Perspectives on Slavery North VS South

Disclaimer We will be reading FOUR documents from various perspectives of slavery. These documents were written from the time period in which slavery existed. The vocabulary used was common during this time period, but would be considered unacceptable today. Additionally, many of the ideals and words of the authors’ are offensive, but they represent an accurate depiction of the America during that time period.

jigsaw Task You will be assigned to ONE of FOUR documents. As you read you will fill in the following information on your organzier Who is the author? What it the author’s background? What is their perspective on slavery? Quote a passage from the text to illustrate the perspective Once you have completed the task, you will meet with a group and share the information from your reading. All students will record the background and perspective of all four articles on their note sheet.

Document One Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup Solomon Northrup was the son of a freed slave and free woman of color. A farmer and professional violinist, Northup had been a landowner in Hebron, New York. In 1841, he was offered a traveling musician's job and went to Washington, D.C. (where slavery was legal); there he was drugged, kidnapped, and sold as a slave. He was shipped to New Orleans, purchased by a planter, and held as a slave for 12 years in the Red River region of Louisiana. He remained in slavery until he met a Canadian working on his plantation who helped get word to New York, where state law provided aid to free New York citizens kidnapped into slavery. Family and friends enlisted the aid of the Governor of New York, Washington Hunt, and Northup regained his freedom on January 3, 1853.

Document Two Aurelia Hale writes to her sister Sarah W. Hale. 22 year old Aurelia Hale of Hartford, Connecticut, (free state) offered her impressions of southern life in this letter of June 11, 1821. She had recently traveled to Washington County, Georgia, to serve as a schoolteacher and wrote a series of 52 letters to her siblings detailing her experiences in the South and her perspective on slavery.

Document three Speech by Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison was a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist, and social reformer. He is best known as the editor of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator, which he founded with Isaac Knapp in 1831 and published in Massachusetts until slavery was abolished by Constitutional amendment after the American Civil War. He was one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He promoted "immediate emancipation" of slaves in the United States. In the 1870s, Garrison became a prominent voice for the woman suffrage movement.

Document Four The Universal Law of Slavery by George Fitzhugh George Fitzhugh was from Port Royal, Virginia. He was the descendant of an old southern family that had fallen on hard times. He practiced law and struggled as a small planter but made a reputation with two books, which alarmed northerners like Abraham Lincoln and roused southerners to take new and higher ground in defense of slavery.