“These guides are intended for students who already have some foundational knowledge of slavery and the abolition movement and are prepared to—with guidance from their educators—use primary sources to deepen their understanding of this history.”
—Nicole Daniels, Curriculum Writer
Download the Curriculum Guide
Grades 7–12
The curriculum guide is designed for students in grades 7–12 and is divided into three primary source investigations that offer model questions and activities for guided discovery and discussion. The guide begins with a warm-up activity to get students thinking about the central topic of the curriculum guide and ends with summative activities to tie the themes together.
What You’ll Explore in the Guide
This curriculum guide draws from materials in the research collections at the Schomburg Center, including the following items from the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division. Find transcripts of the primary source documents that students will engage with in this guide:
Looking to dig deeper? Contact us to learn even more ways for you and your students to engage with the Schomburg Center’s collections: schomburged@nypl.org.
White Man Purchased Meat from Enslaved Person (1859)
This short document gives us a glimpse into the rules and laws that enforced white supremacy. In this source, Charles Spires, a white man in Lawrence County, Alabama, is being indicted for disobeying county laws, which dictated what enslaved people could do with and without the approval of their owners. According to laws at the time, an enslaved person could not own anything and thereby could not sell anything. By purchasing meat from an enslaved person, Spires broke the law and was prosecuted. View this item in NYPL's Digital Collections.
Notice of Slave Auction (1835)
This notice from New Orleans describes the names, gender, family status, age, and skills of enslaved people to be sold at a forthcoming auction. It also lists their supposed racial category and/or skin color. The color of people’s skin was constructed to be seen as a key piece of information that offered insight into their family history, legal status, intellectual capabilities, and moral character. View this item in NYPL's Digital Collections.
A Discourse for the Manumission of Slaves (1797)
In this source, students will see how some white opponents of slavery might not have viewed Black people as equals deserving of full citizenship and ownership over their own future.
The New-York Manumission Society was a group formed in 1785 by wealthy white New Yorkers who were concerned about the issue of slavery. Although the group opposed slavery, some of its members were enslavers themselves, and the group refused to require all members to manumit—or free—people they enslaved. View this item in NYPL's Digital Collections.
Black Liberation Reading List for Young Readers
Explore essential titles selected by the Schomburg Center. The 95 titles on the list represent books that activists, students, archivists, and curators regularly turn to—with a particular focus on books by Black authors and those whose papers the Schomburg Center stewards.
Teaching with the Schomburg Center’s Archives: Find All Units and Guides
Discover the full curriculum series! Access all units and guides that draw on archival sources at the Schomburg Center to teach Black history, experience, and culture.
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Discover the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Learn MoreThe Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, one of The New York Public Library’s renowned research libraries, is a world-leading cultural institution devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences.
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Explore the Center for Educators & Schools
Learn MoreThe New York Public Library’s Center for Educators and Schools is devoted to making all of the Library’s resources accessible and useful for educators. You’ll find programs and services tailored for the educator community, such as book lists, credit-bearing workshops, special access to exhibitions, tips on teaching with primary source materials from our vast research collections, and much more.
Thank You
This project was made possible in part by a grant to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture by the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, MH-00-19-0031-19.
The work of the Center for Educators and Schools is part of the Library’s overall commitment to our branch patrons and education programs, led by the Merryl H. and James S. Tisch Director of The New York Public Library. Major support for educational programming is provided by Merryl H. and James S. Tisch.
The Center for Educators and Schools is supported in part by a generous grant from the Hearst Foundations.
