Fugitive Slave Act

• The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was given by the President to the South to help them keep a tight grasp around their hold of their slaves.
• Slaves were still nothing but property so if any of a slave owner's "property" was stolen or missing, they still had to find some way to get that property back.
• Slaves were never allowed to leave the property of their master's without some sort of pass. If this pass was not given to a slave and they got a few feet away from their master's property, they would be considered fugitives. If they were caught during escape, they would be sent directly back to their master and suffer a severe consequence.
• The Fugitive Slave Act allowed anyone to capture any run away slave and bring them back to their master. Even of a slave became free or was a simple runaway, if they were caught by some hunter or even from a northerner, they would be sent right back. It was true irony for a free slave.
• Those who refused to cooperate by not going back would be kept in jail until something was decided.

Abolitionist Movement

• The abolitionist movement started in 1831, when a man by the name of William Lloyd Garrison published his first abolitionist journal called The Journal.
• After The Journal was published it was used as a foothold to spread the news of slavery.
• The goal of the Abolitionists Movement was to spread the news about the evils of slavery. They wanted all members to find a way to help any slaves get to freedom in any way possible. It did not matter if they spoke to a group of people or even directly helped slaves themselves.
• The Abolitionists Movements was able to greatly impact our country. A whole bunch of antislavery books found their way to the South, the North started to create many secret societies that would be used to help the slaves, and a whole bunch of petitions were sent to congress demanding some way to free the slaves.
• Many of the abolitionists knew the great risks they would face in order to achieve their goals. Many abolitionist groups were attacked by mobs from the South. Not only were they attacked but abolition books that were written were burned to ashes. It was full of abuse however, they still accomplished their goal.

cited source:

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0856464.html

Slavery and its Setting in the North

• The south was a the agricultural part of the United States while the north was mostly focused on industry.
• Unlike the south, the north had no need for any physical or hard labor which also meant they had no need for slaves. The north was all about bringing the economy up. They had many new inventions that changed the way people worked. Up north, machines were the ones doing most of the work.
• Many people in the north became abolitionists. They did not like slavery one bit. These were the people who risked everything, including their lives, to help African Americans find their freedom.
• It is also in the north where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This document is the one that freed all the slaves. It is what the north wanted and eventually they got their wish.

Slave Trade

• The most historic slave trade that many know about now is called the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This was the trade of the African American's overseas from Europe to Africa and to the United States.
• Another famous name for this was the Triangle Trade.
• This specific trade started when the Portuguese were no longer interested in getting the valuable resources in Africa. They had a new valuable resource. These were slaves. They needed any form of cheap labor they could get. This was the cheap labor force they so greatly desired.
• Many Europeans were not really good with labor. Their people could not stand the long working hours in the sun. Disease would also kill many of the Europeans. When they saw the African Americans, they saw that they were accustomed to working in the extreme weather and that they knew how to handle the work.
• Slaves were shipped along with various other products to be sold to their new owners once they were captured. On this ship, they were treated like nothing but animals.

source:

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm

Plantation Life

• Plantation life was very difficult and cruel for many if not all slaves.
• The first thing that we can take notice of is that a slaves quarters did not have beds at all. They were all forced to sleep on the cold, hard floor. They did not even have blankets. The only thing that could be considered a "blanket" was a tiny sheet that was used to cover themselves.
• Not only was not having a bed a problem, many slaves did not even have time to sleep. Many of the slaves were so busy with other tasks. They had to prepare the plantation for the next day and feed themselves.
• Work was practically never ending for the slaves. The strong men were usually out in the fields. They were the ones who picked crops and did a lot of heavy labor. The women and children were used mainly to do all the housework. They would cook, clean and even make clothes.
• Although slaves were treated very cruelly, that did not stop them from showing their culture. Many slaves sang their old traditional songs and even danced to their traditional music. They refused to be broken down.

sources:

http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/plantation_life.htm

Lesson Plan

March 24, 2011
Instructors/Teachers: Mr. Ralph, Ms. Natalie,
Ms. Vanessa, Mr. Yahya, Ms. Angelina
E6H
Period. 6

Lesson Plan

Objectives (Students will be able to):
1) Understand the Fugitive Slave Act and relate it to Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
2)
Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how
specific individual, ideas, or events interact and develop over the
course of the text.

Aim: What effects did the Fugitive Slave Act have on slavery?

Do Now:
Write a five sentence journal entry about if you were a runaway slave.
What hardships would you face? Where would you plan to escape to? What
would you do if you were captured?

Procedures:

• Have students do Do Now and share out
• Go over the Fugitive Slave Act and describe what it was.
• Ask class questions to answer.
• Talk about runaway slaves and compare to Harriet Jacob’s life.
• Give out Venn Diagram handout on comparing and contrasting Harriet Jacob’s life to Fugitive Slave Act.
• Give examples of what should be on Venn Diagram
• Have the students share out their answers
• End class with homework assignment

Mini Lesson: Fugitive Slave Act and Harriet Jacobs
I. Fugitive Slave Act:
a. Encouraged all people to hunt down and aid in the capture of runaway slaves.
b. Created a much greater animosity between the blacks and whites of the time period.
c. Gave an excuse for racist violence to carry on in the excuse of maintaining the act’s parameters.


II. Harriet Jacobs:

1. Young African American woman whom was born into slavery.
2. Went from a serene environment with her female master, to a hostile environment with the doctor.
3. Eluded the slave acts and hid with her grandmother to escape the reach of the racism and eventually raised children.

Small Group Learning: Compare the life of Harriet Jacob to the life of a runaway slave before the Fugitive Slave Act

Homework: Pretend you were living in the 1850’s, would you have helped runaway slaves or not? Explain in a well developed paragraph.

Sources Cited:
http://www.fortat4.com/education/printact/comparisons/Making%20Comparisons4.jpg
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/fugitive-slave-law.htm
http://www.harrietjacobs.org/bio.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html