The nations that explored and colonized North and South America during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries used a variety of approaches for subjugating Native Americans, African slaves, and indentured servants. Once Jamestown was settled in 1607, democratic policies were incorporated into colonial governments, but at the same time, slaves were being imported to work the settlement’s tobacco fields. Historians, interpreting primary source documents, have come up with very different conclusions about the treatment of the above groups.

Because of labor shortages in English colonies like Virginia, slaves and indentured servants filled an immediate economic need for landowners. Slavery had become rooted in American society in the closing decades of the seventeenth century. The number of slaves grew rapidly, from only a few thousand in 1670 to tens of thousands in the early eighteenth century.

The goal of this lesson is for the students to explore the contradictions and complexities regarding behavior, desires, and democratic ideals of this time period.

Motivational Strategy

Ask students to name nations around the world today that deny certain groups of citizens their basic human rights. They will probably mention communist nations or nations with dictators in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. Ask them to list the basic human rights that may be denied and discuss why it is important for these rights to be granted. Students will most likely mention the freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly, and possibly due process under the law. Have them jump back into history and imagine a time when certain minority groups were not even granted the rights to life and liberty (this would be a good time to define slavery and indentured servitude). Use this to suggest that as the New World was being explored and settled by European powers such as England and Spain during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Native-Americans, African Slaves, and Indentured Servants were three oppressed groups who were denied basic rights

Objectives

1. Students will be able to understand the complexity of the issues discussed in the Essential Questions.
   
2. Students will read and be able to evaluate and analyze primary source documents.
   
3. Students will select performance tasks (activities) which best suit their learning styles, or challenge themselves to attempt another. Each performance task is an objective in its own right. Words indicating specific objectives have been underlined throughout the "Performance Task" handout.

Materials

Sources for Documents and Articles for the 5 Groups

Indentured Servants

"They Live Well in the Time of their Service," George Alsop Writes of Servants in Maryland, 1663

• George Alsop worked as an indentured servant in Maryland from 1648-1652.
• http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/amerbegin/permanence/ text6/text6read.htm

• James Revel is the "unhappy sufferer" who endured 14 years as an indentured servant in Virginia, which he earned as a sentence for thievery.
• http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/amerbegin/permanence/text6/ text6read.htm

• In 1640 six white servants and a black slave were punished for stealing arms and a boat to escape to a nearby Dutch plantation. From this brief court decision that reviews the uprising and lists the men’s punishments, we can infer the men’s reasons for escaping and the planters’ fears of future rebellions.
• http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/amerbegin/permanence/text6/ text6read.htm

• This article defines the differences in laws relating to both indentured servants and slaves in Virginia.
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awlaw3/slavery.html

• Robert Beverly, "The History of Virginia in Four Parts," ( London, 1722) found in:
  Out of Many: A History of the American People- Document Set, Volume I: To 1877, 3 rd edition, ed. John Faragher, et al., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2000.

• Richard Frethorne, "Letter to his Parents, March 20, April The Records of the Virginia Company of London, vol. IV, (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1935) ed.
  Susan M. Kingsbury. Found in:
  Out of Many: A History of the American People – Document Set, Volume I: To 1877, 3 rd edition, ed. John Faragher, et al., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 2000.
  Also found in:
  Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History, Volume I: To 1877, ed. Laura A. Belmonte, Wadsworth-Thomson Learning, Inc., Belmont, CA, 2005, (pp. 25-7)

• This brief article introduces the differences between slavery in the Chesapeake colonies and slavery in South Carolina and the Georgia Low Country.
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/ voices_display.cfm?id=15

• This is the story of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, who was born to Muslim clerics in West Africa and then kidnapped and transported to Maryland as a slave.
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/ voices_display.cfm?id=32

• This is one account of the Stono rebellion.
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p284.html

• Give Me Liberty! An American History, Eric Foner, W.W. Norton & Company, "Sampler", 2005, (pp31 – 36)

• This passage includes examples of slave laws in Virginia
• Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History, Volume I: To 1877, ed. Laura Belmonte, Wadsworth-Thomson Learning, Inc., Belmont, CA, 2005, (pp. 27-9)

