Family

To the right you will find additional slave narratives and tips that will help you complete your research on your particular topic. Below are questions to get you started. Please read carefully!

Help each other in your team read the sections assigned and interpret any confusing dialect. Analyze and research topics like amateur historians. Look for themes and share what you find with group members, because they are looking at the same topic you are. WORK AS A TEAM!
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QUESTIONS TO GET YOU STARTED

Did traditional slave families exist, and if so how?

Did nontraditional families exist?

Were slave marriages and family ties recognized by American law?

How did slaves respond to the breakup of families?

Did children grow up with their parents?

Which parent did most children stay with the mother or father?

Who usually took care of the children on the plantations?

Did parents have any kind of authority over their children?

If parents and children were separated how did they stay in contact?

Did strangers ever have to take care of slave children on the plantations?

RETURN TO MAIN INVESTIGATION

Charles Ball, Fifty Years in Chains

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Harriet Jacobs, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl

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What are Primary Sources?
They enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period.  Primary sources were either created during the time period being studied, or were created at a later date by a participant in the events being studied (as in the case of narratives) and they reflect the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer.
What are historians?
A professional scholar who constructs the past from written, visual, oral and archaeological evidence.
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Questions to Think About


How much time had passed between slavery and the published narratives?

How might time lag affect their stories?

How old were the subjects when the narratives were written?

Does age affect memories?

How were these documents written, if most slaves had no formal education?