4^th Grade Lesson Designs

Picking up the Trail of Allen Light

1. Lesson Goal:

   Students will gain an understanding of the purpose of a freeman paper and the rights this guaranteed their holder.

2. Objectives:

   A. Given a copy of Allen Light's sailor protection paper, students will be able to verbally describe Allen Light's personal details (birth date, occupation, ethnicity, birthplace) and fill in the corresponding document analysis worksheet with 85 % accuracy by the end of the class.

   B. Having read the text, and given the date and historical context of the year it was signed, students will be able to verbally infer the why Light needed such a document.

   • Time for entire lesson: 50 minutes

3. Materials Needed:

   A. Copies of Allen Light's Sailor Protection Paper; Document Analysis Sheet, Map of Missouri Compromise.

   B. Preparation guidelines:

   • Download and print out Sailor Protection Paper and Document Analysis Sheet. Make enough copies for students in class.
   • Download Compromise of 1850 Map. Make a copy on transparency paper for overhead projection. You may also search for "Reynold's Political Map of the United States," in the American Memory section of www.loc.gov

4. Lesson Presentation
   1. Introduction: (5 minutes) This week you will play different roles in a research project that will reveal what life was like for an African-American over a century ago. You will be detectives unraveling the mystery of Allen Light, an African-American last seen in San Diego in 1850. As historical researchers, you will compare the lives of Allen Light and Henry Bruce, a freed slave who lived in Kansas. Later, you will take on the role of senators debating the status of African American freedmen. Your job today is to figure out the role of the main character in this mystery: Allen Light. Only 2 documents on this person are known to exist. They were found hidden in a wall of a house in Old Town. Here are copies of the first document.

   2. Reading Comprehension/ Document Analysis Activity: (20 minutes) - Distribute copies of Light's Sailor Protection Paper. Have students fill in the Document Analysis Worksheet

   3. Historical Interpretation Discussion: (25 minutes) Discuss answers to the document analysis sheet. Ask class what this document meant in terms of an African-American's (non)rights during this period (i.e. if Light needed such a document to prove he could travel freely and work, this implies that other African-Americans were unable to do so). This can lead to a discussion on slaves' lack of civil rights. Show a downloaded copy of "Reynold's Political Map of the United States" and ask students to identify which other states in addition to California Allen Light might have sailed to and worked as a free man.

5. Evaluation

   A. Written Document Analysis Sheet

   B. Verbal discussion of Document Analysis

   C. Discussion of Allen Light's options.

6. Guidelines

   For ESL classes, you may ask students to read the Sailor Protection paper aloud and pick out difficult vocabulary words. You could also consider using the 4^th grade paraphrased version of this document.

7. Extension

   A. Have students write their own paraphrase of the Sailor Protection Paper.

   B. Have students write down what liberties or personal freedoms they enjoy now that Allen Light did not (hint: check the Bill of Rights). Then have them write an opinion paper/editorial: if they were allowed to retain only one personal freedom, which one would they choose, and why?