Alexandria Black History Museum - Slave Trading Lesson Plan





Introduction

About This Lesson

Getting Started: Inquiry Question

Setting the Stage: Historical Context

Locating the Site: Map

Determining the Facts: Readings The Trade in Human Chattels An Abolitionist's Perspective on the Alexandria Slave Pen Advertisements for the Sale of "Negroes"
Visual Evidence: Images The Firm of Franklin and Armfield as Featured in an American Anti-Slavery Broadside, 1836 Interior View of Alexandria Slave Pen Exterior View of Alexandria Slave Pen Site Plan of Franklin and Armfield Slave Complex Exterior View of Alexandria Save Pen, 1864
Putting It All Together: Activities Timeline of Developments in the African and Inter-State Slave Trade My Community’s Labor History 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

Site Plan 1: Site Plan of Franklin and Armfield Slave Complex

Source: Janice G Artemel. The Alexandria Slave Pen: The Archeology of Urban Captivity (Washington, D.C.: Engineering Science, Inc., 1987), 29.

The site plan represents what is believed to have been the layout of the Franklin and Armfield complex based on first-person accounts and an archeological survey conducted at the site.

The site plan reveals that at one point the slave complex consisted of an entire city block. What does this say about the profitability of Franklin and Armfield’s firm? Refer to Reading 1 if necessary.

Do you believe that this layout represents a typical slave pen? Explain your answer.