Lesson Plan 2

LESSON PLAN 2

Chapter: Black Women in Delaware's History

Authors: Carol Hoffecker and Annette Woolard

Objective of Chapter:

understand the contributions of the early black women in Delaware
analyze how Delaware would be different without these women
using primary sources, discuss the plight of slave women
determine how black women were treated in their different fields

Using and Interpreting a Table:

Table 1 below provides information on the distribution of slaves in the U.S. in 1790. Examine the numbers in the table and answer the following questions:

Table 1: Distribution of Black Slaves and Slaveholding Families by Selected Divisions and States: 1790
AREA	TOTAL BLACK SLAVES (thousands)	NUMBER (thousands)	PERCENT OF ALL FAMILIES
United States, total	698	96	23
South Atlantic	642	77	72
Delaware	9	2	NA
Maryland	103	14	41
District of Columbia	---	---	NA
Virginia	293	34	NA
North Carolina	101	16	33
South Carolina	107	9	34
Georgia	29	2	NA
Florida	---	---	---
East South Central	16	2	NA
Kentucky	12	2	NA
Tennessee	3	1	NA
Alabama	---	---	NA
Mississippi	---	---	NA

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

1. Which state in 1790 had the highest number of slaves? Which state had the least?

2. Why were so many more slaves in the South Atlantic than in the East South Central region in 1790?

3. How common was slaveholding among all families in 1790?

4. Which state had the highest percentage of slaveholding among all families?

Critical Thinking Exercise One:

Imagine that you are a former enslaved African American woman, a wife and mother living in Delaware. Describe at least two ways your life has changed with the end of slavery.

Critical Thinking Exercise Two:

In January 1837, The Liberator published the following advertisement from Portland, Maine:

George Potter and Rosella his wife, would take this opportunity to express their gratitude to God, and under him, to the benevolent individuals, who generously contributed in aiding them to redeem their two children from slavery. They have unspeakable happiness in informing the generous donors that, on the 12th inst, they received their children, aged eleven and seven years, raised from the degradation of slavery to the rank of freemen (Aptheker, p. 161).

What does this advertisement suggest about the risk of slave escapes and about the workings of the institution itself?

Key Concepts, Terms and Events: Define

Underground Railroad
Freedmen's Bureau
Suffrage
NAACP
Brown v. Board of Education

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