Lesson Plans for Multicultural Class

By Tracee Goodman

Special to CSMS Magazine

When creating lesson plans for a class of multicultural students, the educator must realize the importance of including the cultural backgrounds which are represented. One area of study in which teachers can include ESOL students and their cultures is history. The cultural background of natives of the West Indian islands can easily be incorporated into a lesson plan in history classes. Although many of the children of the Caribbean islands are taught in English, it is not a primary language in all islands. Some of the languages spoken are French, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento.  Using the lesson plan selected, students will learn the different economic, cultural, and social characteristics of slavery, including the power of the Haitian Revolution, the ending of the Atlantic slave trade, and how slaves created a culture of their own despite despicable oppression.  Students will also learn about the plantation system, the Underground Railroad and the experiences of escaped slaves. This plan is designed to teach how slavery shaped societal and economic life in the South after 1800, and what led to increased demands for slaves. Finally, students will learn how slavery hindered the emergence of capitalist institutions and values, the influence of slavery on the development of the middle class, the influence of slave revolts on the lives of slaves and freed slaves.

            Including these aspects of history will give West Indian students a greater understanding of who they are, who their ancestors were and what contributions “their people” made to the development of the country in which they currently live. This will make the learning experience more comfortable in a multicultural environment and it will increase cultural awareness in the class environment.  

Lesson Plan

 Denmark Vesey’s Rebellion Lesson Plan Overview

The narrative Caribbean Immigration highlights distinguished Afro-Caribbean migrants to the United States, including Denmark Vesey, who was executed in 1822 for plotting a broad-based slave rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina. Denmark Vesey’s Rebellion is a lesson plan that enables students to conduct research to learn about Denmark Vesey’s extraordinary life. Students will use their findings from the historical record as the basis for a ten-minute dramatic performance (live skit or video production) of some aspect of Denmark Vesey’s story. Grade Levels:High school, grades 9-12 For use with:Caribbean Immigration Concentration Area:History National Curriculum Standards met by this lesson The following standards have been taken from the Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McRel) standards. Students will understand

Time required One to two 50-minute class periods provided that students do research and most planning outside of class, and depending on the speed of the performances Materials needed

Narrative, Caribbean Immigration

Primary sources on the rebellion, An Account of the Late Intended Insurrection 10-001 BT and An Official Report of the Trials of Sundry Negroes 10-001 CT

Other sources

Anticipatory Set

Ask students if they have ever heard of Denmark Vesey. Tell them that, in 2002, the city of Charleston, South Carolina decided to approve a monument in his honor.

Direct students to read the narrative Caribbean Immigration, focusing on the section ” “Phases of the Migration,” ” to learn the source of Denmark Vesey’s fame.

Explain to students that slave rebellions have provided creative minds with compelling stories that they may dramatize. William Styron’s novel The Confession of Nat Turner (1968) won the Pulitzer Prize. Debbie Allen and Stephen Spielberg dramatized the slave ship revolt in the critically-acclaimed movie Amistad (1997). Night of the Silent Drums by John L. Anderson (1975) explored the little known but lengthy revolt in 1733 by enslaved people on St. John in the Danish Virgin Islands.

Ask students what sources, primary and secondary, might provide them with additional material so they could dramatize Denmark Vesey’s life or planned rebellion.

Procedures

Explain to students that they will be researching Denmark Vesey’s history, and that, using the information they have located, they will create and perform a ten-minute dramatic account based on some aspect of Vesey’s life, as follows:

Explain that each performance group will need to create an annotated bibliography. The bibliography should include citations of sources upon which the performance is based and an annotation indicating what the source contributed to the performance.

Encourage students to select pivotal moments in the story of Denmark Vesey rather than attempting to compress his entire biography into ten minutes.

Caution students that they are trying to create a plausible historical account, not a purely fictional piece, and that they will be evaluated not only on their performance but also on whether they have based their drama on historical accounts.

Remind students that they will need to be conscious of the number of characters that will appear together at any one time, since it cannot exceed the number of students in the group (unless they are taping the performance). In addition to 55-year-old Denmark Vesey himself, who may have originally been called Telemaque (after a character in Homer’s Odyssey), students may wish to include some of the following figures in their research or script:

Captain Joseph Vesey, long-time owner of Denmark Vesey

Batteau, Ned and Rolla Bennett, men belonging to the governor of South Carolina (Rolla Bennett was allegedly to lead the attack on the federal arsenal); all three were hanged on July 2

Thomas Bennett, governor of South Carolina.

