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My train stop is named after this Polish immigrant. WHAT?!

Pull out some key facts you learned about his contributions to the American Revolution through the video.

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Should I recommend this project to other teachers? Why or why not? What did you learn today?

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15. Diverse Revolutionary Patriots Project 

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15. Diverse Revolutionary Patriots Project 

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Due at 5 p.m. today.

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Patriots of the Revolution Exhibit 9.25.2020

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Comment In: How will we get 200/200?

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Comment In: Why use transitions? Why credible sources? Why quotation marks and citing where the information came from? Why elaborate? Why re-read it when you're done?

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13. AGREE or DISAGREE with the grading below ... 

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13. AGREE or DISAGREE with the grading below ... 

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Comment in ...

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10. AGREE or DISAGREE with the grading below ... 

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10. AGREE or DISAGREE with the grading below ... 

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Where does Bob Fred need support, according to the checklist/criteria?

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Comment in with an answer to any of the questions: Why not George Washington? Why the focus on artifacts? Why cite sources? Why use your own words and not just copy and paste from the Internet?

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How did Mr. Madrid follow the guidelines? (It's beautiful).

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Humanization is not debate-able. We are all human, we've always been.

We learn about these issues to do better in the future.

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Comment In:
What does this Patriot demonstrate about the time period?

How did this Patriot thrive and contribute to the Revolution despite being different?

Why is it important to remember this Patriot?

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The American Revolution's Greatest Leader Was Openly Gay | The Nib

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Kicked out of his home country of Germany for his sexual orientation, "Baron Von Steuben" was responsible for whipping the the U.S. military into shape when things were looking bleakest.

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Why do gay, bisexual, lesbian, trans, gender-non-confirming folks deserve respect and recognition as well -- especially in history?

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Learning Target: Summarize information learned about diverse revolutionary heroes in an exhibit format and writing.

1. Learn about one more diverse Patriot.
2. Explain why this project matters and how we're getting graded.
3. Analyze examples.
4. Work Time.

PROJECT DUE AT 5 p.m. TODAY!

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4. What is something you've learned about a new Revolutionary Figure you didn't know before? Why is it important for students who are Black, who are young ladies, who are Native American, who are LGBTQ, who are immigrants, to learn about the role people who are like them played in the Revolution of America in 1776?

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4. What is something you've learned about a new Revolutionary Figure you didn't know before? Why is it important for students who are Black, who are young ladies, who are Native American, who are LGBTQ, who are immigrants, to learn about the role people who are like them played in the Revolution of America in 1776?

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3. Why is Mr. Madrid so motivated to complete this project with our class? Why does it matter so much? (IF you don't know, guess!)

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3. Why is Mr. Madrid so motivated to complete this project with our class? Why does it matter so much? (IF you don't know, guess!)

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2. Rate the project we are working on Revolutionary Heroes Unrecognized and Underrepresented. Why do you give it that rating? How can it be better? (Out of 10 -- 10 is the best).  

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2. Rate the project we are working on Revolutionary Heroes Unrecognized and Underrepresented. Why do you give it that rating? How can it be better? (Out of 10 -- 10 is the best).  

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10/1 START HERE!! Answer Boxes 1 -5. 1. What's your vibe in the mornings? Are you moody? Grumpy? HYPER?! 

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10/1 START HERE!! Answer Boxes 1 -5. 1. What's your vibe in the mornings? Are you moody? Grumpy? HYPER?! 

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Why were they important to the revolution?

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Patriots of the Revolution Exhibit 9.25.2020

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10. Why is it important to consider the perspectives and roles of Black people, Native Americans, immigrants, women, gay, disabled, kids, the elderly, (anything I'm forgetting?) when looking at important historical events?  

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10. Why is it important to consider the perspectives and roles of Black people, Native Americans, immigrants, women, gay, disabled, kids, the elderly, (anything I'm forgetting?) when looking at important historical events?  

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After listening to the recording, comment in:

What do we now know about Black folks during the American Revolution in 1776?

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A new documentary, Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution, introduces us to heroes of the American Revolution who aren't typically found in history books. They are a writer, a double agent, a martyr and a soldier - and they are all black.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the executive producer. He is a Hall of Fame basketball player, writer, activist, and in 2016 the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Abdul-Jabbar says he was born and raised in New York City, in "the last part of Manhattan that George Washington controlled before he had to leave and escape and go to Valley Forge," he says. "You know, I read about that incident in my history books, and I was surprised to find out that it happened in in my neighborhood. So after that, you know. My experiences as a child, we often would find like musket balls and arrowheads in the parks. Right there in northern Manhattan. And you know, I felt a real connection to the history of that area."

