Lesson 2: Slave Laws in Early America

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

• describe changes in laws affecting enslaved people in the American colonies
• make accurate observations and relevant inferences from a primary source document
• distinguish observations from inferences

Teacher Materials

• GIS web site and Projector

Student Materials

• Handout 2: Laws Regulating American Slavery (1 per student)
• Jamestown Slave Laws (1 per student)
• Homework reading: Case Study: Denmark Vesey (1 per student for homework)
• Homework worksheet: Observations and Inferences from Denmark Vesey Case

Activities

1. Briefly discuss students' observations and inferences from Slave Narratives, collect homework from Lesson 1 (completed Handout 1)
   • When were these narratives written?
   • Did slavery change over time? Recall observations of change over time from the GIS map in Lesson 1. What did we notice that changed over time?
   • Today we will study changes in the laws, to give evidence of how slavery was changing over time in the Colonial period.


2. Jigsaw reading activity: the Jamestown Slave Laws
   • Pass out Jamestown Slave Laws reading to all students. These are examples of laws from the Jamestown colony from 1619, 1642, and 1670. Pass out Handout 2.
   • Group students in groups of 3. Assign 1 of the 3 laws to each group to read, discuss, and answer the Observation Questions for that law on Handout 2
   • As groups are finishing go around and check answers.


3. Jigsaw groups: Compare Jamestown Slave Laws
   • Jigsaw: Students re-group in groups of 3, one for each of the slave laws, and share answers to the Observation Questions for the three laws. In these groups they each complete all 3 columns of Handout 2, Observation Questions.
   • (OPTION: discuss each law as a whole class, and have students take notes for the two they didn't read to complete Handout 2).
   • Discuss: What inferences can we make about changes in the early years of American slavery from reading these documents?


4. Students complete the Inference and Interpretation questions individually


5. Pass out Case Study: Denmark Vesey and Observations and Inferences from Denmark Vesey Case
worksheet for homework

EXTENSION ACTIVITY: Students can use the same Observation and Reflection questions to analyze other laws governing slavery from a longer period of American History. Use this list of Slave Law Documents as sources for them to explore.

Homework

Read Case Study: Denmark Vesey and answer Observations and Inferences from Denmark Vesey Case