I discovered
The Kidnapped Prince, Ann Cameron's beautiful adaptation of Olaudah
Equiano's autobiography, while doing an Internet search for primary
source documents on slavery in colonial America. My 5th grade students
and I were already familiar with his name because our history textbook
included several quotes by Olaudah.
As
a class, we agreed that learning about slavery through a firsthand
account was much more meaningful than the voiceless account given
by the textbook. In developing the tasks for this lesson, the one
I struggled with the most was Task 3. In my first version of Task
3, the students were to create a character who could have survived
the Middle Passage only to go on to slavery in the colonies. As
I began to develop the activity, I became aware of how difficult
- and inappropriate - it would be for 5th graders to recreate the
brutality and inhumanity of the Middle Passage. But I also wanted
my students to develop empathy and historical understanding of the
role slavery has played in our nation's history.
Materials
Needed
The
activities in this unit are based on The Kidnapped Prince: The
Life of Olaudah Equiano (Ann Cameron). I also recommend purchasing
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or
Gustavus Vassa, the African. PBS is currently posting most of
Equiano's biography as part of their Africans in American site http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h320t.html.
If
you are preceding this unit with African
Folktales, I recommend reading Kim Siegelson's In the Time
of Drums as an introductory activity. This beautifully illustrated
picture book documents the importance of storytelling to the survivors
of the Middle Passage.
Time
Required
Two
to three weeks.
Evaluation
Each
task has an accompanying rubric: Task 1,
Task 2, Task
3.
