To be a Slave

1. To be a Slave By: Abby Frenzel Author: Julius Lester 5th six weeks 6th period

2. Context Clues! • Innumerable • Sentence: House servants were responsible for uncovering and revealing to slave owners innumerable planned slave insurrections. • Definition: Too many to be counted. • Insurrection • Sentence: House servants were responsible for uncovering and revealing innumerable planned slave insurrection. • Definition: a violent uprising against an authority or government. • Retribution • Sentence: They feel indignant at the servitude that is imposed upon them and only want power to inflict the most cruel retribution upon their oppressors; but they desire only the means of subsistence and temporary gratification in this country during their abode here. • Definition: Something given or inflicted in such requital.

3. Continued From Context Clues! • Crusade • Sentence: Lew fitted from one plantation to another, in the dead of night, preaching a crusade to Mexico, and creating a furor of excitement wherever he appeared. • Definition: Any war carried on under papal sanction. • Repressive • Sentence: Yet no matter how repressive slave owners became, there were always slaves who tried to escape who knew little more than that if they would eventually reach a place where they would be free. • Definition: tending or serving to repress.

4. Text Purpose! • I think the author wrote this book (to be a slave) was because he wanted to inform the reader. He wanted to let all of us know what it was like to be a slave back in the day. So, he wrote a book.

5. Text Structure! • I believe the text structure of this book is cause and effect because something seems to happen then there is a bad effect to follow it.

6. Text Representation! Men Women Same • Wore shirt and • tattered jeans • Wore close • to nothing, but • dresses with • holes in them. • Clothes • with • holes • in them. • Were a little shy at • the dances they had. • Weren’t as hateful • as the men were. • Had a great • amount of hatred. • Were • treated • like • animals. • Loved to dance • and sing.

7. Authors Perspective Point Of View! • Subject: How slaves were treated. • Authors Feelings: Sorrow, hatred, depressed, yet inspired • Text Evidence: Even more rare was the occasion when the auction block became a source of joy.

8. Main Idea & Supporting Details! • 1. • Beginning Page: 25 • Main Idea: The living quarters for the slaves while traveling in the ship were unbearable. • Middle Page: 56 • Main Idea: How slaves got to the plantations, what they looked like, and how they were transported.

9. Continued Main Idea & Supporting Details! • Ending Page: 127 • Main Idea: When slaves retired there were 3 paths to take being sold, lashed, or killed. And their master chose that. • 2. • Details: Writing it the exact way the people described it. • Page #: 35 • Comments: To let me know how they talked back then. • Details: Italics. • Page #: 88 • Comments: How he wrote his own comments in italics. • Details: Poem lines on the songs. • Page: 113 • Comments: The way he puts the songs in poem lines makes me sing the tune in my head.

10. Draw Inferences! • 1. • Situation: Babies were thrown overboard • Character Actions: jump, scream, cry for their drowning infant. • Conclusion Drawn: Jump overboard and swim, even though you’re risking your life. • 2. • Situation: Religious meetings • Character Feelings: Joyful, fulfilled, loud, and accompanied by the lord. • Conclusions Drawn: Meet in secret, because the master doesn’t want us to be worshipping the lord.

11. Comparing Story Variants, Connect/ Compare/ Contrast! To Be A Slave Article of The Week • This article tells • about how • slavery ended. • The book tells how • slavery began and • the hardships they • faced • Both tell • about • what • happened • during • slavery. • The article says • some slaves in the • south were free. • This book says no slave • was ever free unless • he/she lived up North

12. Fact/ Opinion! • 1. • Facts: • Page #: 56 • Solomon Northup was free, then captured and sold as a slave. • Comments: I think the author put this fact in here to show the reader you are never free if you were an African-American. • Page #:105 • The slaves would sing as a warning or in a source of joy. • Comments: The reason I think he included that is to let the reader know how the slaves communicated. • Page #: 73 • A slaves work is never done. • Comments: I think he put this fact in here is to show, when you’re a slave you are always being worked. • Page #: 94 • Henson was the co-owner of the plantation. • The reason I believe the author put this in here is a slave is property and you can upgrade it whenever you like. • Page #: 126 • Thousands of slaves escaped, but couldn’t live with what they had. • Comments: I think this was a fact because, a slave can be poor, depending on who, but they can’t survive in the wilderness.

13. Fact/ Opinion Continued! • 2. • Page #: 102 • What the owner thought was right, the slave thought the opposite. • Comments: The reason I think this opinion is here, is to show how badly they hated their master. • Page #:42 • Selling was inhuman. • Comments: The reason I believe this opinion is in this book is selling your own species is terrible. • Page #: 48 • The auction block could be very emotional. • Comments: I think he put this in here is it would be hard to watch your loved one be sold. • Page #: 58 • Slaves were acts in their masters own little play. • Comments: I think this was added because, it’s true and he wanted to make a statement. • Page #: 127 • Slave owners were shocked whenever a slave retired. • Comments: I think this opinion is here because maybe they were shocked, since they were losing a slave.

14. Reading Response! • 1. • Page #: 119 • I relate to this paragraph because if a fellow slave were to run away and asked to take shelter in my home for the night, I would gladly let them. • 2. • Page #: 101 • I dislike this paragraph because it made me feel like the slaves did. And it’s right from wrong. • 3. • Page #: 56 • I dislike this paragraph because it makes me sad and it also tells how many slaves there were being held, and I disagree with that,.