Mikela Caseria

EN450
Unit Plan

African Americans in the Colonies

This fifth grade unit will be spent on the impact that African Americans had on early
America and the colonies. This unit will have followed colonial life of early settlers; with this
unit giving a more in depth look of what individuals had to deal with to survive in the New
World. This is important for students to understand the start of their country as well as the start
of a history for a huge population group in the United States. This unit will integrate Geography,
English and History for the students to better understand the unit as a whole. The objective of
the unit is the have the students flourish in the understanding about the Africans that came over
to help develop our country and the African Americans after them; introducing the struggle that
they had to be involved in to make it in America. This fits the understanding of social studies
because it hits multiple disciplines to engage in the topic of African Americans in the Colonies
and their journey.
Macro and Micro Goals
-TLW understand the slave trade.
-TLW distinguish the different treatments and punishments of slaves.
-TLW describe the impact on slavery in history.
-TLW show understanding in the social and economic impacts that slavery had on participating
countries.

Unit Outline
Day 1 (Unit opener)
1. Cheap Labor in the South
a. European immigrants
i. Land ownership
ii. Rice/Tobacco plantations
iii. Structure of plantations
b. Native Americans

i. Prone to diseases
ii. Escape too easily
c. Indentured servants
Focus: How did the Europeans use slaves to help with their economic success.
Question: What was the social interaction and relationships between the Europeans and African
American slaves?
Day 2
2. First Africans to arrive, 1619
a. Treated as indentured servants
b. Large numbers worried whites
Focus: The social treatment that slaves encountered on the plantations, including relationships
with owners.
Question: What did the relationships say about the owner? The country as a whole? Can you
get a sense of how the world was during that time period?
Day 3
3. Royal African Company slave trade
a. Buying and selling of slaves
b. Trade patterns with goods
c. Triangular trade route
Focus: The economic gains and losses that the participating parties encountered.
Question: What impact did slavery have on the economy? Did this impact only hurt or was it
positive for the countries that had them?

Day 4
4. Institutionalizing of plantations
a. Labor force
b. Gaining full control of African population
c. Escaping
d. Lack of Opposition
Focus: The system that is behind plantations and how they work.
Question: What did the African American slaves feel like on the plantations?
Day 5

5. Legalization of slavery, 1750

a. Population in colonies of slavery
b. Distribution of slavery
c. American born slavery
d. Freed slaves
Focus: The political impacts that slavery had on the government and what did they do about it.
Question: What are some of the laws and amendments made that paid focus to slavery?
Day 6
6. Christianizing slaves
Focus: The religious goals that surrounding turning slaves into Christians.
Question: What did this do for the country? How did it impacts the thoughts of the slaves?
Day 7
7. Treatment of slaves
a. Escape consequences
b. Everyday life
c. Treatment while working
d. Working conditions
Focus: The typical day of the slaves and how they dealt with this work.
Question: What was the emotional impacts and relationships surrounding the treatment of
slaves?
Day 8
8. The ending of slavery
a. Legitimacy of slavery
b. Enlightenment impact
Focus: The political, social and economic involvement of slaves in the world.
Question: What were the lasting impacts that slavery had on the United States? What are some
events that happened later in our history that shows the lasting impacts?
Day 9
9. Assessment

Standards for this unit:

Describe the environmental, political, and cultural consequences of the interactions among
European, African, and American Indian peoples in the late 15th through the 17th century.
5 U1.4.1 Describe the convergence of Europeans, American Indians and Africans in North
America after 1492 from the perspective of these three groups.
5 U1.4.2 Use primary and secondary sources (e.g., letters, diaries, maps, documents, narratives,
pictures, graphic data) to compare Europeans and American Indians who converged in the
western hemisphere after 1492 with respect to governmental structure, and views on property
ownership and land use.
5 U1.4.3 Explain the impact of European contact on American Indian cultures by comparing
the different approaches used by the British and French in their interactions with American
Indians.
5 U1.4.4 Describe the Columbian Exchange and its impact on Europeans, American Indians,
and Africans.
5 U2.1.3 Describe significant developments in the Middle Colonies.
5 U2.1.4 Compare the regional settlement patterns of the Southern colonies, New England, and
the Middle Colonies.
Analyze the development of the slave system in the Americas and its impact upon the life of
Africans.
5 U2.2.1 Describe Triangular Trade including
the trade routes
the people and goods that were traded
the Middle Passage
its impact on life in Africa
5 U2.2.2 Describe the life of enslaved Africans and free Africans in the American colonies.
5 U2.2.3 Describe how Africans living in North America drew upon their African past (e.g.,
sense of family, role of oral tradition) and adapted elements of new cultures to develop a distinct
African-American culture.
Assessment
This assessment will be a form of a test, which is broken into multiple choices and short
answers. The students need to be able to identify based facts as well as understanding for the

topic. The short answer will allow students to express their understanding, but their opinion on
the unit. This helps to see the thoughts and understanding of the students and their personal
journey through the unit. After the test, I will have a class discussion to allow the students to
convey what they felt about the unit. I feel that it is good for students to hear their peers and
their thoughts. A lot of the time it guides students down different ways of thinking compared to
their own thinking.
This unit plan will be successful because it allows the students to be hands on for the
topic. Students will not just be sitting there and reading about African American slavery. There
will be information and students will use what they have read and put it into a hands on project.
There will be a lot of class discussion to allow students to express their ideas about the unit. This
will help them internalize the information that is at hand.
Resources/Materials:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/feature.html
http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/
Evaluate: These websites will be used for songs that the slaves used. This will help internalize
the religious and emotional feelings of the slaves. Students will analyze and use the lyrics to
help build a better understand of what the slaves went through.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/history.html
http://www.realhistories.org.uk/articles/archive/the-art-of-slavery.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/slav/hd_slav.htm
Evaluate: These websites are filled with art pertaining to slavery. This will allow students to get
a better understand of what was going on during the time period. This will be put to use for
discussion for the students. This will give them the opportunity to create thoughts and use
resources to back up their ideas.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/rb_index_hd.html
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/primary-source.html
Evaluate: Students will be using primary source documents to see the social, political and
economic impacts that slavery had on the world. These documents will be used during lessons to
allow students to gain more information on slavery. This will give them the opportunity to use
this resource to obtain ideas and to support them with primary sources. These primary sources
range from documents, narratives, videos and pictures all involving slavery.