TEACHER'S SNAPSHOT
Topic Crime & Punishment, Law, Slavery & Abolition, Social Movements |
Theme The Struggle for Freedom, Equality, and Social Justice |
Town Farmington, New Haven, New London, Statewide |
Related Search Terms Slavery, Abolition, Amistad, Revolt |
Social Studies Frameworks Grade 8 – United States History |
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Historical Background |
D1: POTENTIAL COMPELLING QUESTION
What role did the Amistad incident play in the abolitionist movement in the United States?
D1: POTENTIAL SUPPORTING QUESTIONS
- What kinds of personal interactions did the Amistad Africans and Connecticut residents have?
- In what ways did the Amistad incident help people in Connecticut—and in the United States—view enslaved Africans as “real people”?
- How did these two young writers use language to elicit particular emotions about the Mende and their situation?
D2: TOOL KIT
Things you will need to teach this lesson.

Page 1 of a 4 page letter from Kale to John Quincy Adams, January 4, 1841. Written from Westville (New Haven), CT. – Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Click on the letter above to access all 4 pages.

Page 1 of a 4 page letter from Charlotte to Samuel Cowles, April 8, 1841. Written from Farmington, CT – Connecticut Historical Society. Click on the letter above to access all 4 pages.
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Download the transcription of this letter as a PDF. |

Page 1 of 4 page letter from Charlotte to Samuel Cowles, April 12, 1841. Written from Farmington, CT – Connecticut Historical Society. Click on letter above to access all 4 pages.
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Download the transcription of this letter as a PDF. |
D3: INQUIRY ACTIVITY
Divide the class into pairs or groups and assign each group one of the three letters from the toolkit. The original letters are best viewed online. The transcriptions can be downloaded and printed.
Note that because of the length of the Charlotte Cowles letters, certain less-pertinent sections have been “greyed-out.” Students need not focus on those portions in their analysis.
Using SOAPSTone analysis, the Library of Congress Analyzing Primary Sources process, or another method of your choice, have students investigate their assigned source.
- What can students KNOW from the source? What is the evidence?
- What can they GUESS or infer? Based on what?
- What does the source make them WONDER?
Students can then piece together their findings or rotate sources until each group has investigated each source.
Revisit the supporting and compelling question, as well as the questions students have developed and shared. Improve/fine-tune the new questions and discuss what other sources might exist to help answer these questions.
Once students have examined the letters, you may want to share portraits of some of the Mende people mentioned. Links to William H. Townsend’s drawings, John Warner Barber’s silhouettes and biographical sketches, and Nathaniel Jocelyn’s portrait of Cinque/Sengbe Pieh referenced by Charlotte Cowles can be found below in the “Additional Resources” section.
D4: COMMUNICATING CONCLUSIONS
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
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