American Centuries

Pocumtuck Valley
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American Centuries > Lessons > Lessons About African Americans > Remarkable Colonial African American Women

Remarkable Colonial African American Women

Details

Author
Deerfield Teachers' Center
Topic/Subject Area
African American, Black Life; Slavery, Indenture
Historical Era
Colonial settlement, 1620–1762, Revolutionary America, 1763–1783
Grade Level
Elementary (K–5)
Creation Date
2017
Last Revision Date
2024

Related items

About This Lesson

Summary and Objective

Students will hear about the lives, struggles, and accomplishments of three African American women who lived in colonial Massachusetts:  Lucy Terry Prince, Phillis Wheatley, and Elizabeth Freeman (Mum Bett). They will understand that these women achieved more than people at the time thought was possible for Black women.  The lesson about Lucy Terry Prince is best for grades 3 and up, as it refers to some violence. The lesson can be taught over the course of 3-4 sessions.

Materials & Resources

Presentation
Stories
Additional resources
Optional picture cards (images included in presentation PDF file)

Teaching Plan

  1. Introduction
    • Show slide #2 of the presentation, North Atlantic Ocean. A long time ago, some White men from America sailed far away in ships to a place called Africa. They wanted to kidnap African people to sell to White people in America. Point out America and the west coast of Africa on the map. Explain that “kidnap” means to steal someone.
    • Show slide #3 of the presentation, the Triangular Trade map. They kidnapped a lot of Black people of all ages – from young children to old people – and made them get on the ships. They didn’t even ask the Black people if they wanted to leave their homes and go to a new place and the White men did not tell the Black people what would happen when they reached the new place. The Black people were brought to different spots very far away from Africa. One of these spots was in Massachusetts. Point out Massachusetts on the Triangular Trade map.
    • Show Slide #4 of the presentation, enslaved people working. Examine each image with the students. Ask:
      • What are these people doing? (working- carrying something (maybe water), making a fire, sifting, cooking, grinding, maybe taking the leaves off corn, hanging things up to dry, Lucy might have just picked some vegetables from the garden for cooking)
      • Are they all grownups?
    • As soon as the Black people walked off the ships, more White men bought them and “enslaved” them. That means the Black people were forced to work for the White people. They did the jobs you see in the pictures and a lot more work, too. They were not given any choice about it, and they were not paid. The White people were their “masters” (or “bosses”) and told them what to do. It was not OK to say no to them and they were not allowed to go back home to Africa if they were unhappy in their new place. What do you think about all of this? Was it fair? Was it a good thing to do? Why?
    • After many years, a lot of Black and White people decided that enslaving Black people wasn’t fair. They should be free to live and work wherever they want and be their own masters. They should be able to make their own choices. Not everybody agreed, though, so they fought a war about it, called the “Civil War”. Even though the people who wanted freedom for Black people won the war, it still took a long time before they all became free.
  2. Read at least two of the three stories to the students and ask the following questions:
    • What does it mean to be enslaved?
    • Was slavery fair?
    • What bad things happened to this woman? What was hard for her to do?
    • What good things did this woman do?
    • What is the best thing that she did? Why do you say that?
    • Did these women have some wishes that were alike? (they wanted to be free and to learn to read and write) Did they have something about them that was like the others? (they all fought to be free; they were brave and spoke up for themselves)
    • Questions about Lucy Terry Prince: What did she do that was brave? Why was it a brave thing to do?
    • Questions about Mum Bett: What did she do that was brave?  Why was it a brave thing to do?
    • Question about Phillis Wheatley: Why did she have to prove that she really did write her poems all by herself?
  3. Ask students to draw what they will remember about each woman studied, or their favorite part of a story, or what they think is the most important thing about one of the women. The teacher might create a “freedom collage” or “quilt” of students’ images to share.

Note: If this is part of a larger unit, you might create a KWL chart.