In groups,
1. Discuss Zinn’s claim about racism.
2. What is a historical force?
3. What were the historical forces that caused white plantation owners to choose black slaves as their labor source?
4. What seems to be Zinn’s perspective on history?
Vocabulary
Define:
· institution
· indentured
· providence
· avarice
Required Readings
Secondary Sources:
1. Zinn, A People’s History of the United States Chapter 2
Primary Sources:
1. Olaudah Equiano’s Biography, Chapter 2
3. Honors: Look at colonial laws regarding slavery.
Extension
1. Do additional background research on colonial slavery, either through primary or secondary sources. Document your findings.
Image Analysis:
Choose two of the paintings or engravings from the Africans in America website to analyze.
1. What is the name of the painting and artist?
2. What seems to be occurring in the image?
3. What is the tone of the image?
4. What is the artist’s perspective on slavery?
Study Guide Q’s
1. How did the African slave-trade get started?
2. What was the economic necessity for labor in the new British colonies?
3. What is the difference between indentured servitude and slavery?
4. Why did the planters in the colonies transition into the latter?
5. Why did they choose to enslave Africans?
6. How were slaves obtained in Africa?
7. Describe the conditions of “The Middle Passage.”
8. What measures were taken by slaveholders to keep slaves from rebelling?
9. What were the economic reasons for the expansion of slavery in North America?
10. Honors: Explain how the economic conditions in the Virginia colony were ripe for slavery.
11. Honors: How does the case of Antonio Johnson lend evidence to Howard Zinn’s view that racism was not built into the ideology of the early colonies?
12. Honors: Explain how colonial laws led to the institutionalization of racism. Give examples.