Lesson plan
Reading Slavery Sources Critically
Grade band: upper secondary · 60 minutes
Objectives
- Apply a five-question framework to primary sources.
- Compare a source by a trader or official with testimony by an enslaved person.
- Explain the concept of archival silence.
Materials
- Two short paired extracts with context notes
- Source analysis framework handout
- Highlighters
Steps
- Introduce the framework: who made it, what is it, why was it made, how reliable is it, what is missing.
- Model the framework with a short, low-distress source such as a shipping advertisement or customs record.
- Give pairs two contrasting extracts and ask them to apply the framework to each.
- Hold a class discussion on how the two sources differ in perspective and what each shows about the system.
- Introduce archival silence and ask students to suggest ways historians recover missing perspectives.
- Students complete an exit slip identifying one thing their source cannot tell us.
Discussion questions
- What does a source reveal about its creator even when its claims are false?
- Why do many records name enslaved people rarely, or not at all?
- How can historians use different kinds of evidence together?
Assessment
Collect the completed framework handouts and exit slips. Look for accurate use of the questions and an explicit statement of at least one silence or limitation.