Today's Lesson: African Americans in the American Revolution

We have already learned about life during the Revolutionary war, and what life was like before the Revolution.  Life during Colonial times was hard, but it was even harder for slaves.  Slavery ran rampant during the Colonial times, and many slaves saw the American Revolution as a way to escape slavery.  Some simply sympathized with Colonists, who were "slaves" to England.  The British promised slaves their freedom, however some slaves still decided to fight on the side of the Colonists, who promised them nothing. When researching the topic on the internet I found a few really good resources.  My library system wasn't so helpful through.  I did manage to find a book called Afro-Americans '76 : Black Americans in the founding of our nation, I did not find any copies on Amazon and only a couple of listings on Ebay.

Activity Sheets:
From Tavis Smiley's "America I Am" there are free activity sheets and lesson plans, we will be using pages 1-11
From Rockford Public Schools, these activities are suitable for grades 4-6, but I think they could be used up to high school. We will be using pages 27-29 and 40-42.

Reading:
I found this great reading source from "earstohear.net" if you cannot find a copy of the book I recommended this would be a great substitute.
Apparently the US Department of Defense published a booklet titled "Black Americans in Defense of Our Nation." I couldn't find a hard copy but I did find the text at Sam Houston State University.
From PBS "Africans in America"
"Fighting...Maybe for Freedom, but probably not"
Colonial Williamsburg has a lot of information in their section titled "The African American Experience."

Videos:
Why African Americans wanted to fight in the war
For Love of Liberty

Interactive Activities: 
Within These Walls, features a house with a very long history that goes back to colonial times.  This site is interactive, click on all the links for clues then click on the "Go Back in time" link to play the game.

James Armisted
Biography
Another short biography
A biography for more advanced readers
Read Comprehension Worksheet -  this one will cost you $0.27
A short video

Mum Bett
A Biography
A lesson plan comparing George Washington and Mum Bett
An article about Mum Bett for older readers

Crispus Attucks

Here is a  coloring page accept terms, then download.   The life of the man is not well documented but this Biography  and this one  biography should help. This patriot is also included on this  Heroes of the American Revolution matching worksheet.  Here is Document from the trial for the murder of Crispus Attucks. Olivia Ward Bush-Banks wrote a  Poem honoring Attucks.  Here is a  unit study to accompany the book, Crispus Attucks: Black Leader of Colonial Patriots (Childhood of Famous Americans)   I bought a copy for a total of $4! 


 


Take a break to watch Schoolhouse Rock "Shot Heard Round the World" and Liberty's Kids episode 6 "The Shot Heard Round the World."

-Have Fun Learning!