The purpose of this Guide is to enhance your students' knowledge and appreciation of the Black Canadian experience, drawing from Lawrence Hill's award-winning historical fiction, The Book of Negroes, the remarkable journey of Aminata Diallo and the historic British document known as the "Book of Negroes." Structured around themes of journey, slavery, human rights, passage to Canada and contemporary culture, this Guide asks students to examine issues of identity, equality, community, and nation-building in both a historical and contemporary context.

Advanced-level students will write narratives from the perspective of slaves depicted in rare photographs, and then create a print depicting a moment from the narratives.

Students will learn about ancient styles of Roman portraiture and their influence on western European art, research and write a paper that compares Roman and American slavery, and produce an original sketch of a grave relief for a freed slave.

In this lesson, students analyze similarities and differences among depictions of slavery in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Frederick Douglass' "Narrative", and nineteenth century photographs of slaves. Students formulate their analysis of the role of art and fiction, as they attempt to reliably reflect social ills, in a final essay.

This 27-minute video lesson is part 1 of Sal's overview of the Haitian Revolution. It covers the slaves rebellion in Saint-Domingue (Haiti) and the rise of Toussaint. L'Ouverture. [History playlist: Lesson 18 of 26]

This 17-minute video lesson concludes Sal's overview of the Haitian Revolution. It covers Dessalines taking on Leclerc and Rochambeau. [History playlist: Lesson 19 of 26]

This 18-minute video lesson gives a basic overview of U.S. history from Jamestown to the Civil War. [History playlist: Lesson 1 of 26]

"Human rights stories are all around us. We explore contemporary and historic human rights stories, from Canada and around the world."

This resource from The Canadian Museum for Human Rights explores numerous stories about Indigenous Perspectives (treaty education, witness blanket, UN Rights of Indigenous, Mincome, reconciliation, veterans, etc. ), Social Justice (BLM, misogyny, racism, genocide, antisemitism, Holodomor, refugees, etc.)

Each story contains information, artifacts, images, and questions to guide your thinking. It also links to related stories for further exploration.

In this lesson, created in partnership with the Association for Cultural Equity, students discover how the banjo and music making more generally among slaves contributed to debates on the ethics of slavery. They listen to slave narratives, examine statistics, and read primary sources to better understand how slavery was conceptualized and lived through in the 18th and 19th centuries. Throughout the lesson, students return to videos created by Alan Lomax of pre-blues banjo player Dink Roberts as a way to imagine what music among slaves in the United States may have sounded like.

Students learn how to walk a mile in someone else's shoes by reading historical fiction about the Underground Railroad.

This art history video looks at Joseph Mallord William Turner" "Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On" from 1840. Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

"The Story of Harriet Tubman: Freedom Train" by Dorthy Sterling as a classroom novel study with some resources & activities.
Guided Reading Level T
Lexile® Measure 910L
DRA Level 50

Harriet Tubman knew mostly only hard work and hunger in her life. Born into slavery, she spent the majority of her life helping countless others escape it.

Freedom Train recounts the story of Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of slaves through a system called the Underground Railroad, a complex organization of private homes reaching from the South all the way to Canada. Contemporary readers may not be aware of how dangerous Harriet Tubman's work was, and just how much she risked for others. This is a story of an inspiring American hero written in an inspired style.