| Setting
the Stage: Questions to Think About
1.
Why did the North get so involved in the slave trade to begin
with?
2. Could slavery have existed without the extensive support of
the North?
3. Were there slaves in the North?
4. How were they treated?
5. Did those involved in importing slaves consider it wrong?
6. If so, why did they do it?
7. What were the laws governing the slave trade?
8. How were the laws enforced or not enforced?
9. What finally stopped slave trading?
Introduction
Slavery
in the United States is often associated with the need southern
cotton plantations had for cheap labor. The North is known for
fighting the war that resulted in emancipation of the slaves.
In fact, the North was largely responsible for importing slaves
and buying the cotton grown in the South to make fabric.
This
module provides activities to help students think through the
ethical issues around slavery, using the North as a starting point.
A study of the North has been chosen because the issues become
quite clear when we examine the conflicting feelings of the people
involved, the inconsistencies between the professed cultural values,
the written law and the enforced law, and the economic and social
factors that created and sustained slavery and its legacy of racism
in this country for so long.
Objectives from Competency Based Curriculum
•
Students will understand the slave trade, how it worked and the
extensive involvement of the North with the South and the Europeans.
•
Students will understand how the factory system and the transportation
and market revolutions shaped regional patterns of economic development.
• Students will grapple with the ethical issues involved
in slavery, as an exploitative economic and social system.
• Students will understand the abolitionist movement. Therefore,
the students will be able to analyze changing ideas about race
and assess the reception of proslavery and antislavery ideologies
in the North and South.
• Students will be able to articulate their own personal
values about slavery.
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