The Myth of the Happy Slave: January 14, 2020

Focus: What is the power in telling your own story?

1. Warming up with a a recap of Grammar Lessons 1-3

2. Questioning the myth of the happy slave

The myth of the happy slave: 19th century and early 20th century images

• Jot down your thoughts in your writer's notebook.

• Look carefully at the depictions of slaves in these images. What details strike you?

• What story of slavery do these images tell, and how?

• Why do you think these images were so popular (well into the 20th century)?

• Open the slavery images from Wednesday. Flip back and forth between those images and these. What is problematic about the myth of the happy slave?

Frederick Douglass addresses the danger of the "happy slave" image

Children's book promotes the happy slave

3. Reading either Douglass' Chapter 10 or Harriet Jacob's "Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl"

• In your notebook, make a quick chart where you write down and reflect upon at least THREE lines from the story, using these questions to guide you:

• What is the power in telling your own story?
• Why are the slave narratives an important part of our cultural identity as Americans?

HW:

1. By FRIDAY: Spend 60 minutes reading your independent reading book OUTSIDE of class. That's 15 minutes of homework a night. On Friday, you will be completing Thought Log #1 and taking a screenshot of your reading app log (Leio or Read More).

2. WEDNESDAY: Bring your book to class.