Olaudah Equiano and His 1789 Narrative

Begin with Equiano for a first person account. Then use the cotton gin and Cotton Kingdom sheets together before the ports map and the 1860 graph.

Read two excerpts from Olaudah Equiano's 1789 Narrative and weigh records on his birthplace. The directions on the page read: Read the context and Excerpt 1. Then answer questions 1 to 3 on the lines. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade Slavery and Abolition, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

He published The Interesting Narrative in London in 1789. He wrote that he was kidnapped and enslaved in West Africa at about age eleven, and he bought his liberty in 1766 for forty pounds. Two records raise questions about his birthplace.

New Orleans, on the Mississippi River about 100 miles above the Gulf of Mexico, was the nation's leading cotton port in the 1850s. Mobile, Alabama, ranked second.

The 1860 census counted about 3.95 million enslaved people in the 15 slave states, out of about 12.2 million people.