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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 4: Exterior view of Alexandria Slave Pen, 1864

Exterior view of Alexandria Slave Pen, 1864
(Courtesy of the Alexandria Library, Special Collections)

  1. Notice that the firm’s office is nestled between two courtyards. Why do you think this is so?

  2. Why do you believe the walls of the slave courtyards are white washed?

  3. Was the complex still used for holding enslaved persons at this time? Why or why not? Refer to Reading 1 if necessary.
 
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