• This article provides a timeline of slave codes passed throughout the colonies.
• http://www.understandingrace.org/history/gov/ colonial_authority.html

• Violent confrontations with Indians intensified negative stereotypes held by English settlers. Most Europeans characterized Indians as barbaric heathens or, less frequently, "noble savages." Mary Rowlandson wrote one of the most famous captivity narratives.
• http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/ rownarr.html
• A short excerpt of this narrative that may be more "readable" for students can be found in the following book of readings:
  Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History, Volume I: To 1877, ed. Laura A. Belmonte, Wadsworth-Thomson Learning, Inc., Belmont, CA, 2005, (pp. 36-9)

• Far from being passive, Native Americans were active agents who responded to threats to their land and culture through physical resistance, cultural adaptation, and the establishment of strategic alliances. As this selection from William Kendall reveals, the English felt forced to deal with Native Americans as nations. This is an example of the English attempting to make a treaty with Indian peoples.
• http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/ documents_p2.cfm?doc=235

• This was an agreement made with Wampanoag sachem Massasoit, agreeing to mutual military aid to one another, and various terms for peace.
• http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/PrimarySources/ MassasoitTreaty.php

• http://wbrl.worldbookonline.com/nxt/gateway.dll
  (Type the name of the article in the "Search" box in the top right-hand corner)

• Randolph was sent over by the king as a special agent of investigation. His reports are among the most valuable documents on the period.
• http://wbrl.worldbookonline.com/nxt/gateway.dll (Type the name of the article in the "Search" box in the top right-hand corner)

• http://wbrl.worldbookonline.com/nxt/gateway.dll (Type the name of the article in the "Search box in the top right-hand corner)

• The Pequot Indians, inhabiting Connecticut and Rhode Island, murdered an English trader who had mistreated them and subsequently scalped 7 members of an armed force sent against them to demand retribution. This so enraged the English colonists that they decided to exterminate the Pequot.
• http://wbrl.worldbookonline.com/nxt/gateway.dll (Type the name of the article in the "Search" box in the top right-hand corner)

• This article explores this question and presents both sides of the story quite clearly (see pages 37-39)
• Annual Edition: American History Volume I: Colonial through Reconstruction, 19 th edition, ed. Robert James Maddox, McGraw Hill, Dubuque, IA, 2007.

• Although this was written earlier than the English settling Jamestown in 1607, de Las Casas presents a compelling story about the Spanish mistreatment of the Indians of Hispaniola.
• http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/bdorsey1/41docs/02-las.html
• Also available in the following book of readings:
  Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History, Volume I: To 1877, ed. Laura A. Belmonte, Wadsworth-Thomson, Learning, Inc., Belmont, CA, 2005, (pp. 3-7)

• By and large, the greatest cause of the destruction of Native Americans was the introduction of European diseases that their immune systems were unable to fight. William Bradford, a Pilgrim leader of Plymouth between 1622 and 1656, explains the devastating effect disease had upon New England tribes.
• http://timmer.org/HISTORY_17A/Readings/Bradford.htm

• From the first imprisonment of George Fox, founder of the religious denomination know as the Quakers, in 1649, its members were objects of continuous persecution. At the time Cudworth, a magistrate in Massachusetts, wrote this letter there were seldom less than 1,000 Quakers in English and colonial prisons.
• http://wbrl.worldbookonline.com/nxt/gateway.dll (Type the name of the article in the "Search" box in the top right-hand corner)

• In its early days, New England was governed by its clergymen. When any persons had the temerity to stay away from the Puritan services, they were likely ton be haled before the magistrates and punished for non-attendance. This account gives the proceedings against 3 who stayed away from the Puritan church and were tried by the county court in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• http://wbrl.worldbookonline.com/nxt/gateway.dll (Type the name of the article in the "Search" box in the top right-hand corner)

• As the Puritan leader and first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop established "a city on a hill," a New England model of reform for those emigrating from old England.
• http://history.hanover.edu/texts/winthmod.html

