Organization of American Historians
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OAH Magazine of History
Volume 21, No 2
April 2007

Copyright ©
Organization of American Historians

Teaching Strategy

Using Runaway Slave Advertisements to Teach Historical Thinking

Robert Cassanello

Introduction

One of the most difficult challenges facing history teachers is training students to think historically and to approach primary sources with a critical eye. This process involves getting students to understand the complexity of history, whether comprehending change over time or even acknowledging that the interpretations of those events can shift from generation to generation. This lesson plan will help teachers engage historical complexity through examining documents contained in the Online Geography of Slavery Advertisements Newspaper database http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/gos/ browse/browse_main.php. Through small group exercises, students will help each other explore change in the Colonial era and, at the same time, learn the craft of history.

Background

Few books challenged our understanding of slavery in North America like John Blassingame's The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (1972). Blassingham was the first American historian to identify—through using the records of African Americans themselves—how bonded people created communities in the South before the Civil War. Previous scholars, dating back to Ulrich B. Phillips (American Negro Slavery, 1918), ignored these records because they believed them to be unreliable.

In the years since the Blassingame's work appeared, U. S. and world historians have extended this thinking beyond national borders, arguing that inhabitants of the Colonial American world were not isolated on the continents of North and South America but interacted with peoples across the Atlantic Ocean. This idea of a Black or African Atlantic, was introduced by John Thornton in Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1680 (1992). Following Thornton's lead, such scholars as Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Daniel C. Littlefield, Michael A. Gomez and Douglas B. Chambers have categorized specific and identifiable ethnic folkways of slave populations in North America that were linked to West and Central Africa.

One of the best ways for students to understand these communities is to look at Runaway Slave Advertisements. As Michael A. Gomez has demonstrated in Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, runaway slave advertisements help historians examine the prevalence of West African ethnicities in colonial slave communities. By examining the ethnic terms and markers plantation owners, slave catchers, and newspapers utilized to describe runaway slaves within the advertisements themselves, students can gain insight into the persistence of ethnic identities and possibly the ways in which the plantation communities were segmented along ethnic lines.

Students will come away from this lesson with an understanding that their really was not one all encompassing slave community, but numerous slave communities across plantations and within plantations themselves. Additionally, students will better conceptualize the ethnic and cultural diversity within the African American Colonial population and its relationship to the African Atlantic world. According to Gomez, as time went by, ethnic West Africans and their descendants shifted from markers of ethnic identities to ones denoting an Americanized identity where specific ethnic makers were less distinguishable. On a fundamental level, students will also learn the importance of reading primary documents critically and with a high attention to detail.

Time

This lesson plan is designed for a high school United States or World History class and will take three to four classes. Class size should be up to 30 students who can work together in groups.

Objectives and National Standards

  1. Students will also engage in "Chronological Thinking," "Historical Analysis and Interpretation," "Historical Research Capabilities," and "Historical Issues-Analysis and Decision-Making." (National Standards in Historical Thinking 1, 3, 4 and 5)
  2. Students will, "Comparative characteristics of societies in the Americas, Western Europe, and Western Africa that increasingly interacted after 1450." (National Standards for US History, Era 1: Standard 1)
  3. Students will know, "How the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies, and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the Americas." (National Standards for US History, Era 2: Standard 3)
  4. Students will know, "How the transoceanic interlinking of all major regions of the world from 1450-1600 led to global transformations." (National Standards for World History, Era 6: Standard 1)
  5. Students will know the, "Economic, political, and cultural interrelations among peoples of Africa, Europe, and the Americas, 1500-1750." (National Standards for World History, Era 6: Standard 4)

Methods

The teacher will begin the lesson by asking students to think of African ethnic groups caught in the Atlantic slave trade and ask students about ways and means by which ethnic groups display markers of their ethnic heritage.

Step 1:

Break students up into groups that will be given specific decades or years covered in the database depending on how many groups or the size of groups you wish to organize. Distinguishing ethnic terms and markers in the advertisements will be very tricky because there is no consistency in spelling or terms. For example the terms "Mandingo" and "Mundingo" both appear. Also the terms may signify a language group not an actual specific ethnic group. Be sure to inform students that the terms may not represent specific ethnicities but markers of an ethnic group which they may not be able to specifically identify. Also the advertisements which display an ethnic marker are in the minority of the total advertisements. Specific terms such as Mandingo, Ibo, Bambara and Mundingo appear less frequently than the term "County Mark(s)." Many native West Africans put "country marks" on their faces to denote a specific African ethnic origin. So while students may not determine a specific group from the mention of "country marks," student can consider these descriptions ones that contain a West African ethnic marker. You can divide the groups into the following decades: 1730s, 1740s, 1750s, 1760s, 1770s, 1780s, 1790s, and 1800 be sure to assign two separate groups for each decade. If you want more groups with fewer students than you can assign specific years less than an entire decade. Ideally what you want is one group per decade to examine the advertisements with ethnic markers and a second group to examine sample advertisements without an ethnic marker.

Step 2:

Have each group read all of the slave advertisements from their assigned period and take notes and record data from the actual advertisements. One group from each decade will examine the advertisements with ethnic descriptions and the other will examine a sample of advertisements absent of any ethnic distinctions and record the following data when possible:

  1. Ethnic marker
  2. Sex
  3. Mention of a specific skill or occupation
  4. Amount of reward
  5. Mention of religious affiliation
  6. Age
  7. Location of plantation

Note: for each ad some of these categories may not be mentioned.

Step 3:

Within the group, students should be able to analyze the frequency of ethnic markers within the database from their sample years. Students should also determine the relationship between ethnic descriptions (or lack of) and the types of jobs performed on the plantations. The same can be analyzed for age, amount of reward, sex, location and religious affiliation.

