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In the Classroom > Unit Overview
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The First Turn, 1680-1720
Lesson 6: African American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts (1680-1720)

Unit Central Questions: In This Lesson:

What do primary and secondary sources teach us about the characteristics of "everyday life" of individuals living in Deerfield at the four turns of the centuries?

What do these characteristics reveal about changes in the town since its beginning as an English settlement?

Lesson Length
Key Ideas
I.L.O.s
Preparation
Materials
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Assessment

Lesson Length

Activity 1 - One 45 minute session

Activity 2 - One 45 minute session

Activity 3 - One 30 minute session

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Key Content Ideas Taught in this Lesson and Teacher Background

There were African slaves in Deerfield, Massachusetts at this turn (1680-1720), living within the households of their Puritan owners. (Over the years, there were as many as forty slaves.) They performed work similar to that of their masters and some held store accounts. They, along with other members of the community, were required to attend meeting, and were given religious instruction. They were often taught to read, so that they could read the Bible. The church teachings encouraged them to accept their role in life. According to the settlers' interpretation of the Bible, slavery was a normal part of life. There was a contradiction in the position of people like the Reverend John Williams who owned slaves, and yet decried what he believed to be the enslavement of his daughter, Eunice, by the Kanien'kehaka [Mohawks].

For good background reading see:
1. Piersen, William D., Black Yankees. (Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1988), especially Chapter 3.

In Chapter 3, Piersen shows that "a combination of choice, circumstance, oppression, and exploitation led the African immigrants to become black Yankees - a very special breed of Afro-American New Englanders." Under the patriarchal model which was part of the settlers' way of life, black slaves were considered part of one's household, their dress, manners, and education, reflecting on the "goodness" of the family. Master and slave gathered for shared meals, lived in the same dwelling, and slave children were taught to read along with the family's children. Often, young slave children were acquired by a family, to be trained to be productive servants in the particular style the family required. Even though a close relationship often resulted between master and slave, there was a definite distinction, promoted by the settlers' interpretation of the Bible. The basic contradiction of treating human beings as property, while giving them an education and paternalistic status within the family, could never be resolved.

2. Taylor, Joe Gray. "Blacks in Colonial America," in Early American Life, (February 1980).

3. Caretta, Vincent, Phillis Wheatley: Biography of a Genius in Bondage (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2011)

4. Carvalho, Joseph III, Black Families in Hampden County, Massachusetts 1650-1865 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011)

5. Dorman, Franklin A., Twenty Families of Color in Massachusetts, 1742-1998 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1998)

6. Greene, Lorenzo, The Negro in Colonial New England 1620-1776 (New York, New York, Columbia University Press, 1942)

7. Kaplan, Sidney, and Emma Nogrady Kaplan, The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution, (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989)

8. Melish, Joanne P., "Slavery and the Slave Trade in Colonial New England", Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704", Explanation feature. http://1704.deerfield.history.museum/popups/background.do?shortName=expSlavery

9. Smith, James Avery, The History of the Black Population of Amherst, Massachusetts, 1728-1870 (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999)

 

For more information read:
Teacher Background Essay: African-American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts

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Intended Learning Outcomes

Understandings:
Students will understand that:

1. There were African-American slaves living within the households of some English settlers, and they will have knowledge of their role in the family and community.
2. Lucy Terry lived in the Ebenezer Wells household, wrote a poem about an Indian attack, and married a freed slave, Abijah Prince, in Deerfield, Massachusetts. .

Skills:
Students will be able to:

1. Read and interpret a poem.
2. Read and analyze articles describing the historical situation in Deerfield, Massachusetts.

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In Preparation for Teaching

1. Read Teacher Background Essay: African-American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts and Student Background Essay: Slave Life in 18th Century Deerfield, Massachusetts
2. Copy lesson materials
3. Review and copy worksheets
4. Review the section of Lesson 4 on the Wells-Thorn house

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Materials


Primary and Secondary Sources:

1. Teacher Background Essay: African-American Presence in Deerfield, Massachusetts

2. Student Background Essay: Slave Life in 18th Century Deerfield, Massachusetts

3. 18th C. Slaves in Deerfield, Massachusetts Listed by Owner

4. Jonathan Ashley and Elijah Williams account book excerpts

5. Background of the Bars Fight and Eunice Allen's account

6. Copy of Lucy Terry Prince's poem "The Bars Fight"

Other:

1. Worksheet: African Americans in Deerfield, Massachusetts (1680-1720)

2. Worksheet: African American Work

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Activities Materials in Context

Activity 1
A. 18th Century Slavery in Deerfield, Massachusetts

1. Distribute the student background essay "Slave Life in Eighteenth Century Deerfield, Massachusetts" and the worksheet entitled AFRICAN AMERICANS IN DEERFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS (1680-1720).
2. After reading the essay, give students time to fill out worksheets and then hold a class discussion to summarize results.
3. Distribute excerpts from the Jonathan Ashley and Elijah Williams account books and the worksheet entitled African American Work. Instruct students to use the excerpts to complete the worksheet.
4. Give students time to fill out worksheets and then hold a class discussion to summarize results. Remind students of their actual or virtual visit to the Wells-Thorn house and their introduction to Lucy Terry Prince. What did Mrs. Wells provide for Lucy? What work would Lucy have done in the house? Think about the setup of each of the two oldest rooms. Remember that the Wells couple had no children. How might Lucy's work and position in the house have been different if there had been children?

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Student Background Essay: Slave Life in 18th Century Deerfield, Massachusetts

Worksheet: African Americans in Deerfield, Massachusetts (1680-1720)

 

Jonathan Ashley and Elijah Williams account book excerpts

Worksheet: African American Work

Activity 2
B. Background on the Bars Fight

1. Explain that the Bars is an area south of the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts which tradition says was named for the moveable bars across the road which acted as a gate to the fence that surrounded the village and agricultural fields. This fence was intended to keep the cattle, which roamed freely in the woods during the spring and summer, from getting into the corn.
2. Distribute copies of the background and Eunice Allen's account of what happened at the Bars Fight in August 1746 with accompanying questions.
3. Have the students read the account and have the students write out the answers.
4. As a class, discuss the questions listed at the end of the account.

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Background of the Bars Fight and Eunice Allen's account

 

 

 

 

 

Activity 3
C. "The Bars Fight" Poem

1. Pass out copies of "The Bars Fight."
2. Read poem aloud as students follow along on their copies.
3. Have students read it aloud with you.
4. List on the board the events recounted in the poem and discuss questions at the end of the poem.
5. Read it again together to note the rhythm and rhyme, spelling, and pronunciation of the words to fit the rhyming pattern. Discuss.
6. Refer students to Lesson 4 during which they learned that Lucy Terry was a slave of the Wells family.
7. Discuss the implications of Lucy Terry's having written such a piece (that she could read and write, that she was moved by the events that were happening in the village, and that she seemed to side with the English in the struggle with the Native Americans).
8. Have students write a poem relating to a news item from a current newspaper.

 

 

"The Bars Fight"

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Assessment

Use the poem composed by students and the written responses to the questions at the end of the Bars Fight background.

 

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