Website Spotlight: Africans in America

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

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We can access the rich material in this website by four time periods:

• Part 1: 1450-1750
• Part 2: 1750-1805
• Part 3: 1791-1831
• Part 4: 1831-1865

I find that Part 4 works well for my slavery module. Here is how it is laid out on the site.

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Part 4: Judgment Day (1831-1865)

I. Narrative:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/narrative.html

Introduction
Map: From Coast to Coast
Antebellum Slavery (see below for my specific assignment)
Abolitionism
Fugitive Slaves and Northern Racism (see below for my specific assignment)
Westward Expansion
The Civil War

II. Resource Bank:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/index.html

People and Events
Historical Documents
Modern Voices (comments by historians)

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With my class, I focused on two specific sections from Part 4, asking the students to work through the following links:

1. ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY

Introductory Narrative
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4narr1.html

Conditions of Antebellum Slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html

Fanny Kemble and Pierce Butler
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1569.html

Butler Island
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2920.html

The Weeping Time
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2918.html

H. E. Hayward and slave nurse Louisa
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3140.html

Slave quarters on St. Georges Island
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1540.html

James Horton on antebellum slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3104.html

Nell Irvan Painter on soul murder and slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3084.html

William Scarborough on antebellum slavery
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3101.html

Margaret Washington on Butler Island and slave life
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i2968.html

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2. FUGITIVE SLAVES AND NORTHERN RACISM

Introductory Narrative
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4narr3.html

The Underground Railroad
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html

Race-based legislation in the North
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2957.html

Harriet Jacobs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html

Harriet Tubman
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html

Slave narratives and Uncle Tom's Cabin
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2958.html

Anthony Burns captured
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2915.html

David Blight on slave narratives and Uncle Tom's Cabin
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i2986.html

Margaret Washington on Harriet Jacobs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3089.html

~~For reviews of the Africans in America website:

History Matters (The U.S. Survey Course on the Web)
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4921/
TeachingHistory.org (National History Education Clearinghouse)
http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/website-reviews/14637

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Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Slavery

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT