilities to use evidence from multiple sources to support their claims. In this task, students construct an evidence-based argument using multiple sources to answer the compelling question: how did slavery shape my state?

Argument Stems

It is important to note that students’ arguments could take a variety of forms, including a detailed outline, poster, or essay. Students’ arguments will likely vary, but could include any of the following: ● Enslaved people were a large portion of my state’s population and, thus, their experiences are a significant part of state history. ● My state’s economic growth was affected significantly by the use of slave labor, thus an important part of the state’s identity. ● There are many places in Kentucky that are named after enslavers and/or have other connections to slavery. ● Though slavery was a significant part of Kentucky’s history, its legacy is not very visible and needs more emphasis in how it shaped the state today. EXTENSION To extend their arguments, teachers may have students create a timeline of their state’s history, incorporating slavery’s influence.

Take Informed Action

Action Question How should my community memorialize the history of slavery?

ASSESS Have a class deliberation about how the history of slavery is, and should be, memorialized in your community. Informed Action Task ACT Write a class proposal to send to the mayor or other stakeholder, suggesting how to memorialize this history.

Structure of Taking Informed Action

Taking informed action tasks have three steps to prepare students for informed, reasoned, and authentic action. The steps ask students to (1) understand the issues evident from the inquiry in a larger and/or current context; (2) assess the relevance and impact of the issues; and (3) act in ways that allow students to demonstrate agency in a real-world context. This task can be completed after, or in place of, the summative performance task. UNDERSTAND Accomplished in Supporting Question 4. Teachers may add additional sources and/or a research opportunity to supplement this task.

ASSESS Students have a class deliberation about how the history of slavery is, and should be, memorialized in your community.

ACT To take action, students write a class proposal to send to the mayor or other stakeholder, suggesting how to memorialize this history. ● Students can work collaboratively on a class proposal or write their own individual proposals.

ACTION EXAMPLES ● Suggest changes: Change the name of streets or schools, if named after an enslaver; add information about enslavement to historical markers, etc. ● Tell a complete story: Write a proposal to a historical estate/farm about adding more information on their slavery history to website or other materials. ● Elevate history of slavery: Create an awareness campaign about local history and/or work being done to tell the story of slavery in Kentucky. See specific examples in the Supporting Question 4 procedures box.

Note about Ways to Take Informed Action

This inquiry has a suggested taking informed action task. Teachers and students are encouraged to revise or adjust the task to reflect student interests, the topic/issue chosen for the task, time considerations, etc. Taking informed action can manifest in a variety of forms and in a range of venues. They can be small actions (e.g., informed conversations) to the big (e.g., organizing a protest). For this project, students may instead express action by creating a public service announcement (as noted in the extension), organizing a panel discussion, conducting a

40 survey and the like; these actions may take place in the classroom, the school, the local community, across the state, and around the world. What’s important is that students are authentically applying the inquiry to an out-of-classroom context. Actions should reach people outside of the classroom. For more information about different ways students can take action, see: Muetterties, C. & Swan, K. (2019). Guiding Taking Informed Action Graphic Organizer. C3Teachers. Available from: http://www.c3teachers.org/inquiries/civic-action-project/.

Appendix A

Graphic Organizer Where did slave populations grow?

The Spread of U.S. Slavery, 1790-1860, Enslaved Population (Total Numbers), Featured Source http://lincolnmullen.com/projects/slavery/

Where are the What geographic What states have Where did slavery Where did slavery most enslaved features are they near? the most enslaved grow from the decrease from the people in those (Mountains, rivers, the people? previous year? previous year? states? ocean coast, etc.)

1790

1810

1830

1850

1860

DIRECTIONS Clicking (or hovering your mouse) over the counties of your state: 1. What counties have the most slaves?

2. Where are there the least?

On the bottom right of the screen, choose to show “Enslaved population (%)”. This shows you what percent of the total population were slaves. 3. Where are slaves the majority of the population?

4. Historians often refer to the “Cotton Belt,” which was an area of the United States where cotton was grown. This area had a high number of slaves to tend to these plantations. Based on these maps, where do you think this was?

5. Why do you think slave populations grew in the United States?

6. Why did they grow more in some areas than in others?

Appendix B

Graphic Organizer How did the slavery system differ from place to place?

States / Geographic Areas Differences Similarities

Large

Plantations

Small Plantations

Urban Slavery

1. How was slavery a part of the settlement of Kentucky?

2. How were enslaved people treated?

3. Where were most of the enslaved people in Kentucky?

4. What kind of work did they do?

5. How was slavery different from place-to-place in Kentucky?

6. How was slavery different in Kentucky than in other states?

Appendix C

Graphic Organizer How is the legacy of slavery visible in your community?

CLAIM

⇩

REASONING

⇩ ⇩ ⇩

EVIDENCE EVIDENCE EVIDENCE