In any study of American history, one is eventually forced to confront the ugly realities of slavery and the role it has played and continues to play in shaping our country.  This week's Webwork offers some background information on slavery to help in understanding the horrors of and realities of what it meant to be enslaved.  

Students may wish to use the online version of the Merriam Webster Dictionary to look up the definitions of words they encounter in articles they read for each week's Webwork.  For a really cool trick using the MW site to do your homework, add the MW Dictionary Button to your Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator toolbar (not sure if it works for the AOL browser).  Once this is done, all you have to do is highlight the word on the web page, click the button, and MW looks up the word for you.  If you're curious about how to pronounce this word, there's even a feature that allows you to hear the correct pronunciation of.  Wow!  Check it out.

It shouldn't be a mystery to you what type of score you'll earn on your Webwork.  Please keep in mind that full or high credit will be earned only by those who RESTATE THE QUESTION, use SUPPORTING DETAILS FROM THE TEXT to back up and clarify their answers, and provide an IN DEPTH RESPONSE (Webwork Rubric).  Your graded assignment will be printed off and filed in your folder in approximately one week's time. As always, you should talk to your teacher and/or other resources if you have questions about the assignment. If you haven't read the Webwork tips yet, it's a good idea to keep these in mind while working on this assignment. Take P.R.I.D.E. in all you do!

To begin this week's assignment, use the reading strategy of previewing the below questions prior to reading, then navigate to the article on Slavery Background.

 
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1.  Why did Europeans view Africans as being "beyond salvation"?

2.  Slavery had been practiced by Africans for centuries prior to Europeans showing up on the African continent.  Describe how "the nature of slavery" in Africa was fundamentally different than the European concept of slavery and what developed in North America?

3.  Compare and contrast what you believe are the key points of life as a plantation slave versus life as an urban or domestic slave.  If you're not quite sure about the meaning of important words such as "urban" or "domestic", be sure to look them up.  This would be a great opportunity to use the online version of the Merriam Webster Dictionary to look up the definitions.

4.  Based on the reading we've done so far in the first section of Walter Dean Myer's The Glory Field, do you think he's done a good job of depicting life as a slave?  Choose a specific description or part from the novel that backs up your stance.  Include the page number of the passage you choose to cite.

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