Freedom’s Journal: “We Wish to Plead Our Own Cause” - 4th Grade Adaptation

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:

• identify areas of concern to the African American community in the 1820s.
• explain how the establishment of the nation’s first African American newspaper addressed these areas of concern.

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?