Unit Central Questions:
What do primary and secondary sources teach us about the characteristics of “everyday life” of individuals living in Deerfield at the four turns of the centuries? What do these characteristics reveal about changes in the town since its beginning as an English settlement?
Key Content Ideas Taught in this Lesson and Teacher Background
There were enslaved Africans in Deerfield, Massachusetts in the late 17th and 18th centuries, living within the households of their English enslavers. They performed work similar to that of their enslavers and some held store accounts. They, along with other members of the community, were required to attend church, and some were baptized. A few were also taught to read, so that they could read the Bible. The church teachings encouraged them to accept their role in life and taught the English that Africans would never be as smart or accomplished at White people and should be treated as being eternal children. Today we see a contradiction in people like the Reverend John Williams who was a slaveholder, yet decried what he believed to be the enslavement of his daughter, Eunice, by the Kanien’kehaka [Mohawks].
Background readings :
- Piersen, William D., Black Yankees. (Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988). [Note: In Chapter 3, Piersen shows that “a combination of choice, circumstance, oppression, and exploitation led the African immigrants to become black Yankees – a very special breed of Afro-American New Englanders.” Under the patriarchal model which was part of the settlers’ way of life, the enslaved were considered part of one’s household and their dress, manners, and education reflected on the “goodness” of the family. Occasionally a close relationship could result between a slaveholder and enslaved person, but the difference in their positions was always felt.]
- Taylor, Joe Gray. “Blacks in Colonial America,” in Early American Life, (February 1980).
- Caretta, Vincent, Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2011)
- Carvalho, Joseph III, Black Families in Hampden County, Massachusetts 1650-1865 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011)
- Dorman, Franklin A., Twenty Families of Color in Massachusetts, 1742-1998 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1998)
- Greene, Lorenzo, The Negro in Colonial New England 1620-1776 (New York, New York, Columbia University Press, 1942)
- Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989)
- Melish, Joanne P., “Slavery and the Slave Trade in Colonial New England”, Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704″, Explanation feature.
- Smith, James Avery, The History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, 1728-1870 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999)
- Enslaved Africans Living in Deerfield
Intended Learning Outcomes
Understandings:
Students will understand that:
- There were enslaved people living within the households of some English settlers. Students will have knowledge of the role of the enslaved in the family and community.
- Lucy Terry lived in Ebenezer Wells’ home, wrote a poem about an attack by Indigenous warriors, and married a a formerly enslaved man, Abijah Prince, in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Skills:
Students will be able to:
- Read and interpret a poem.
- Read and analyze articles describing the historical situation in Deerfield, Massachusetts.