Thinking Like a Historian: Slavery in Texas

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Grade Levels: 5th-8th

1-2 60-minute class period(s). (Depending on schedule and pacing.)

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students work collaboratively to analyze four primary sources related to slavery, the domestic slave trade, and resistance. This lesson should follow some general instruction about slavery and the domestic slave trade and would work well situated in a unit covering the 1850s so that students can situate the primary sources within the larger historical context. Using documents related to one enslaver in Austin County, Texas (present day Waller County) students will make inferences and draw conclusions about what questions these sources raise about slavery and resistance on the eve of the Civil War.

Essential Questions

  • How did enslaved people resist enslavement?
  • What can runaway slave ads tell us about enslaved people’s lives?
  • How did Southerners’ growing reliance on slavery shape their response to resistance?
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