Interview Highlights
On why we don't know these stories
Well, we don't know the stories already because people who write history books, or who have written most of the history books have focused on what European Americans thought, and what their objectives were, and what they did to make those objectives become real. And anybody who was not European was not seen as being worth depicting, because their stake in it seemed to be non-existent. This nation was founded by white people, for white people. At the time, blacks were not allowed citizenship. Women were not allowed to vote. Native Americans were not allowed citizenship. That's the way it was back in those days.
On the story that had the most impact on him
Well, Peter Salem is absolutely a hero doing a heroic thing at a very crucial time. Peter Salem frustrated the final attempt by the British to take the field [at the Battle of Bunker Hill] by shooting Major Pitcairn, who was an officer in the British army. He shot him before he could gather the troops. The British professional soldiers thought that they could run our side off of the field because, you know, they weren't professional soldiers. But we changed their mind over the period of the Revolutionary War. And in the end, the British had to concede.

There's a painting of the Battle of Bunker Hill and Peter Salem, I think, is in it. He's down in a corner hiding behind the shoulder of one of the white American officers. And you almost don't see him. I think in some in some paintings he's been cropped off. But there's a black soldier there.
On black Americans during the Revolution
Both sides of the war really tried to recruit black slaves into their army, and they promised freedom to any black slave that would join either army. The ones that joined the revolutionary cause were lied to. They were not granted their freedom after they did serve in the army. But the blacks that joined the British army were able to effect their own freedom. And when the British retired from North America, they took those guys with them who had citizenship and went to places like Nova Scotia or the Caribbean, or even back to England.
On why it's important now to look back at this moment
Some of the things that we see today remind us of things that happened before, and not in a very positive way. When I saw the children that were trying to apply for asylum in America being separated from their parents at the Texas border, it reminded me of the way that slave children were ripped from their parents so that their parents could be sent to various plantations and worked to death. That that was a common thing back then. And the same ability to ignore human suffering and do something like that - which was exhibited by slave masters - was exhibited by some of the officials dealing with the people applying for asylum. And, you know, there was 150 year gap, but it was the same images, and something that we should not be proud of.
This story was produced for radio by Tinbete Ermyas and Robert Baldwin III, and adapted for the Web by Petra Mayer.

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'Black Patriots' Were Heroes Of The Revolution - But Not The History Books

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A new documentary, Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution, introduces us to heroes of the American Revolution who aren't typically found in history books. They are a writer, a double agent, a martyr and a soldier - and they are all black. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the executive producer.

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9. COMMENT IN: What made America .. America even in 1776? 

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9. COMMENT IN: What made America .. America even in 1776? 

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Map of American ancestry to 1776. What does this map tell you about the United States even 300 years ago?

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8B. COMMENT IN: Why separate from Britain?

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8B. COMMENT IN: Why separate from Britain?

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By January 1776 the sober-minded George Washington had decided he would be satisfied with nothing less than separation. Revolutionary governments in the colony-states and the Second Continental Congress cut ties with Britain, one by one, and at length on July 2, 1776, the Congress, speaking for all America, severed the last one, declaring, “These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.” Two days later it gave its approval to the Declaration of Independence, wherein the patriots set forth the reasons for the action they had taken.

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8 Comment In: Why is 1776 important for the United States?

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8 Comment In: Why is 1776 important for the United States?

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Explain the role diverse populations had in gaining American independence from Britain during the Revolutionary War

Agenda:
1. Big Picture -- 1776 Events
2. Choose 1 Revolutionary Patriot of Diverse Background to Research
3. Plan an Exhibit for that Patriot!
4. Shout Out Your Patriot

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7. How THIS history class be better? Tips, suggestions, preferences? For Mr. Madrid and for the whole class. 

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7. How THIS history class be better? Tips, suggestions, preferences? For Mr. Madrid and for the whole class. 

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COMMENT IN:
What's the difference in the schedule today?
OR
When is ELA today? What's happening in ELA?

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Reasons I'm proud of y'all:
1. Improved attendance.
2. Improved participation.
3. Improved grades.
4. Improved writing!!
Thank you for being awesome fr fr.

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5. Mini-Debate: Are history books accurate? 

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5. Mini-Debate: Are history books accurate? 

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4. Where are all the Black people during the Revolutionary War in the United States in 1776? The Natives? Women? Gay people? Disabled? Hmmm ..... 

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4. Where are all the Black people during the Revolutionary War in the United States in 1776? The Natives? Women? Gay people? Disabled? Hmmm ..... 

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Did only White European men fight in the war? What's your take on this?

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3. Do you remember how the U.S. Revolution in 1776 started? If so, write it below. 

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3. Do you remember how the U.S. Revolution in 1776 started? If so, write it below. 

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Something about tea ... If you forgot, make a guess using the picture below.

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2. What is one thing you've found to be super interesting about History in the past 2 weeks? Feel free to look below through the padlet if you forgot!! (Please don't say "nothing" -- I'll cry). 

