Saturday, March 29, 2014
Travel Log: 3/28/14
Teaching reading skills using book New Found Land based on Lewis and Clark Expedition. New character wasYork a slave to Cap. Clark. Students had a hard time understanding why York, the slave, did not try t run away or let Cap. Clark know how he didn't want to join the expedition. I had to explain the time period in which this took place. We had an open discussion about the lack of freedom African American's had back then compared to now. Many students were outraged about how York was treated but made statement like "I'm a fortunate slave". They were motivated t ask sensitive questions about slavery and the treatment of African Americans today.
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Slavery is always an amazing topic to discuss with students. Their reactions speak volumes about their thoughts and feelings about humanity. It always gives me a sense of hope in future generations. They understand what occurred in our country was an outrage and discussions always have such interesting points of view!
ReplyDeleteThis is so amazing that you talked about this because I just listened to a really interesting podcast about the whole expedition. What I found the most fascinating was that while on the expedition, York was basically treated like an equal. Lewis and Clarke ran their party like a democracy and everyone had an equal vote (including York and Sacajawea-- a slave and a woman). It was amazing that, once free from the bonds of normal society, they could see past gender and race differences. Yes, York could have run away and probably would have been successful because the Native Americans in the area were really impressed with his dark skin. But because he had freedom and equality on this trip, he had no reason to try. Unfortunately, upon arrival to the east coast, he did ask for his freedom and was denied. Clarke apparently even wrote a letter to his brother talking about how uppity York was after the trip and mentioned that he had him beaten. It was a really crazy situation that they were in such a life-altering environment as equals for two years, and once back in society York was immediately stripped of his freedom again.
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