Susie King Taylor Lesson Plan

A Former Slave Recalls Civil War Life

A Lesson Plan developed by Sharon Corey, Kathleen Burrell, and Jeff Rinde (all from Union-Endicott High School)

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These lesson plans utilize Reminiscences Of My Life In Camp With the 33rd United States Colored Troops; Late 1st South Carolina Volunteers. By Susie King Taylor.

Background: The three of us were excited by this material. Historian Willie Lee Rose states that "there is nothing even vaguely resembling Susie King Taylor's small volume of random recollections in the entire literature of the Civil War, or in that of any other American conflict insofar as I am aware." Taylor's anecdotes are vivid and we feel that they can be used to teach many concepts relating to both our broad American History and Government curriculum, and our unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction. As a primary source this one is hard to beat!

Teachers interested in background information to help in the planning of lessons with Susie King Taylor's memoir may want to look at a biographical sketch of Taylor at the web address http://www.africanpubs.com/Apps/bios/0542TaylorSusie.asp?pic=none

Plans:

For a lesson on slave families and/or a general introduction to slavery the two short chapters titled A Brief Sketch of My Ancestors, and My Childhood are both potentially helpful. The first could be used to show the importance of family ties for all people and the difficulty that slaves had in maintaining them. The second is even better in that it speaks to the question of slave/master relationships and how slaves were encouraged to hate and fear "Yankees." The second chapter could be used to show how masters attempted to control their slaves using false propaganda, and how slaves did their best to find the truth. Our group discussed the possibility of using accounts written by Frederick Douglass and/or Booker T. Washington as parallel texts. We all want to show the slave side of the story and the Taylor book is almost perfect. It is very readable. Even weak eleventh graders should be able to handle it with our help.
The chapter On St. Simon's Island has one section that could be used in class when the issue of using or not using Black troops is discussed, leading to debate on how they should be treated. The Paragraph stating that the colored unit did not receive pay for eighteen months(!) could be copied and given to the class, it could be incorporated into the day's notes, or it could be put on the board as an introductory quote.
The chapter On Morris and Other Islands has several passages that could be used with other sources to show the horrors of war. They could also be used with other primary sources showing the work of Clara Barton and other nurses.
The Chapter Capture of Charleston has one vivid passage showing the racism of white southerners. It could be read in class or the passage could be copied for the class. Taylor manages to show empathy for the plight of others while still showing their faults.
Taylor's tributes to the unit's officer Colonel Trowbridge in the chapter Mustered Out offers clear contrasts to the racism of southern whites in the previous chapter. We think that students need to see that skin color does not determine anyone’s thinking or behavior. We believe that these two chapters, and most of the others, could be used to start class discussions of racism today.
We think that chapters 11-14 should be used in their entirety for the Reconstruction unit. They tell many stories found in textbooks but Taylor's perspective makes the time period come alive for students. This unit is more important for the U.S. History curriculum than the Civil War unit. We plan to create packets with assigned vocabulary and questions for each of the short chapters.
We may create an essay based on Taylor’s life and its pertinence to the time period as part of our test on this unit. Those students who read the material should do well on such an essay.

African Americans and the Civil War | Summer 2002 Workshop