Step 4:

Merge both groups for the same decade sets to compare their data between advertisements with and without ethnic markers. Be sure they prepare a report for the rest of the class from their data.

Step 5:

Have each combined group present their data chronologically to the rest of the class so that the class as a whole can come to some specific conclusions about the persistence of ethnicity in slave communities across time.

Step 6: Optional

Students can also substitute religion, sex, or skin color for ethnic markers in the previous assignment. Additionally since this is a very basic exercise you can use the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy Site [http://www.ibiblio.org/laslave/index.html] and have students perform a more detailed analysis of ethnicity and the slave populations in Colonial Louisiana. This database is more detailed and comprehensive than the Runaway Slave Advertisements project, you can expose students to this website once they have come to some conclusions from the assignment to test their overall hypothesizes.

Questions students should be able to address as a result of this project:

  1. Do ethnic markers persist at the same rate over time in the advertisements? What does that tell use about the need African Americans felt to belong to a larger African American group as opposed to a smaller ethnic group during this time?
  2. Did African Americans who were part of an identifiable ethnic group perform different tasks on the plantation then those who were not? Did identifiable skills have an impact on the amount of reward that was offered?
  3. How often does religious affiliation (Muslim or Christian) appear in the ad and what is its relation to ethnicity and identifiable skills?
  4. Can you determine the relative age of African Americans mentioned in relation to ethnic markers or advertisements absent of ethnic markers? What does that tell us about the persistence of ethnicity over time?
  5. If European Colonists are writing and consuming these advertisements, what does that say about how persistent these ethnic markers were in Colonial North America?
  6. Can you describe the ways that African American communities were segmented on colonial plantations?
  7. Based on the exercise that you just completed, describe the ways that historians learn about the past?
  8. Did the different groups of students or individual students interpret the runaway slave advertisements differently? If so, why do you think that thee were differences in interpretations?

Sample Advertisements with Ethnic Markers

1. Virginia Gazette (Parks), Williamsburg, April 14 to April 21, 1738.

April 21, 1738. RAN away about 3 Weeks ago, from Col. Lewis Burwell's Plantation, near Williamsburg, a very Black Mundingo Negro Man, called Jumper, aged about 30, of a middle Stature, and well set; has a long Scar on the Back of one of his Hands, and is bow leg'd. He has been in the Country about 2 Years, but talks pretty good English. He had on, when he went away, a white Plains Jacket and Breeches, an Oznabrigs Shirt, a Felt Hat, a Linen Cap, border'd with Callicoe, Shoes and Stockings. Whoever brings the said Negro to Col. Burwell, at his House near Williamsburg, shall be well rewarded, in Proportion to his Trouble, besides what the Law allows, by Lewis Burwell.

2. Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), Williamsburg, September 3, 1772.

WILLIAMSBURG, September 3, 1772. COMMITTED to James City Prison, on Monday the 31st of last Month, a Negro Fellow who says he is the Property of Colonel Cary of Hampton, and that he belongs to a Quarter in Albemarle; his Name is JOE, is an Ibo Negro, about fifty Years of Age, five Feet nine or ten Inches high, with three Scars on the right Side of his Face, the middle One the largest, and has on a Crocus Shirt and Trousers, and Negro Cotton Waistcoat. JOHN CONNELLY.

3. Virginia Gazette (Purdie & Dixon), Williamsburg, October 7, 1773.

RUN away from the Subscriber about the 1st of September, in the upper End of King William, two new Negro Men, of the Ibo Country, named CHARLES and FRANK, who have been in the Province about twelve Months and it is supposed cannot tell their Master's Name. Charles is a large Fellow, with his Country Marks in his Face, and has lost or broke off one or two of his fore Teeth, which he says was done by a Cow in his Country. Frank is a smaller Fellow, well set, and has sharp Teeth. They carried with them a Dutch Blanket, had each a coarse hat, and other usual Summer Clothes. Whoever delivers both or either of them to me, or secures them and gives me Notice thereof, shall be well rewarded for their Trouble, besides what the Law allows. JOSEPH HILLYARD.

The following are web pages that might help students conceptualize African ethnicities better:

Bibliography

Blassingame, John W. The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South New York: Oxford University Press, 1972

Chambers, Douglas B. "The Significance of Igbo in the Bight of Biafra Slave-Trade: A Rejoinder to Northrup's Myth Igbo," Slavery & Abolition [Great Britain] 2002 23(1): 101-120.

Chambers, Douglas B. "Ethnicity in the Diaspora: The Slave-Trade and the Creation of African "Nations" in the Americas," Slavery & Abolition [Great Britain] 2001 22(3): 25-39.

Gomez, Michael Angelo, Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas: Restoring the Links, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005.

Littlefield, Daniel C. Rice and Slaves: Ethnicity and the Slave Trade in Colonial South Carolina, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981.

Morgan, Philip D. "The Cultural Implications of the Atlantic Slave Trade: African Regional Origins, American Destinations and New World Developments," Slavery & Abolition [Great Britain] 1997 18(1): 122-145.

Northrup, David. "Igbo and Myth Igbo: Culture and Ethnicity in the Atlantic World, 1600-1850," Slavery & Abolition [Great Britain] 2000 21(3): 1-20.

Stewart, Robert P. "Akan Ethnicity in Jamaica: A Re-Examination of Jamaica's Slave Imports from the Gold Coast, 1655-1807." Maryland Historian 2003 28(1-2): 69-107.

Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Robert Cassanello is a visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He teaches courses on Southern History, Historiography and History Methods.