• In a Congregational church in Northampton, Massachusetts, the Reverend Jonathan Edwards initiated the First Great Awakening with a series of sermons. Invoking the Old Testament Scriptures, Edwards argued that God was rightfully angry with human sinfulness.
• http://edwards.yale.edu/major-works/sinners-in-the-hands-of-an-angry-god/
• A shortened version of this sermon can be found in:
  Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History, Volume I: To 1877; Laura A. Belmonte, Wadsworth-Thomson Learning, Inc., Belmont, CA, 2005, (pp.63-4)

• This book of lesson plans for Advanced Placement teachers offers 3 readings, which demonstrate inconsistencies in colonial attitudes toward equality.

  "The Rights of Englishmen: Virginia," 1705
  "Political Control in Massachusetts," 1721
  "The Propriety of Colonial Subordination, a British View," 1726

• Advanced Placement U.S. History 1: The Evolving American Nation-State 1607-1914, Roberta J. Leach and Augustine Caliguire, The Center for Learning, U.S.A., 2003 (pp.15-20)

• http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/bookmarks/zenger/

• http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerdoc/ maryland_toleration.htm

• http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/order.htm

• http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/states/va04.htm

• This compact was intended to quell any discontents amongst the passengers, and to establish a government.
• http://www.nationalcenter.org/MayflowerCompact.html

Day One
1. Begin with the Motivational Strategy to set the stage for the lesson.
   
   
2. Brainstorm the definition of democracy with the class.
   
   
3. Divide students into 5 Study Groups.
   
   
4. Assign each Study Group one of the following topics:

   Indentured Servants	African Slaves
   Native Americans	Religion
   Early signs of Democracy

   
   
5. Each group must locate all of the documents and articles that are listed for their specific group and read them. Each group should then discuss the documents and articles and create a Fact Sheet of twenty key points that they can use to answer the two Essential Questions from the perspective of their group. These lists should be turned into the teacher to be run-off for the class.

Day Two

Instruct the students to complete the following task:

Using the information you have learned from the readings, your Study group is to create a MUSEUM EXHIBIT on your aspect of the topic. This exhibit should include A Tri-Fold Display Board organized with the following items:

• Your twenty item Fact Sheet
• A Timeline across the bottom third of your display board with at least ten important dates which relate to your aspect of the topic.
• At least five excerpts of your "favorite quotes" from the documents and articles your group read. Be ready to explain why these 5 quotes are so important to understanding your aspect of the topic.
• At least five visuals that best reflect the most important aspects of your topic. These may include maps, charts, and pictures
• "Tell the story" of how your part of the topic helps to answer the 2 Essential Questions for this Lesson. Each group must provide a brief narrative on the Display Board that incorporates their facts, visuals and quotations.

This class period is to be used to organize the information that will be placed on the students’ display boards.

Day Three


1. Have students set up their MUSEUM EXHIBITS around the classroom. Each group should provide a brief 5-minute overview of what students can expect from the work they have completed on the board.
   
2. Have students visit each display board to try to find information to help answer the two Essential Questions. Encourage students to read all of the information on each board to see how each topic can contribute to answering the Essential Questions. Have them pick up a FACT SHEET that each group completed so they may use them when completing their essay.
   
   
3. Two possible evaluations/assessments are suggested:
1. ASSIGN THE ESSAY which is to answer the two Essential Questions in a Thematic Essay.

   How did the explorers and later the colonists who came to the New World for "Gold, Glory and/or God," justify their treatment of the Native Americans, African slaves and indentured servants?
   
   Were there discrepancies between agreed upon political ideals and the treatment of these minority groups?

2. Have students write an Editorial or Op-Ed article stating their answers to the 2 Essential Questions.


Summary

This lesson includes a variety of teaching and learning techniques which should help the students gain a clear understanding of this aspect of colonial history. To condense the lesson into 2 days, the Museum Exhibit can be eliminated as part of the learning piece and a jigsaw can be substituted where students move from their Study Groups to new groups, created with an "expert" from each Study Group to share his/her information.