![]() ![]() The most well-known slave code song is “Follow the Drinking Gourd.” Explain that lesser known spirituals also conveyed hidden messages to slaves. While the need for secrecy and the oral tradition of slave songs severely limit the amount of information available in slave code songs, we can glean some details about hidden messages in a few spirituals. Spirituals (religious songs that convey a strong belief in God and heaven) were the songs that communicated powerful feelings and meaning for slaves. (At this point, ask students to think or free write about a song that has a message or particular meaning in their own life.) Songs have power through their words, meaning and/or melody and music. Throughout time, poetry and songs have been a means of conveying hidden ideas (nursery rhymes with political references, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” etc.). Present the following ideas through a class discussion or lecture:Ĭodes and signals are useful in real life (military and government, computer abbreviations that teens know and parents don’t, etc.). Write about a childhood experience that involved secrecy or communicating in code.ĭescribe methods used, objectives (conceal or reveal?), materials necessary (signals, symbols, code words, etc.). Read aloud Velma Maia Thomas’ powerful definition of spiritual from her book, No Man Can Hinder Me, page 12. Star chart, which includes the Big DipperĪtlas or political and physical maps of the United States ![]() Print copies of “THINKING ABOUT A SONG” worksheetĪ copy of the film The Sellin’ of Jamie Thomas The student understands the interactions of people and the physical environment. The student understands historical chronology and the historical perspective. How can song lyrics contain hidden meaning? Why would singers not want everyone to know the meanings of the lyrics? What three water bodies were escape routes to Canada, free states, and slave states? I would also connect this lesson with an art activity on the possibility of hidden messages in slave quilts. The secret and dangerous nature of these topics particularly appeals to middle school imaginations, and identification with slave and fugitive conditions can happen readily.īefore beginning this lesson, I would have shown The Sellin’ of Jamie Thomas, a film about a fugitive slave family’s escape on the Underground Railroad (appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students). It can be included after covering slave resistance and introducing the Underground Railroad. This lesson is part of a unit on slavery. Writing Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12 ![]()
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