1. UNIT 5: EQUALITY AND POWER Lesson 5.3: Slavery: “A peculiar institution”

2. Focus  What did you learn yesterday about suffrage?  How does learning about the women’s suffrage help you to understand equality?

3. Peculiar Institution

4. Activate  What do you already know about slavery in the United States?

5. Learn more about the “peculiar institution”  http://www.ushistory.org/us/27.asp http://www.ushistory.org/us/27.asp  1) What is the “peculiar Institution”?  2) Why did southerners tighten their grip on slavery?  3) What does the article mean by saying that slavery had become a “sectional issue”?

6. AP 1  Summarize the “Peculiar Institution” in 1 sentence.

7. “Our peculiar institution”  "(Our) peculiar institution" was a euphemism for slavery and the economic ramifications of it in the American South. The meaning of "peculiar" in this expression is "one's own", that is, referring to something distinctive to or characteristic of a particular place or people. The proper use of the expression is always as a possessive, e.g., "our peculiar institution" or "the South's peculiar institution". It was in popular use during the first half of the 19th century, especially in legislative bodies, as the word slavery was deemed "improper," and was actually banned in certain areas.

8. AP 2: TPS  Why did some southerners refer to Slavery as “our peculiar institution”?

9. What makes slavery so “peculiar”?  Some see this expression as specifically intended to gloss over the apparent contradiction between legalized slavery and the statement in the Declaration of Independence that "all men are created equal". But, in fact, at the time this expression became popular, it was used in association with a vigorous defense of slavery as a good thing. One of the leaders in using the phrase, and in advancing the argument that slavery was a "positive good", establishing the proper relation between the races, was John C. Calhoun, most notably in his Speech on the Reception of Abolition Petitions. The March 1861 "Cornerstone Speech" of Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens even argued that Jefferson's words in the Declaration were mistaken, and that the Confederacy's new Constitution, establishing "our peculiar institution", had rectified the error.

10. AP 3: Word Splash

11. Activity- Around the World  In your groups, you will read a primary source document that either argues for the abolition of slavery, or argues for the support of slavery. Once your group has read the article, decide if the article is pro or against, and fill in the worksheet provided to help to organize your thoughts. Once you have read all 8 documents, come up with a “gist” for each side of the debate.

13. Learning Log  In your journal, reflect on what you learned today in regard to “the peculiar institution of slavery”. Why was slavery considered “peculiar”?  What were some of the pro-slavery arguments?  How would abolitionists respond to such arguments?