Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen

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Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen

• A study of Slavery and the issues that surround
  it
• Created by Sally Landoll, 2005

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What is Slavery?

• Work done under harsh conditions for little or no
  pay
• The state of being under someone elses control

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When did slavery begin?

• Slaves were first introduced into the American
  society in the 1619 (long before the Declaration
  of Independence)
• A Dutch slave trader exchanged his cargo of
  Africans for food in 1619.
• These slaves were really indentured servants, it
  was not meant for them to serve their masters for
  longer than 7 years.

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When did slavery begin? (continued)

• A 1662 Virginia law assumed Africans would remain
  servants for life.
• By 1740 the SLAVERY system in colonial America
  was fully developed.

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Why did Slavery in America exist?

• Prior to the American Revolution, slavery existed
  in all the colonies. It was culturally acceptable
  for people to own slaves.
• After the American Revolution,
• slavery in the Northern States stopped almost
  completely.
• slavery in the Southern states, however,
  continued because of the need for cheap labor on
  tobacco farms and cotton farms.

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How were slaves treated?

• Slaves could own no property unless sanctioned by
  a slave master
• Housing, food, and clothing were of poor quality.
  
• Owners reinforced submissive behavior not so much
  by positive rewards as by severe punishment of
  those who did not conform.

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What about education?

• In most of the South it was illegal to teach a
  black to read or write.
• In spite of the oppressive conditions of slavery
  in the United States, a relatively large
  population of slaves could read, write and had
  specialized skills.
• Free Black families living in northeastern areas
  had education equal to the average White family

• In New York, they were taught to read and write
  after their daily work was completed and by 1708
  as many as 200 slaves were being educated.

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General Facts About Slaves

• The average price of a slave in the mid-19th
  century was about 600, a very considerable sum
  over 10,000 in 2002.
• Nazer, Mende and Damien Lewis. Slave My True
  Story (Public Affairs 2004)
• Slave children would often begin working as young
  as 5 or 6 years old.
• Slave children can cut kindling wood for fires
  and fill water buckets.
• As they get older, their work load will increase.
  This could mean working in the fields, cooking,
  sewing or even learning a trade such as carpentry
  or blacksmithing.

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More General Facts

• The number of slaves an owner bought was
  dependent on the size of his farm and the size of
  his income. A slave owner could own as few as
  two slaves or as many as one hundred. Slaves
  were often shared between farms if a slave owner
  had multiple farms and overseers at each farm.
• In Butler County, Alabama in 1860 there were
• TOTAL MALE SLAVES 288
• TOTAL FEMALE SLAVES262 TOTAL SLAVES 550

• This example is only one of hundreds of counties
  that had slaves. One of the counties I saw had
  over 2,000 slaves.

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When did Slavery in America end?

• 1865 Amendment XIII. Slavery abolished.1.
  Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except
  as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall
  have been duly convicted, shall exist within the
  United States, or any place subject to their
  jurisdiction.2. Congress shall have power to
  enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
• 1866 Civil Rights Act. Congress overrode
  President Johnson's veto on April 9 and passed
  the Civil Rights Act, conferring citizenship upon
  black Americans and guaranteeing equal rights
  with whites.

Emancipation Day, South Carolina
1863
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More about the end of Slavery

• 1866The Fourteenth Amendment. On June 13,
  Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment to the
  Constitution, guaranteeing due process and equal
  protection under the law to all citizens. The
  amendment would also grant citizenship to blacks.
• 1868 Fourteenth Amendment ratified. On July 21,
  the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was
  ratified, granting citizenship to any person born
  or naturalized in the United States.

Emancipation Day British West Indies
1834
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Quilt Symbols
Star Follow the North Star.
Crossroads Refers to Cleveland, Ohio
Monkey Wrench Prepare the tools youll need for
the long journey, including the mental and
spiritual tools. Or (as a Ships Wheel), the
pilot is prepared to begin the transport.
Wagon Wheel Load the wagon or prepare to board
the wagon to begin the escape.
Bowtie Dress in a disguise, or put on a change of
clothes.
Drunkards Path Create a zig-zag path, do not
walk in a straight line, to avoid pursuers in
this area.
Shoofly Possibly identifies a friendly guide who
is nearby and can help.
Flying Geese Points to a direction to follow,
such as where geese would fly during spring
migration.
Log Cabin advises that a person is safe to talk
to.
Bears Paw Take a mountain trail, out of view
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Does Slavery still exist?

• Sadly, the answer is yes.
• Most people believe slavery no longer exists, but
  it is still very much alive.
• From Khartoum to Calcutta, from Brazil to
  Bangladesh, men, women, and children live and
  work as slaves or in slave-like conditions.
• According to the London-based Anti-Slavery
  International (ASI), the world's oldest
  human-rights organization, there are at least 27
  million people in bondage.
• Indeed, there may be more slaves in the world
  than ever before. 

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You have been enjoying songs from the following
website

• Songs from the Underground Railroad
  http//www.appleseedrec.com/underground/sounds.htm
  l

Songs were an important part of life for many
slaves, It was a way to communicate their
feelings and hardships.
Most of the songs were spiritual in nature.
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A Little About the Underground Railroad

• National Geographic The Underground Railroad

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Martin Luther King

• I Have a Dream Speech http//www.americanrhetori
  c.com/speeches/Ihaveadream.htm

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Your Thoughts

• You have finished reading Nightjohn by Gary
  Paulsen how has the book changed your views on
• Slavery?
• The way blacks were treated during that time?
• The way blacks are treated today?
• Being tolerant of people that are different than
  you?

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Bibliography

• http//www.simplcom.ca/lnq/mlk3/blackslavery.html
  
• http//www.religioustolerance.org/sla_hist.htm
• Chronology on the History of Slavery and Racism
  http//www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html

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Bibliography (continued)

• Understanding Slavery http//school.discovery.com/
  schooladventures/slavery/world.html
• Slavery Image Database http//hitchcock.itc.virgin
  ia.edu/Slavery/return.php?categorynum17
• Slavery Worldwide Evil http//www.iabolish.com/to
  day/background/worldwide-evil.htm
• A Cultural Outlook on the History of Black
  American Families in the Rural South
  http//www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1990/5/
  90.05.08.x.html

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Bibliography (continued)

• 1860 Slave Schedules, Butler County
  http//www.afrigeneas.com/aacensus/al/slaves.htm1
  86020Butler20County
• Underground Railroad Quilt Code
  http//educ.queensu.ca/fmc/may2004/Underground.ht
  ml