James Hamilton, Jr., mayor of Charleston

Morris Brown, founder of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Charleston

Bacchus Hammett, worker in a harness shop who allegedly stole a keg of gunpowder, and was hanged

Lot Forrester, an alleged rebellion recruit who stole a fuse for the gunpowder, and was hanged

Jack Purcell, an alleged organizer with Vesey, who was hanged

Joe LaRoche, an alleged organizer with Vesey who turned state’s evidence

Peter Poyas, a ship’s carpenter, who allegedly was to lead the attack on the state arsenal, and was hanged July 2

Gullah Jack Pritchard, a religious leader from Africa, who allegedly helped organize the planned rebellion; he was hanged without trial

Monday Gell, Igbo origin (Nigeria), a harness-maker who allegedly sought support from the president of Saint Domingue (modern Haiti) for the rebellion; Gell turned state’s witness and testified in 37 trials earning a commutation from his death sentence

George Wilson (blacksmith and a class leader at Emanuel AME), enslaved man who allegedly informed owner about the planned rebellion

Peter Prioleau (Pierault), house slave who allegedly informed owner John Prioleau about the planned rebellion

Mingo Harth, a mechanic and alleged rebellion recruit, who was hanged

Jesse Blackwood, a Baptist minister and alleged organizer of the rebellion; he was hanged July 2

Tom Russell, blacksmith belonging to Sara Russell who allegedly prepared pike-heads for the rebellion; he was hanged July 26

Robert Vesey, believed to be Denmark and Beck Vesey’s son

Beck Vesey, believed to be Denmark Vesey’s wife in whose quarters search parties located Denmark Vesey on June 22

Colonel G. W. Cross, defense attorney for Denmark Vesey

Allow students to form groups and coordinate their planning. Each team will need to decide several issues, including:

A fair distribution of research.

Who will create a script, who will perform, and who will film (if applicable).

What props need to be collected for the performance.

Who will pull together the annotated bibliography.

A realistic checklist/timeline so they can complete the assignment by the due date.

Prior to the students’ performances, ask them what aspect they are presenting so that the performances can be scheduled in chronological order of Vesey’s life.

After the performances have been completed, explain that there is a new wrinkle to opposition to a Vesey monument, based on research in 2001 by a historian suggesting that, although Denmark Vesey was clearly an activist for abolition, he may not have been plotting a rebellion; instead he may have been the victim of a witch-hunt instigated by an ambitious white politician eager to terrify Charleston’s white citizens with a fabricated slave conspiracy. In that case, Denmark Vesey and other men, although horribly tortured may have chosen death rather than provide false testimony about a non-existent rebellion that would have led to the death of other enslaved men. Historians are divided about this interpretation. Ask students to consider this question: Is silence also a type of rebellion? Discuss whether that would also be worthy of a monument.

Finally, remind students that people’s behavior and, consequently, history is not always an either/or case. Denmark Vesey may very well have been planning a revolt but also chose silence rather than implicate his followers.

Assessment

Assess each student’s work according to the following rubric. To convert the score to a letter grade on the 100-point scale, multiply the total score by four.

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Interdisciplinary Links

Art: Students may wish to design a monument for Denmark Vesey. Or, they may wish to create a full-scale cartoon for a mural that represents aspects of African-American resistance to slavery. If students wish to make their art representational rather than abstract, they should conduct research about accurate costumes and architectural settings of the era. These will not be the typical antebellum fashion plates and etchings of plantations, but they will require investigation of the urban life of free blacks in the antebellum era. The credits to PBS’ Africans in America website include links to what is Denmark Vesey’s home on Bull Street, historic Charleston urban slave quarters, and a contemporary jail. Art teachers may work with the school system or community development officers to determine if there is an appropriate space where the mural could be painted, in a school or in the community, and to secure any material donations necessary to complete the project.

Sociology/History of Religion: Students may wish to investigate the history of the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) church of which Denmark Vesey was a member. Or, students may want to explore the role of faith in the lives of notable figures in African-American history, including Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.

History: Students may wish to follow up their study of Denmark Vesey by comparing and contrasting the Vesey Conspiracy with Gabriel Prosser’s Conspiracy (1800) and the 1831 Rebellion of Nat Turner (both in Virginia) or the 1733 St. John’s Rebellion, and the 1739 Stono Rebellion (in South Carolina) about which young Denmark Vesey may have heard.

Works Cited

http://www.inmotionaame.org/education/lesson.cfm?migration=10&id=10_002LP

Two PBS websites offer documentary material about Denmark Vesey. Africans in America, a website, which is the companion to a six-part PBS series, provides historical background of Denmark Vesey’s life and planned slave rebellion and transcriptions of contemporary documents at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p2976.html.

Additional information on the role of religion in Denmark Vesey’s life and conspiracy can be found at This Far by Faith, a website that companions a six-part PBS series on African-American religious experience at http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/people/denmark_vesey.html

Note: Tracee Gooman is an education at Nova Southeastern University, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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