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of Frederick Douglass aDouglass: A Teacher's Guide
This website is a guide to aid teacher's in getting the most out of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.
In order for students to obtain thorough understanding of the key elements of the novel, this website touches upon:

Tension in the South increased in 1859, when John Brown led another abolitionist group in seizing the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia). Federal troops quickly captured Brown, and he was executed later that year. But his raid helped convince many Southerners that the slavery issue would lead to fighting between the North and the South.
Theme Of Novel
Ignorance"Ignorance is not always BlissBliss"
Take a class period to engage in a group discussion with your students about the message "Ignorance is not always bliss".
This will prepare them for reading this book with a personal understanding of what slavery was and how Douglass desperately sought freedom.

Prior Knowledge
Frederick Douglass was born on Holmes Hill Farm, in 1818 in Maryland, his mother a slave and his father a slave-keeper. When he was young he served as a slave on farms throughout Baltimore. Frederick's mother's name was Harriet Baily, and she worked the cornfields surrounding Holmes Hill. He knew little of his father except that he was white.
the Missouri Compromise**.**Compromise. This measure
Most of the abolitionist leaders attacked slavery in writings and public speeches. Garrison began to publish an anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. Douglass, who was the most influential black leader of the time, started an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star in 1847. Tubman and many other abolitionists helped Southern slaves escape to the free states and Canada. Tubman returned to the South 19 times and personally led about 300 slaves to freedom. She and others used a network of routes and housing to assist the fleeing blacks. This network became known as the underground railroad. compromise1850
After 1848, Congress had to deal with the question of whether to permit slavery in the territories that the United States gained from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848). The territories covered what are now California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other states.

been abolished.
This website is a guide to aid teacher's in getting the most out of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.
In order for students to obtain thorough understanding of the key elements of the novel, this website touches upon:
Theme of Novel
Symbolic Image
Key Elements QuizStudent Assessment
Personal/Social Connection
Refective Quote
Vocabulary
Lyrics with Connection
Prior KnowledgeFrederickKnowledge
Frederick Douglass was he was white.
In 1818, the year Douglass was born, there were 11 slave states, in which slavery was allowed, and 11 free states, in which it was prohibited. Most Missourians supported slavery, but many Northern members of Congress did not want Missouri to become a slave state. In 1820, Congress reached a settlement known as the Missouri Compromise**.** This measure admitted Missouri as a slave state, but it also called for Maine to enter the Union as a free state. Congress thus preserved the balance between free and slave states at 12 each. Abolition leaders included William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Lewis Tappan, and Theodore Dwight Weld. During the 1830's and 1840's, these white abolitionists were joined by many free blacks, including such former slaves as Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Tubman and rumorSojourner Truth.
Most of the abolitionist leaders attacked slavery in writings and public speeches. Garrison began to publish an anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. Douglass, who was the most influential black leader of the time, started an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star in 1847. Tubman and many other abolitionists helped Southern slaves escape to the free states and Canada. Tubman returned to the South 19 times and personally led about 300 slaves to freedom. She and others used a network of routes and housing to assist the fleeing blacks. This network became known as the underground railroad. compromise1850
After 1848, Congress had to deal with the question of whether to permit slavery in the territories that the United States gained from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848). The territories covered what are now California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other states.
Tension in the South increased in 1859, when John Brown led another abolitionist group in seizing the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia). Federal troops quickly captured Brown, and he was executed later that year. But his master.
Before your students begin readingraid helped convince many Southerners that the slavery issue would lead to fighting between the North and the novel, have themSouth.
Theme Of Novel
Ignorance is not always Bliss
The society approved a design "expressive of an African in Chains in a Supplicating Posture", also the engraved motto: "Am I Not A Man and A Brother?". The design was approved by the Society, and its promotion then began.
In the year 1788, the design was shipped to Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, where the medallions became a fashion statement for abolitionists and people who were anti-slavery. Although the intent of the emblem was to alter the public opinion of the inhumane African slave trade, ultimately it effected the perception of black inferiority.
Student AssessmentsAssessment
In order to check to see if students understood the reasons this book is important, assess your students by assigning them the following essay prompt:
Pretend you are an African-American slave in the 1800's, create a story illustrating your life. Don't forget to include:

been abolished.
This website is a guide to aid teacher's in getting the most out of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.
In order for students to obtain thorough understanding of the key elements of the novel, this website touches upon:
{2amin0500b.jpg} "Am I not a man and a brother?"
Symbolic Image
think it's illustrating.illustrating and how it will embody the spirit of the text. After they
Members of the Society of Friends (a.k.a Quakers) were among the earliest leaders of the abolitionist movement. By the beginning of the American Revolution, Quakers had moved from viewing slavery as a matter of individual conscience, to seeing the abolition of slavery as a Christian duty.
The society approved a design "expressive of an African in Chains in a Supplicating Posture", also the engraved motto: "Am I Not A Man and A Brother?". The design was approved by the Society, and its promotion then began.
At the turning point in the novel, when Mr. Auld tells his wife not to teach the slave to read and write, because keeping them ignorant is important; Douglass becomes determined to become educated and knowledgable. It was at this moment he understood the key to his freedom. From then on, Douglass did everything he could to further his knowledge and to self-teach himself. The following quotes from the story best embodies the spirit of the text because it was crucial to the rest of his life and his success. Without this epiphany he experienced, his entire life would have been different, he would have never understood what freedom meant or would have went on to aid in the abolition movements taking place in the north; and he would have never wrote down his story for all of us to read.
"Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell."
More significant quotes from the turning point in the novel:
"The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers."
"I could regard them in no other light than a band of succesful robbers who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us slavery."
impudence
subversion
mainfestation {Young-Frederick-Douglass.jpg}
abhorrence
vestige
If not, I'll smite your firstborn dead.
Let my people go!"
{images.jpg}
"No more shall they in bondage toil...
Let them come out with Egypt's spoil...
Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah!
(or: Save the souls on the other side, Get my freedom on the other side)
{dougltp.jpg}
Sister, help to trim the sail, hallelujah!
Sister, help to trim the sail, hallelujah!
There'll be no more moaning, no more moaning,
No more moaning after a while ...
{imagesCA8DG1GA.jpg}
No more weeping, no more crying,
No more weeping after a while ...
John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave,
His soul goes marching on!
glory, hallelujah! {13thAmendmentEmancipation.jpg}
Glory, glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save,
But though he lost his life in struggling for the slaves,
marching on. johnbrown1
John Brown's Body (Variant)
Edna D. Proctor
John Brown died on the scaffold for the slave,
Dark was the hour when we dug his hallowed grave;
Now God avenges the life he gladly gave,
Freedom reigns to-day!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Freedom reigns to-day!
John Brown sowed, and the harvesters are we;
Honor to him who has made the bondmen free;
Loved evermore shall our noble ruler be,
Freedom reigns to-day!
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave;
Bright o'er the sod let the starry banner wave;
Lo! for the million he periled all to save,
Freedom reigns to-day!
John Brown's soul through the world is marching on;
Hail to the hour when oppression shall be gone;
All men will sing in the better day's dawn,
Freedom reigns to-day!
John Brown dwells where the battle strife is o'er;
Hate cannot harm him, nor sorrow stir him more;
Earth will remember the martyrdom he bore,
Freedom reigns to-day!
John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave;
John Brown lives in the triumph of the brave;
John Brown's soul not a higher joy can crave,
Freedom reigns to-day!