Teaching Idea: Slave Narratives

Dramatic Readings and Found Poetry

The slave narratives are a rich source of historical information. They also provide a window into the hopes, fears, and emotions of those who survived the “Peculiar Institution” of slavery.

Thoughtful preparation before using the slave narratives in class can ensure that students and teachers have a meaningful, positive experience while exploring them.

Of course, you are the one who best knows your students, school, and community. The widespread use of the “N” word in the narratives is a challenge when using them with students. You may choose to use the narratives verbatim or edit (for example, inserting [slave] or appropriate pronouns where needed. Although editing does change the historical record, it may be an appropriate compromise when using the narratives in the classroom, especially with younger students.

Here are a few ideas for teaching with the Federal Writers’ Project Slave Narratives.

1. Have the students read a narrative or a section of a narrative which you have selected and edited beforehand. Afterwards, either individually or in small groups, the students will do one or more of the following:

Write a summary or make a list of the most important things they learned from their narrative or narrative excerpt. Is there anything in the interview that changed your view of slavery? Explain your answer.
Compose a list of questions that they would have liked to ask the ex-slave.
Critique the questions which the interviewer chose to use (if provided.) Why do you think he or she chose to ask these particular questions? Did the interviewer show any bias? For example, did he or she display any racial or gender bias in their choice of questions or in their comments about the interview?
Critique the answers or information which the ex-slave provided in the interview. For example, was there anything in the interview which did not ring true? Explain.
Draw a picture which illustrates an incident from the life of the ex-slave. Beneath the picture, include a quote from the interview related to the picture.
Make a list of factors that might have influenced the type of answers that the ex-slaves provided. (The Great Depression, Jim Crow, the race of the interviewer, the fact that the interviewer worked for the government, etc.)
Search history Web sites for photographs, political cartoons, and artwork that illustrate the narrative. Use quotes from the narrative as a title for each selection.
Variation on the above: use the images to create a collage bulletin board.
Compare two or more narratives or narrative selections. Do you see any important differences between them? What do you think accounts for the differences? Do you see any “common threads” that run through both narratives?

2. Have the students analyze the photographs that accompany many of the slave narratives. They could answer questions such as:

Describe the surroundings in the photograph. What might they tell you about the life of the ex-slave in the picture?
Describe the person in the photo: dress, posture, general appearance, facial expression. What can you surmise about the person from the evidence in the photo?
Do the interviewer’s notes or the interview itself provide background information that confirms your conclusions? Explain.

3. Laura Wakefield of FloridaVirtualSchool has developed a method of creating “Found Poetry” by using the narratives. With apologies to Laura, here is an abbreviated description of her “Found Poetry” teaching idea:

Choose narratives that you think will speak to your students about the reality of slavery. Narratives with colorful or spirited language are especially good.
Have the students compose a poem by selecting certain expressive words from the narrative. They will eliminate the other words that they don’t choose to use for their poem.
This is a good assignment for a computer lab setting, since students can cut and paste narrative sections to create their poems. You could also use paper copies of the narratives and highlighters so that they can easily mark the words they want to use in their poems.

Some Web Sites with teaching ideas using “found poetry”: