|
Primary Source
of the Month
“Lynchburg negro dance, August 18th, 1853,” watercolor by Lewis Miller,
Virginia, 1853–1867. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
CONTENTS
To Live Like a Slave
Primary
Source of the Month
Teaching
Strategy
Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources
Teaching News
Quote of the Month
The
Next
Electronic Field Trip is
In Pursuit of Science
January 12, 2006
2005
Teaching
Resources Catalog
2005–2006 Electronic Field
Trip Scholarships
Games, activities, and resources about life in colonial America.
|
TOP STORIES
To Live Like a Slave
by Curtia James
"I sat before a crackling fire, dressed in 18th-century clothes, and listened to the haunting sounds of spirituals. I watched shadows flicker across the faces of my African-American co-workers, gathered to re-enact the lives of the 24 blacks who had inhabited the Slave Quarter at Carter's Grove in 1770. We would give voice to their experience, rediscovering aspects of their day-to-day realities as much as our 20th-century sensibilities could allow..."
Learn
More
Primary Source of the Month:
“Lynchburg negro dance, August 18th, 1853.”
Lewis Miller, a Pennsylvania Dutch artist, kept a journal in which he documented what he saw during his travels through southwest Virginia in the mid-nineteenth century. This Miller watercolor shows black people enjoying music and dancing.
Learn
More
Teaching
Strategy: Slave Family Life on a Plantation
As early as 1641, slavery was legal in every colony, but the Southern colonies embraced the institution due to economic circumstances, specifically the need to raise labor-intensive crops. In this lesson, students learn about several aspects of everyday slave family life on a plantation. They then create and assemble puzzles to summarize the information they learned.
Learn More
Colonial
Williamsburg Teaching Resources for Your
Classroom Colonial
Williamsburg offers a variety of quality
instructional materials dealing with 18th-century
life, including:
- A Day in the Life (video)
- Enslaved (video with Web activities and teacher guide)
- Slavery: A Colonial Odyssey (lesson unit)
- Hands on History: Slave’s Bag (object kit)
- Caesar’s Story: 1759 (book)
- Stories Under African Skies (CD or cassette)
- A Williamsburg Household (book)
Learn More
Teaching
News
Jamestown "Journey of Democracy" site launched! In 2006–2007, Americans and others around the globe will commemorate the 400th anniversary of a journey that began with the voyage to Jamestown, gave rise to a new nation, and changed the world. A new Web site has been created to host the official education curriculum for the anniversary, offering free lesson plans, state educational standards, and more.
Visit the "Journey of Democracy" Web site
View a .PDF of the official announcement
Quote
of the Month
“Sundays being the only days [the slaves] have to themselves, they generally meet together and amuse themselves with Dancing to the Banjo. This musical instrument . . . is made of a Gourd something in the imitation of a Guitar, with only four strings and played with the fingers in the same manner.” — Nicholas Cresswell
Journal entry, May 29, 1774 |
Volume
4, Issue 5 
Shop Online
Tour the Town Online
Kids Zone: Online games & activities
Historic Triangle
