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| In the Classroom > Unit Overview |
The First Turn, 1680-1720
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| Unit Central Questions: | In This Lesson: |
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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? |
Lesson Length Key Ideas I.L.O.s Preparation Materials Activity 1 Activity 2 Activity 3 Assessment |
| Lesson Length |
Activity 1 - One 45 minute session
Activity 2 - One 45 minute session
Activity 3 - One 30 minute session
| Key Content Ideas Taught in this Lesson and Teacher Background |
There were African slaves in Deerfield, Massachusetts at this turn (1680-1720), living within the households of their Puritan owners. (Over the years, there were as many as forty slaves.) They performed work similar to that of their masters and some held store accounts. They, along with other members of the community, were required to attend meeting, and were given religious instruction. They were often taught to read, so that they could read the Bible. The church teachings encouraged them to accept their role in life. According to the settlers' interpretation of the Bible, slavery was a normal part of life. There was a contradiction in the position of people like the Reverend John Williams who owned slaves, and yet decried what he believed to be the enslavement of his daughter, Eunice, by the Kanien'kehaka [Mohawks].
For good background reading see:
1. Piersen, William D., Black Yankees. (Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), especially Chapter 3.
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, black slaves were considered part of one's household, their dress, manners, and education, reflecting on the "goodness" of the family. Master and slave gathered for shared meals, lived in the same dwelling, and slave children were taught to read along with the family's children. Often, young slave children were acquired by a family, to be trained to be productive servants in the particular style the family required. Even though a close relationship often resulted between master and slave, there was a definite distinction, promoted by the settlers' interpretation of the Bible. The basic contradiction of treating human beings as property, while giving them an education and paternalistic status within the family, could never be resolved.
2. Taylor, Joe Gray. "Blacks in Colonial America," in Early American Life, (February 1980).
3. Caretta, Vincent, Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2011)
4. Carvalho, Joseph III, Black Families in Hampden County, Massachusetts 1650-1865 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011)
5. Dorman, Franklin A., Twenty Families of Color in Massachusetts, 1742-1998 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1998)
6. Greene, Lorenzo, The Negro in Colonial New England 1620-1776 (New York, New York, Columbia University Press, 1942)
7. Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989)
8. 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. http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/background.do?shortName=expSlavery
9. Smith, James Avery, The History of the Black Population
of Amherst, Massachusetts, 1728-1870 (Boston, Massachusetts:
New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999)
For more information read:
Teacher Background Essay: African-American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
Understandings:
Students will understand that:
1. There were African-American slaves living within the households of some English settlers, and they will have knowledge of their role in the family and community.
2. Lucy Terry lived in the Ebenezer Wells household, wrote a poem about an Indian attack, and married a freed slave, Abijah Prince, in Deerfield, Massachusetts. .
Skills:
Students will be able to:
1. Read and interpret a poem.
2. Read and analyze articles describing the historical situation in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
| In Preparation for Teaching |
1. Read Teacher Background Essay: African-American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts and Student Background Essay: Slave Life in 18th Century Deerfield, Massachusetts
2. Copy lesson materials
3. Review and copy worksheets
4. Review the section of Lesson 4 on the Wells-Thorn house
| Materials |
Primary and Secondary Sources:
1. Teacher Background Essay: African-American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts
2. Student Background Essay: Slave Life in 18th Century Deerfield, Massachusetts
3. 18th C. Slaves in Deerfield, Massachusetts Listed by Owner
4. Jonathan Ashley and Elijah Williams account book excerpts
5. Background of the Bars Fight and Eunice Allen's account
6. Copy of Lucy Terry Prince's poem "The Bars Fight"
Other:
1. Worksheet: African Americans in Deerfield, Massachusetts (1680-1720)
2. Worksheet: African American Work
| Activities | Materials in Context |
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Activity 1
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Student Background Essay: Slave Life in 18th Century Deerfield, Massachusetts Worksheet: African Americans in Deerfield, Massachusetts (1680-1720)
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Activity 2
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Background of the Bars Fight and Eunice Allen's account
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Activity 3
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| Assessment |
Use the poem composed by students and the written responses to the questions at the end of the Bars Fight background.
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