Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

Frederick Douglass was one of the foremost spokesman of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States in the decades before the Civil War. In 1845 Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself. Three years later he published his own newspaper, The North Star. Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and recruited northern blacks for the Union Army.

An Introduction to the Slave Narrative
William L. Andrews' essay "An Introduction to the Slave Narrative" (found at the EDSITEment reviewed UNC Chapel Hill's Documenting the American South website) explains the purpose of the slave narrative as "to enlighten white readers about both the realities of slavery as an institution and the humanity of black people as individuals deserving of full human rights." The essay touches upon the popularity of the narratives before the Civil War and also notes specific characteristic traits of the slave narrative.

American Slave Narratives
Over two thousand former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provide first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms. At this web site you can read a sample of these narratives and see some photographs taken at the time of the interviews.There is an annotated list of narratives, sound files, and related resources. Part of the American Hypertext Workshop at the University of Virginia.

From Courage to Freedom: Frederick Douglass's 1845 Autobiography
In this three-lesson EDSitement curriculum unit students read Douglass's narrative with particular attention devoted to chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, and 10. They analyze Douglass's first-hand accounts of the lives of slaves and the behavior of slave owners to see how he successfully contrasts reality with romanticism and powerfully uses imagery, irony, connotative and denotative language, strong active verbs, repetition, and rhetorical appeals to persuade the reader of slavery's evil. Students also identify and discuss Douglass's acts of physical and intellectual courage on his journey towards freedom.

The EDSITEment-reviewed website Silva Rhetoricae has definitions and examples of the following persuasive appeals and rhetorical devices:
Persuasive Appeals (overview)
Logos: appeal to reason
Ethos: appeal to one's own character
Pathos: appeal to emotion
Irony
Repetition (repetition)

Abolition: Frederick Douglass and Abolitionism
This American History/Language Arts lesson plan is designed for Grades 11-12 and takes 3-5 hours to complete. Students investigate Frederick Douglass's life to determine and interpret his relation to abolitionism in the United States during the nineteenth century and they read sections of Douglass's autobiographical writings to assess the importance of slave narratives to the abolition movement. Uses Encarta Africana articles.

OUSD Lesson Plan: Frederick Douglas
This Oakland Unified School District lesson plan is designed for 9th grade students. You'll be impressed with the array of teaching ideas, lesson templates, handouts, worksheets, and tech integration. The goal of the lesson is to encourage students to read purposefully, learn reading strategies, and develop Expository Reading strategies for improving critical thinking skills. The themes of Social Justice, Social Reconciliation, and Social Transformation play a central role in the lessons.

The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress, available on the American Memory Web site, contains approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images) relating to Douglass' life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant. The papers consist of correspondence, speeches and articles by Douglass and his contemporaries, a draft of his autobiography, financial and legal papers, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous items. Topics include politics, emancipation, racial prejudice, women's suffrage, and prison reform. Included is correspondence with Susan B. Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, and others.

DOUGLASS | Archives of American Public Address
An extensive and searchable collection of speeches by famous Americans and related documents.
Go to section 4 "Slavery and the Ordeal of the Union" and hear audio excerpts by a Frederick Douglass reenactor.
Also has primary documents:

Frederick Douglass, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" 5 July 1852

Douglass, Frederick - "A Plea for Free Speech in Boston," 1860

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
complete e-text

Documenting the American South (DAS) is an impressive collection of sources by the University of North Carolina on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. DAS supplies teachers, students, and researchers with a wide range of titles they can use for reference, studying, teaching, and research. Currently, DAS includes six digitization projects: slave narratives, first-person narratives, Southern literature, Confederate imprints, materials related to the church in the black community, and North Caroliniana. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

Play a Quia-based vocabulary game based on Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

The terms are:

1. Impudent: disrespectful, insolent 2. Obdurate: 1. hardhearted; 2. inflexible 3. Homage: anything done or given to show reverence 4. Servile: submissive 5. Expedient: useful for effecting a desired result: efficacious 6. Stratagem: trick or scheme 7. Infernal: hellish 8. Vestige: a trace, a mark, a sign of something that once existed but has disappeared 9. Profligate: 1. immoral; 2. wasteful, recklessly extravagant 10. Dissipate: 1. scatter; 2. waste 11. Pernicious: causing great injury, deadly 12. Myriad: of great number; 2. of a highly varied nature 13. Exculpate: to free from blame 14. Agency: active force, power 15. Evince: to indicate, to show plainly

Other notable slave narratives:

Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl - Electronic text with critical and biographical supplementary materials.

Sojurner Truth, The Narrative of Sojurner Truth - Electronic text.

Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery - Electronic text.

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