Freedom's Journal: "We Wish to Plead Our Own Cause"

Goals:

Aim:

How does Freedom’s Journal reflect and/or advance the formation of an African American community in
antebellum America?

At the conclusion of this lesson, students will be able to:

• Highlight important passages of Freedom’s Journal and connect those passages to the idea of community.
• Identify areas of concern to the African American community in the 1820s.
• Explain how the establishment of the nation’s first African American newspaper served as both a response to outside forces and an act of self-determination.

Essential Questions:

• How did the existence of slavery shape African American communal life and cultural expression?
• How did acts of resistance shape African American cultural heritage and community?