"Am I Really Free?"

Guiding Questions:
Where did free Blacks live?
What, if any, restrictions did they have?

• Explain to the students that they will be studying about the life of free blacks during slavery including their struggles and successes.  This is a two-day lesson.  I incorporated the writing with English Language Arts.  It can be done in less or even more time. 
• Share the historical background information with the students.  Set up a special Center with books and objects related to the lesson for students to explore.
• Tell the students they will write stories, essays, and/or poems related to what they have learned about slavery and freedom.
• Have students answer the essential question and guiding questions as a pre- and posttest.
• Before the writing begins read several excerpts from books containing slave narratives and share your own writings with the students. 
• The students will examine reproduced documents of the South Carolina Slave Codes and trial papers. Place students in small groups and give each group a primary document to examine.  Rotate the documents among the groups.  Help each group to understand what they are looking at and its importance. 
• Tell students to use their senses when they write and give them examples.  Let them listen to music and think about how it makes them feel.  Then allow the students to free write or draw for about 10 -15 minutes with or without music.  Explain to the students that they can write or draw anything that comes to mind during that period.  Stress the importance of complete silence at that time.
• After silent writing students may share what they have written or drawn.  Students may edit, illustrate, and publish their work.
• Allow students about 10-15 minutes to handle objects (black iron, gourd, quilt, etc.) brought in to enhance the writing.
• Students will write for at least 30 minutes using the steps of the Writing Process.
• Display student work.

Historical Background Notes
How free were the free blacks? Life for free blacks was not all peaches and cream. Although some were able to prosper they were not counted as citizens.  A few questions to consider are: Where did free Blacks live? What, if any, restrictions did they have?

The status varied a great deal from time to time, from place to place. There were laws that prohibited them from holding office and voting. The American Revolution raised a number of questions concerning the free Negro, one of the most urgent being his possible use as a soldier. Some free Blacks fought in the early battles before an organized arm existed.

When the first national census was taken in 1790, free Negroes were reported to number 59,466, about 1.5 percent of the young republic’s total population. Seventy years later on the eve of the Civil War, the free Negroes totaled 488,070, and they still constituted approximately 1.5 percent of the population although their number had little increment from immigration. In 1860 just over half of the 488,000 free Negroes lived in slave states. The freedmen tended to live in cities where economic opportunities were better than in the countryside and where a more varied social life was available. (“Not Quite Free: The Free Negro Before the Civil War” American History Illustrated magazine, Published by The National History Society. June 1974 edition)

There were a number of ways for an African American to become free. They could be born free, freed by manumission, purchase their freedom, freed because of some deed they did, or given freedom in a will.

Restrictions and economic opportunities were sometimes less severely enforced in the cities than in the countryside. For this reason the freedmen tended to live in cities. In the country free blacks were carefully watched because of fear their presence would make slaves discontent. To keep the free blacks under control, Slave Codes or more commonly referred to as Jim Crow Laws were created.  These laws placed limitations on what a free person of color could do.

Despite the injustices they faced and hardships to overcome, many free blacks became affluent. They owned businesses and even had slaves themselves. They prospered in a wide variety of fields. Although the free African American had it better in the North than in the South, he was not truly free anywhere.

• Pre-test
• Trial Papers Evaluation Sheet
• Graphic organizer used with I Thought My Soul Would Rise and Fly
• Students’ stories/poems/drawings
• Post-test