Introduction to American Slavery

To begin our first unit of the year, we are reading The Underground Abductor by Nathan Hale. This book is a graphic novel that tells the true story of Harriet Tubman, a brave woman who helped herself, family, and others to escape slavery to the North and Canada. Ms. Tubman, after escaping, went BACK to the South at least 19 times to help others find freedom.

Harriet Tubman was more than just an "abductor" on the Underground Railroad, she was a Civil War spy, an awesome lumberjack, a nurse, a wife and mother, a political activist, and a prophet to some. Of course, before all of those she as a slave in Maryland, forced to work all day for no pay since she was 10 and treated no differently than the cows and horses on the farm of the slave master that, according to the law, owned her

To better understand the context of this book, we will spend this week learning about the institution of slavery in the American South and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Understanding these are essential to understanding the Need for the Underground Railroad, people like Harriet Tubman, and eventually the Civil War which will be the topic of our next unit. Below you can find the presentation I gave in class over slavery, the quiz students were asked to complete, and the group assignment about slave resistance that will occupy us for the next couple of weeks.