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Introduction
 
About This Lesson
 
Getting Started: Inquiry Question
 
Setting the Stage: Historical Context
 
Locating the Site: Map
 
Determining the Facts: Readings
  1. The Trade in Human Chattels

  2. An Abolitionist's Perspective on the Alexandria Slave Pen

  3. Advertisements for the Sale of "Negroes"
Visual Evidence: Images
  1. The Firm of Franklin and Armfield as Featured in an American Anti-Slavery Broadside, 1836

  2. Interior View of Alexandria Slave Pen

  3. Exterior View of Alexandria Slave Pen

  4. Site Plan of Franklin and Armfield Slave Complex

  5. Exterior View of Alexandria Save Pen, 1864
Putting It All Together: Activities
  1. Timeline of Developments in the African and Inter-State Slave Trade

  2. My Community’s Labor History

  3. Slavery through the Eyes of the Enslaved

Supplementary Resources
 
Lesson Plans: Teaching with Historic Places in Alexandria, Virginia
"A Loathsome Prison:"
Slave Trading in Antebellum Alexandria


Visual Evidence

Photo 3: Exterior view of the Alexandria Slave Pen

exterior slave pen (Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photograph Division)

  1. What is your impression of the enslaved woman posing outside of the slave pen?
  2. Why do you believe that the slave pens had outdoor courtyards as pictured above? In what way would it benefit the enslaved and traders alike?
  3. Notice the height of the exterior walls. Why do you think this is so?

 
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