Step 3 Speaking
1. Watch the video (from the film Gone with the wind).
Talk about the situation when in American Civil War. The picture below
is one about a battle.
Some other pictures and Questions:
What was the life of the slaves like ?
How was the life of the whites in the south ?
Are there some people fighting against slavery?
Did people find good ideas to save the poor slaves? They took actions.
fighting struggles demonstration
↘ ↓ ↙
Saving slaves
↗ ↑ ↖
wars escaping making laws
(In addition: The civil war of American broke up slavery, and later brought about rapid development of industry . )
2. Practice
Now read the notes about John Brown and Harriet Tubman. Ask them to tell about the two great freedom fighters.
Use the expressions of Page 27 to make up some dialogues in pairs . Then teachers get some pairs to act out the dialogues in front of the class.
To help the students grasp the information , we can use the years or some verbs :
John Brown: in 1800; in the 1840s; in the 1850s ; in 1855
Harriet Tubman: worked as a slave; escaped; joined; saved; fought; opened
Step 4 Post-speaking
1. Talking
If time permits, get students to finish the task of talking ------
What’s your opinion to slavery?
What do you think of John Brown / Harriet Tubman?
(or: is his struggle important to the situation/ improvent? ; notes: their fighting is quite different from King’s or Mandela’s, while they . They fought to create a safe area for black people. )
How did John Brown die? ----- He was killed by the slave owners/ farmers who wanted to keep slavery.
Information from the Internet:
John Brown was a man of action -- a man who would not be deterred from his mission of abolishing slavery. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown’s men had been killed or captured.
During his first fifty years, Brown moved about the country, settling in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York, and taking along his ever-growing family. (He would father twenty children.) Working at various times as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator, he never was finacially successful -- he even filed for bankruptcy when in his forties. His lack of funds, however, did not keep him from supporting causes he believed in. He helped finance the publication of David Walker’s Appeal and Henry Highland’s "Call to Rebellion" speech. He gave land to fugitive slaves. He and his wife agreed to raise a black youth as one of their own. He also participated in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851, helped establish the League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves from slave catchers.
Brown, knowing that many of the families were finding life in this isolated area difficult, offered to establish his own farm there as well, in order to lead the blacks by his example and to act as a "kind father to them."
Brown was wounded and quickly captured, and moved to Charlestown, Virginia, where he was tried and convicted of treason, Before hearing his sentence, Brown was allowed make an address to the court.
“I believe to have interfered as I have done, . . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done."
Henry David said in an address to the citizens of Concord, Massachusetts. "No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature. . . ."
John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.
2. Listen and learn the song.
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! (form the book Famous American songs and their cultural background) Remember:Each kid keeps a piece.
Raise questions:
What is the name of the song? What does it mean?
What is the meaning of the sentence “he’s gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord” ?
Step 5 Singing
Will you sing other songs like this one?
Examples: Blowing in the wind; We shall overcome…
Step Homework:
Prepare the task of talking in the workbook.
Get information about M. L King, especially about his stories.
Talk about famous freedom fighters in China, such as Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.. .; Mao Zedong……
Addition: