Gruesome Lessons : Students End the Year by Reading First-Person Accounts by Slaves

“My ol’ mistress hit me. She took a bullwhip once. . . . She was so mad she took the whip and hit me over the head with the butt end of it and the blood flew. It ran all down my back and dripped off my heels.”

--Ella Wilson in “To Be a Slave” by Julius Lester.

No one studies the Civil War without lingering a while on slavery. Students are taught that it was morally wrong, that it was one reason the North and South went to war, and that it ended when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.

But that is all in the abstract, in neat lessons compiled by historians to show the ebb and flow of issues and events. What was slavery really like for those who suffered under it?

This year, students in Bill Sanderl’s eighth-grade social studies class at Toll Junior High School read some gruesome first-person accounts by slaves. Their source: “To Be a Slave,” a collection of interviews by Julius Lester culled from the Library of Congress and other archives.

In the book, slaves recount the passage from West Africa on overcrowded ships where death was commonplace. They tell of being separated from their families and auctioned off like cattle. They describe brutal whippings on Southern plantations. The accounts were gathered by 19th-Century abolitionists and members of the Federal Writer’s Project in the 1930s.

Using original sources to teach history is encouraged by the state Department of Education, which last year adopted a new social studies framework that stresses multicultural and literature-based learning. The idea is to make social studies come alive for students by putting them in the shoes of historical figures.

Most of Sanderl’s students said they had never read a personal story about slavery. For the first time, they imagined the daily degradation of a slave’s life. It was an eye-opening experience.

“The book really taught me a lot about the condition the slaves lived in,” said Monica Herrada, 13. “Slavery was humiliating and it took away all the pride of being black, and I don’t think they’ve recovered yet.”

To hammer home the miserable conditions in which Africans languished during the weeks long voyage to the New World, Sanderl had students do some role-playing.

First, he cleared the classroom center of desks. Then, as students watched curiously, he measured out an eight-foot square with masking tape and invited the 30 students to sit inside.

The area Sanderl had marked off was too small for anyone to sit in comfortably, and the students wriggled, crammed cheek to jowl on top of one another while Sanderl closed all the windows to keep out the spring breeze.

Students had read about how the Africans were chained together in dank, dark holds and how many died during the journey, some broken-spirited from the loss of freedom, others suffocating in the tight quarters and yet others from starvation because the yams thrown into their midst were not sufficient.

After some minutes crammed into the center of the room, Sanderl threw some chips and old bread at the students. Some ducked their heads, but others grabbed at the bits of food.

Ten minutes after the dramatization began, Sanderl released the students from their captivity. Now they had experienced a small taste of what life had been like for African slaves.

“We were so scrunched up we couldn’t move; It got tiring,” said Taka Omino, 13.

Despite the discomfort, Taka said he liked the “action” portion of this lesson. Indeed, he said he preferred it to days when Sanderl read aloud a historical novel about the Civil War called “Shades of Gray.”

In the book, a 12-year-old Southern boy comes to terms with his despair after the South’s defeat and the death of his father and brother at the hands of Union soldiers. The boy’s struggle mirrored that of the nation trying to heal itself during post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Sanderl read the novel aloud to students over a week. He believes that it exemplifies the goals of the new social studies curriculum by telling the story of history through literature. The book also has male and female protagonists, young cousins who find themselves sparring fiercely over opposing wartime philosophies.

Students in the class expressed mixed reactions to the three historical novels they read this year; the other two dealt with the Revolutionary War and the expedition of explorers Lewis and Clark through the Northwest Territories.

Some students found it boring to sit quietly as Sanderl read for 50 minutes. Others, such as Lora Haubenreisser, threw themselves with gusto into the tales.

“Mr. Sanderl makes history fun and I’m doing a lot better than last year,” said Lora, who added that her grades have gone from C- to B+.

As the school year drew to a close, Sanderl paused to assess his own response to the new social studies curriculum. He concluded that his teaching style hasn’t changed that much.

He has for some years stressed literature, primary sources and geography in his lessons, all elements that the new curriculum seeks to underscore. He also encourages critical thinking with role-playing, both in essays and with dramatic re-enactments such as the slave ship captives.

But he adds that the new curriculum is a useful road map. “The framework has affirmed some of the things I’ve already done,” Sanderl said. “It says to people, ‘Aha, you’re on the right track.’ ”

Next year, Sanderl wants to work more closely with other teachers to plan interdisciplinary projects. He taught some joint lessons this year with John Dieterich, an English teacher at Toll.

In history and English, students read “Johnny Tremain,” which won the Newbery Medal, a prestigious award for children’s literature. While Dieterich concentrated on grammar and vocabulary, Sanderl focused on such historical events as the Boston Tea Party and the Revolutionary War.

This year, Sanderl also wrestled with how to best compress almost 200 years of history into a nine-month academic year. The new curriculum calls for students to plow through World War I in eighth-grade history, but Sanderl’s class made it only through post-Civil War Reconstruction.

“As it got near the end, I had a decision to make,” Sanderl said ruefully, “Do I want to rush to the end or do I want to make the momentous event of Reconstruction as comprehensive as I can.”

He opted for the latter, but he plans to spend part of this summer drawing up a schedule that will enable him to cover more ground next year. Sanderl also plans to read several historical novels he may introduce to his classes. They are published as complementary instructional materials by Houghton Mifflin, publisher of Toll’s eighth-grade social studies textbooks.

For Sanderl, 1991-92 was a year of trial and error with the new framework. Some things need to be fine-tuned. But one thing remains constant: Sanderl thinks history is important, now more than ever.

“History always repeats itself,” Sanderl said. “The riots that shook L.A. this year were the Watts Riots all over again. If these kids are going to learn from the past, then history has to be a valuable experience for them.”