Activities
Personal Identity Chart
Slavery was intended to take away enslaved peoples’ personal identity. One can only imagine the overwhelming emotions of being freed from slavery, but then also creating an entirely new life. Almost 150 years later, black Americans are still affected by the aftereffects of slavery, segregation, and racism and for many, their past has become a part of their personal identity.
This activity uses a graphic organizer to encourage students to think about their personal identity: who they are and what they represent and what represents them, as well. Students will first brainstorm in small groups the things they feel make up any personal identity. Students will be encouraged to think about things about identity that change over the course of life, things we can and can’t control, as well as background, age group, physical characteristics (especially things that stand out), and labels that we, or others, put on us. Groups will share out to the class to help create a list of things for an identity chart. Students can choose anything from the shared list or their table list to finish their identity assignment.
In small groups, students will use the identity chart list to research or use information given in the lesson to create one identity chart for one artist or author. Students will hang the charts around the room to be able to walk around to see them all. Individual students will then use that list to build their own identity chart which will be helpful in their final art pieces for the unit. The idea is for students to get to know the artists and authors, identify their own important traits, and have needed details for their final Identity project.
Historical Timeline
Thinking back in time over 150 years can be daunting and unfathomable to a teenager. It’s hard enough to contextualize as an adult. To better understand the history, we will build a timeline of black historical events. Students will be given an event and asked to find the date and facts about the event. Students will be asked to create a small image on a scratch board to reflect the event using skills learned in separate etching and engraving lessons. They will date and label the pieces; we will then create the physical timeline in our hallway. Here is a list of 13 items that date from the beginning of slavery to its abolition with the 13th Amendment.27 Many more items could be added to this list of course, as well as events from 1865 to the present.
1619 First enslaved peoples brought to the colonies.
Early 1780’s Underground Railroad started to help people escape slavery.
1791 Haitian uprising leads to stricter treatment of enslaved people in the south.
1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin that leads the South to move from tobacco to cotton as its money-making crop.
1793 Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress makes it illegal to help an enslaved person’s escape.
1820 Missouri Compromise
1831 Nat Turner leads the only effective slave rebellion in U.S. history which led to harsher restrictions for enslaved people in the south.
1831 Abolitionist newspaper The Liberator started by William Lloyd Garrison
1857 Dred Scott case in the Supreme Court declared Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, allowing slavery in all territories.
1859 John Brown’s Raid was a collection of abolitionists led by John Brown in a failed to take a federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in order to attack Virginia slaveholders.
1860 Anti-slavery president Abraham Lincoln elected as President.
1861 Civil War Begins after 242 years of slavery in the colonies and states.
1865 The 13th Amendment officially abolishes slavery.
Art Evaluations
Students will individually and collaboratively interpret, analyze, and defend or critique each piece of art in the unit. Students will have the opportunity to investigate each image before discussions. They are invited to take notes and/or sketches or just think about the work. What is the image? What do things mean or represent? What is it made of? How was it made? Why was it made? We will then go through a Socratic dialogue to discuss each piece with the common Socratic understanding that it is a discussion, not a debate, with the pursuit of deeper understanding and appreciation of the art piece.
Final Art Project
Throughout the unit students will have learned about black artists and authors that have captured their own identities and that of their culture from the Antebellum to the present. They have looked at the long battle from the beginning of slavery until today and witnessed the art and writings representing the building of the “American Dream”. It is now their chance to express themselves and share themselves with the audience of their choice. Using the learning and experience of scratchboards, engraving wood, designing and preparing a surface beforehand or spray painting a large surface, and collage work, students will create original art pieces that represent who they are.
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