Twelve Years a Slave (2 Passages, 7 Pages)

2 activities available. There is a short background text and a link to a 12 Years a Slave movie trailer. Students read two 3-4 page sections of Solomon Northup's narrative about being kidnapped into slavery and what he saw once enslaved. One section is about an enslaved mother losing her children. The other is about an enslaved woman being whipped. The activity contains good overarching questions for discussion though the discussion focuses on how slavery undermined families and this brings up mature and sexual themes. The second activity involves the editor's intro to Northup's narrative and his verification methods.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of the 2 activities:

1. Go to Lesson Activities. Activity 1: Students watch a 2 min trailer for the movie 12 Years a Slave. They then have the opportunity to read the synopsis at the beginning of the lesson . In pairs, students read from Northup's account about a woman named Eliza losing her children (3.5 pages) and answer/discuss questions at the bottom and/or the overarching question at the top. The teacher then may choose to assign the section of Northrup's text called "The Soul Murder of Patsey" (2.5 pages) about a brutal whipping (this can be found after an awkwardly placed heading labeled "Assessment"). The teacher may ask students to answer and/or discuss the overarching question at the top. Again, the overarching questions are good though they focus on how slavery corrupted the family and this brings up mature and sexual themes.

   
   

2. Go to Lesson Activities. Activity 2: We prefer the first activity to the second. In the second activity, students read the 1/2 page editor's preface to the Northup narrative and discuss why the editor was so keen on verifying the story.

Also, a quiz is available.