This Newbery Honor Book personalizes the hardships and struggles of African-American slaves. The book contains a number of personal accounts from slaves and ex-slaves, who describe their experiences from the time they left Africa through the Civil War and into the early twentieth century.

To buy this book, click here or on the book cover.

Enrichment Activities
Internet Resources
Books by Julius Lester

Enrichment Activities

• An Abolitionist Play
  Students learn about five women abolitionists and are asked to write a one-act play that reflects the views of the women concerning the biracial makeup of the movement.
  
  
• Comprehension Checks
  Check your students' comprehension of To Be a Slave with Test A, Test B, and Test C. Use the Answer Key for correcting.
  
  
• Emancipation Proclamation
  On January 1, 1863 President Lincoln presented the Emancipation Proclamation to free slaves. Read and analyze the entire speech with your students, as a whole class or a group activity.
  
  
• Famous Abolitionists
  Share with your students reference articles on Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
  
  
• Harriet Brent Jacobs
  Harriet Brent Jacobs (1813-1897) was a slave who wrote an autobiography. In this lesson, students read an excerpt from her autobiography and react to it.
  
  
• Indentured Servants
  This lesson helps students to compare and contrast European American indentured servitude to African-American servitude.
  
  
• New Bedford Virtual Field Trip
  Take your students on a virtual field trip through New Bedford, site of the Massachusetts Underground Railroad.
  
  
• The Underground Railroad
  Students take a cyber-journey through the Underground Railroad – the path to freedom for slaves in the 1850s.
  

Internet Resources

American Slave Narratives
Grade Levels: Intermediate, Middle, Secondary
These firsthand accounts came from former slaves who were interviewed by Works Progress Administration (WPA) writers and journalists from 1936-1938.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wpa/wpahome.html

Slave History
Grade Levels: Intermediate, Middle, Secondary
A comprehensive collection of resources on the slave trade, including slave accounts, the slave system, slave life, anti-slavery groups, and more.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/slavery.htm

Underground Railroad Virtual Journey
Grade Levels: Primary, Intermediate, Middle
Making choices of their own, students follow Harriet Tubman on one of her many freedom trips up the east coast.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j2.html