Students' Emotional Connections To U.s. History

By Author: FIRELEAVES
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In September the class studied slavery. The students knew of the capture of Africans by traders, and their enforced treks to the coast (some walked as far as 1,000 miles). They learned new information, in part, by studying websites. One site was about George Morland, the English artist who painted The Slave Trade in 1791, inspired by this poem of the same title written by William Collins, a friend of his. The students read it and their adolescent souls simmered with anger:

Two British captains with their barges came, and Cartier Pasha Replica quickly made a purchase of the young; But one was struck with Ulkna, void of shame, And tore her from the husband where she clung. Her faithful Chief, the stern in rugged war, seeing his Ulkna by a White caressed, To part with her, "and little son Tengarr!" His gentler feeling could not be tear steals down his ebon cheek, His gestures speak an agitated soul!

In vain his streaming eyes for mercy seek, from hearts long hardened in this barter foul. With hands uplifted, he with sighs besought ...
... the wretch that held a bludgeon o'er his head, And those who dragged him, would have pity taught By his dumb signs, to strike him instant dead. While his dear Ulkna's sad entreating mien, Did but increase the brute's unchaste desire; He vaunting bears her off, her sobs are vain, They part the man and wife whom all admire.

This poem not only haunted the students but also helped to set the stage for them as writers. In thi; classroom, the main form of text they read was not a textbook. They read—and wrote—many forms or text. Effective writing by varied authors counted;

Frequently, slaves captured like those in Collins's poem waited in dungeons (some for as long as a year) until a slave ship arrived. Erika showed, on the Cartier Replica Watches interactive whiteboard, drawings of the Africans in the ships during the Middle Passage. Some were harnessed together at the neck. Most were packed like sardines, lying on their sides, head to toe, bodies bent into each other.