NY Social Studies 7.7b
The Standard
Enslaved African Americans resisted slavery in various ways in the 19th century. The abolitionist movement also worked to raise awareness of and generate resistance to the institution of slavery.
New York State K–12 Social Studies Framework
Key Idea 7.7
REFORM MOVEMENTS: Social, political, and economic inequalities sparked various reform movements and resistance efforts. Influenced by the Second Great Awakening, New York State played a key role in major reform efforts.
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students analyze how enslaved people resisted through daily actions, organized revolt, escape, and legal action. They explain how abolitionists, publications, court cases, and New York networks challenged slavery and shaped public opinion.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students can compare the methods used by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and William Lloyd Garrison. They can use evidence to explain the impact of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the Underground Railroad, and the Amistad decision.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think resistance only meant armed revolt or that the Underground Railroad was a railroad. They may also assume abolitionists agreed on methods or that the Amistad ruling ended slavery.
How to Assess It
- Give students four evidence cards and ask: Which method challenged slavery most directly? Write a claim and support it with two cards.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups source cards about escape, work slowdowns, revolt, speeches, newspapers, and lawsuits, then have them sort and label each resistance method.
Ask students to write which abolitionist strategy was most likely to change public opinion, using evidence from two historical figures.
Play a matching game connecting Douglass, Tubman, Garrison, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and La Amistad to their methods and effects.
Use a New York map to locate Underground Railroad sites, then write a two-sentence museum label for one site.
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