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Framing Questions
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How did African Americans construct identity in antebellum America? |
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How did enslaved and free blacks differ in their exercise of power and self-determination?
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How did African Americans define themselves as members of groups?
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| 1. |
Slave » Text Links / Note / Discussion Questions
| - | On being a slave, selections from 19th-c. narrative |
| - | "I was born a slave," selections from Jacobs and Keckley narratives, 1860s |
| - | "The position of the African slave," address by John S. Rock, 1858 |
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| 2. |
Slave to Free» Text Links / Note / Discussion Questions
| - | Slave to free, selections from 19th- & 20th-century narratives |
| - | Letters from newly freed African Americans
- From Cato to a Philadelphia newspaper, 1781
- From Henry Bibb to his former slaveholder, 1844
- From John Boston to his wife, 1862
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| - | Newly arrived freedmen in Washington, DC, 1862, description in Keckley narrative |
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Entrepreneurs» Text Links / Note / Discussion Questions
| - | Tobacconist in North Carolina: Lunsford Lane, 1830s |
| - | Shoemaker in Connecticut: William J. Brown, 1830s |
| - | Sailmaker in Massachusetts: James Forten, 1830s |
| - | Barber in Mississippi: William Johnson, 1830s-1840s |
| - | Merchant in California: Mifflin Gibbs, 1850s-1860s |
| - | Dressmaker in Washington, DC: Elizabeth Keckley, 1860s |
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Artists» Text Links / Note / Discussion Questions
| - | Joshua Johnson, portrait paintings, ca. 1803-1810 |
| - | Robert Scott Duncanson, landscape paintings, 1848-1862 |
| - | David Drake, ceramic pots and verses, 1830s-1860s |
| - | Augustus Washington, daguerreotypes, 1844-1877 |
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Soldiers» Text Links / Note / Discussion Questions
| - | A black soldier in the American army (Revolution), 1777-1783 |
| - | A black soldier in the British army (Revolution), 1770s-1780s |
| - | A black soldier's letter to President Lincoln (Civil War), 1863 |
| - | Diary of a black Congressional Medal of Honor recipient (Civil War), 1864 |
| - | Photographs of a fugitive recruit in the Union army (Civil War), 1864 |
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Education» Text Links / Note / Discussion Questions
| - | On the pursuit of learning by antebellum African Americans, narrative selections, 19th-20th century |
| - | On the drive for equal educational opportunity, two reports in The Anglo-African Magazine, 1859 |
| - | On teaching newly freed slaves in South Carolina, Charlotte Forten and the St. Helena Island freedmen's school, 1862 |
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Image: Christian Fleetwood, portrait (photograph), ca. 1890. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division.
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