Kentucky Center for African American Heritage

 

 

  
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11.1
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High School – Grade 11
    

 

 

 

 

 

Drawing of Josiah Henson
Josiah Henson

Core Content Guide

1.0.15
Make connections among literature, students’ lives, and/or real-world issues.

1.2.33
Analyze and describe music’s influence on belief systems, its influence on history, and its ability to shape culture.

2.4.1
As cultures emerge and develop, conflict and competition may occur.

3.0.9
Identify an author’s position based on evidence in a passage.

3.0.13
Identify a variety of persuasive and propaganda techniques and explain how each is used.

4.2.31
Know how media, art processes, subject matter, symbols, ideas, and themes communicate cultural and aesthetic values.

4.2.39
Purposes of Art: persuasive.

5.1.3
Cause-and-effect relationships can be analyzed by looking at multiple causation.

5.1.33
Interpret an author’s decisions regarding content.

5.2.31
Explain how ideas, thoughts, feelings, and cultural traditions are reflected in literary works.

5.2.32
Explain how ideas, thoughts, feelings, and cultural traditions are reflected in literary works.

    

 

11.1 Kentucky in the Balance: Influencing the People

Pre-Visit
Students read excerpts from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s seminal work, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and from Josiah Henson’s slave narrative.

Using the Internet, the students research the connection between the two written works.

Students also research the widespread circulation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

How many copies were sold?

Into how many languages was the book translated?

Why was it a success in other countries?

Students view the students’ performance scene from the movie, The King and I. Research the book Anna and the King of Siam on which the film was based.

When did these events take place?

Why did Anna have the students perform an interpretation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

In the Museum
Students tour the “Kentucky in the Balance: Influencing the People” Exhibit where they learn more about Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Discuss Lincoln’s quote, upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, “So you’re the little lady that started this war.” What did Lincoln mean?

Students also see a display about Josiah Henson.

Post-Visit
Students develop a project or report accomplishing one of the following:

• Identify another book in American or world history that has raised social consciousness or had another important consequence. Describe the book and its impact. Did its author set out to accomplish this impact?

• Investigate some other mid-19th-century form of human expression that raised awareness/concerns or influenced public opinion regarding the institution of slavery.

• Write your opinion to the statement, “Today, books do/do not have the same power to influence American thinking as they did in the nineteenth century.” Support your opinion.