About This Lesson

This lesson is based on the National Historic Landmark Nomination, “Franklin and Armfield Office,” as well as newspaper advertisements, personal narratives, and other primary sources. “A Loathsome Prison:” Slave Trading in Antebellum Alexandria was written by Caridad de la Vega, Historian for the National Park Service, National Historic Landmarks Survey. This lesson is one in a series that brings the important stories of historic places into the classrooms across the country.

This lesson plan is made possible by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy (VFH) as part of its African-American Heritage Program, which includes the African-American History in Virginia Grant Program, the African-American Heritage Database Project, and the African-American Heritage Trails Program, a partnership between VFH and the Virginia Tourism Corporation. Through these programs, VFH seeks to increase understanding of African-American history in Virginia; to promote research and documentation of existing African-American historic sites; to strengthen the institutions that that interpret African-American history in the state; and to encourage Virginians as well as people from all parts of the nation and the world to visit these sites. For more information, contact VFH, 145 Ednam Drive, Charlottesville, VA 22903-4629 or visit VFH’s website.

Where it fits into the curriculum
Topics: This lesson could be used in teaching units about the South, labor, reform movements, and the history of slavery and the inter-state slave trade in the United States. This lesson could also be used to enhance the study of African-American history in the United States. Time period: 1828-1861.

Objectives

1. To evaluate the role of the inter-state slave trade in the overall history of slavery in the South.


2. To compare and contrast the institution of slavery as experienced by enslaved people, slave traders, and the abolitionist movement.


3. To research their own community’s labor history, whether slave-based or not, and develop a presentation - using one primary source document and one image - of a local historic site significant to the community’s labor history.


4. To evaluate how Franklin and Armfield as the leading slave trading firm in the South, was unique in the success it enjoyed within the inter-state slave system.

Materials for students
The materials listed below either can be used directly on the computer or can be printed out, photocopied, and distributed to students. The maps and images appear twice: in a smaller, low-resolution version with associated questions and alone in a larger version.

1. an 1835 map of the United States;


2. three readings on the history of the Franklin and Armfield Office, first-hand accounts of the Alexandria slave pen, advertisements appearing in the National Intelligencer, and newspaper accounts of the slave pen and sales;


3. Three photographs of: the Franklin and Armfield slave pen, an anti-slavery broadside depicting the port of Alexandria and the firm’s slavers, and a site plan of the slave complex

Visiting the sites
The Franklin and Armfield Office is currently known as “Freedom House” and utilized as office space for the Northern Virginia Urban League. The Urban League has plans to install a permanent exhibit in the basement of the building, an area formerly part of the slave complex, recounting the history of the Franklin and Armfield Office.

Freedom House is located within the south-west quadrant of Old Town Alexandria, midway between Washington, D.C. and Mount Vernon. From I-95/I-495 take the US Route 1 North exit (first exit on the Virginia side of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge). Follow Route 1 (Patrick Street) to Duke Street, turn left onto Duke Street two blocks north. From US Route 1 South after crossing King Street, make a right on Duke Street. The Urban League is located approximately one block north of the Alexandria National Cemetery. The offices of the league are open from 9 a.m.–5 p.m. For additional information visit the league’s website.