Read the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity. I have often wished myself a beast. I preferred the condition of the meanest reptile to my own. Any thing, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me.
Read the paragraph below.The presenter, Mr. Jin, dimmed the lights and began to show his slides. Throughout the room, chins lifted and eyes worked to focus in the dark. The slides continued, revealing harsh landscapes, crowds of strangers, and seaside ports. Mr. Jin narrated his family’s journey to America. One slide prompted a quick intake of breath from the audience; another led to sighs of relief. When the lights came on and a time of questioning began, four hands shot up.
The prefix im- in the word impractical gives a clue that this word means
Read these lines from “Harriet Tubman aka Moses.”You ain't stoppin nowYou can't stop nowYou gonna move
Read this paragraph.Evan enjoyed his classes at his new middle school. His teachers were kind, and they worked to make the material interesting. His classmates seemed nice enough, but it was tough to get to know them through a class discussion or study session. And in the hall and cafeteria, everyone seemed paired off or in tight groups. Then an e-mail announced after-school club sign-ups. Evan was surprised by the diversity of the offerings: chess club, volleyball, computer gaming, and foreign language clubs. His old school had not had as many choices. He downloaded an application.
Read this excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.Mr. and Mrs. Auld were both at home, and met me at the door with their little son Thomas, to take care of whom I had been given. And here I saw what I had never seen before; it was a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions; it was the face of my new mistress, Sophia Auld. I wish I could describe the rapture that flashed through my soul as I beheld it. It was a new and strange sight to me, brightening up my pathway with the light of happiness. Little Thomas was told, there was his Freddy, – and I was told to take care of little Thomas; and thus I entered upon the duties of my new home with the most cheering prospect ahead.
Read the excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.Every city slaveholder is anxious to have it known of him, that he feeds his slaves well; and it is due to them to say, that most of them do give their slaves enough to eat. There are, however, some painful exceptions to this rule. Directly opposite to us, on Philpot Street, lived Mr. Thomas Hamilton. He owned two slaves. Their names were Henrietta and Mary. Henrietta was about twenty-two years of age, Mary was about fourteen; and of all the mangled and emaciated creatures I ever looked upon, these two were the most so. His heart must be harder than stone, that could look upon these unmoved.
Read this excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.The most I had to do was to drive up the cows at evening, keep the fowls out of the garden, keep the front yard clean, and run of errands for my old master's daughter, Mrs. Lucretia Auld. The most of my leisure time I spent in helping Master Daniel Lloyd in finding his birds, after he had shot them.
Read the paragraph below.As the guest speaker, Mrs. Quinn, began her lecture, the auditorium seemed to heave a collective sigh as fifty close-packed bodies slunk lower in their seats. Yawns were barely stifled, sneakers scuffed the floor, and an occasional eye glanced toward the ceiling or toward the face of a wristwatch. A few leaned forward with elbows propped on knees, heads drooping. Mrs. Quinn continued in earnest, shuffling her paperwork on the podium and making brief eye contact with one glaze-eyed listener in the front row.
Read the excerpt from Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad.She had never been in Canada but she kept painting wondrous word pictures of what it would be like. She managed to dispel their fear of pursuit, so that they would not become hysterical, panic-stricken.
Read these lines from “Harriet Tubman.”Nineteen times she went back SouthTo get three hundred othersShe ran for her freedom nineteen timesTo save Black sisters and brothers
Read the excerpt from Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad.This time she told them about the long agony of the Middle Passage on the old slave ships, about the black horror of the holds, about the chains and the whips. They too knew these stories. But she wanted to remind them of the long hard way they had come, about the long hard way they had yet to go.
Read the paragraph from Sasha’s personal narrative.1. In 6th grade, I sang in the school choir, and we often traveled to different places for our performances. 2. I didn’t mind traveling short distances, but I was nervous about going out-of-town. 3. Going out-of-town meant being away from home for a few days. 4. I had never been away from home before. 5. Before the first out-of-town trip, she sat me down and shared her own story about leaving home for the first time.
Read the first sentences in Dorthea’s personal narrative.1. Jamie and Jeremy are my next door neighbors. 2. They are brother and sister. 3. Everyday, myself walks to school with them.
Read this excerpt from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation. . . . There is a vestige of decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the plantation. He is a desperate slaveholder, who will shock the humanity of his non-slaveholding neighbors with the cries of his lacerated slave. Few are willing to incur the odium attaching to the reputation of being a cruel master; and above all things, they would not be known as not giving a slave enough to eat.
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