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2. What is one thing you've found to be super interesting about History in the past 2 weeks? Feel free to look below through the padlet if you forgot!! (Please don't say "nothing" -- I'll cry). 

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GOOD MORNING TUSKEGEEE!! It's FRIDAY!! How was the week for you? Use one of these statements and explain! TOOOO LOOOOONG.  Alright I guess. OMG BEST WEEK EVER. I'm just glad it's over.

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CLOSING: How did the English colonist at Jamestown make it!? Why is Jamestown significant?

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CLOSING: How did the English colonist at Jamestown make it!? Why is Jamestown significant?

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ANDDDD ... Who is Angela? What do we learn about Angela? Why is this important?

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ANDDDD ... Who is Angela? What do we learn about Angela? Why is this important?

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JAMESTOWN, Va. - Valarie Gray-Holmes sits quietly, her back to the audience gathered at benches under oak and cypress trees by the James River at Virginia's Historic Jamestowne.

She smooths her beige, cotton skirts and grease-stained apron as she waits to be introduced. The peach stripes on her blouse are all but faded and her yellow headscarf is wrapped loosely around her salt-and-pepper hair. As the waves splash against the riverbank, she rises slowly, silently. She turns to the audience and begins her story.

"Every day I rise, and I come to a place and I cry," she says.

Valarie's character is a middle-aged woman reflecting on her young life of freedom in Angola in contrast with her lonely life as an enslaved woman in Jamestown. It is a story of pain and suffering: being torn from her community, forced aboard a slave ship, then a pirate ship, to be deposited in this strange and hostile land. She moves in close to a tourist, as if to take her by the hand. "Do you have a name from birth?" she asks. The woman responds. "Jane," she says.

"I too, have a name from birth," she says with a smile. "My name is..." Her eyes widen as she pauses abruptly, her fingers fly to her mouth. "But we won't speak of that now. They call me Angela here." She backs away, eyes downcast, and resumes her story, the wall between character and audience, enslaved and free, again intact.

Kaid Ray-Tipton, 25, of Arlington, Virginia, watched Valarie intensely. After the performance, he raised his hand. His father is black, his mother is white and his wife, Marla, is Burmese American. The couple came to Jamestown to honor their enslaved ancestors and to investigate the history of 1619, 400 years after the first recorded Africans in the Virginia colony landed in nearby Hampton. This was the first time he'd ever heard of Angela. Her story seemed like something he should have already known. And that both angered and embarrassed him.

"Why Angela, why now?" he asked.

It's a question Valarie often hears.

Why isn't Angela part of colonial history lessons? Why, 400 years later, are they just hearing her story?

"What if now is the time we are supposed to know about Angela?" Valarie tells Kaid. Maybe now the country is finally ready to acknowledge Angela's importance - as the first African woman in Jamestown for whom there is a name and a story.

Angela was one of 350 enslaved Angolans aboard the San Juan Bautista ship as it sailed from Luanda in mid-1619, bound for Veracruz, Mexico. Captives from the Ndongo Kingdom endured a months-long journey chained and packed into the dark, musty hold of the ship, sitting amid cargo in filth, sickness and death. Only 207 survived the Atlantic crossing.

The ship was seized near Veracruz by two English privateer vessels, the White Lion and the Treasurer, who took the healthiest 55 or 60 to split between them and sell. The landing of the first "20 and odd" Africans in August 1619 was the primary subject of commemorations all over the nation this year.

The founding family you've never heard of: The black Tuckers of Hampton, Virginia

Angela was brought to Jamestown a few days later with one or two others. They were among the Africans aboard the Treasurer.

Inauspicious as these landings may have seemed, they proved pivotal to the survival of the Virginia colony. The enslaved Africans came as the colony was recovering from drought and starvation that shrank its members from nearly 300 to 60. Tobacco cultivation was showing signs of becoming the viable, profitable industry that would save them. Skilled labor was needed.

The enslavement of Africans wasn't new to the colonists; by 1619 there were many African servants or slaves in England and the Spanish and Portuguese had built empires in South America and the Caribbean based on African slave labor.

Nor was racism. Merchants and nobles had complained to the crown about societal ills they blamed on black people. Despite having African servants herself, Queen Elizabeth issued several proclamations in the late 1500s urging that "blackamoors" be driven from the land.

While white indentured servants from Europe could be had for cheap to help the Virginia colony prosper, enslaved Africans could be had for free.

From these first landings to nearly 250 years later when slavery was abolished, more than 360,000 Africans were taken from their homes to the United States. Angela is part of the origin, both proud and shameful, of the most prosperous nation on earth.

"Her story is the story of all the Africans who follow," said James Horn, president of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation, which conducts archaeological digs at Jamestown.

Valarie's interpretation of Angela's life is but one part of the effort to tell her story. The other is a three-year, approximately $550,000 National Parks Service grant to the foundation to examine the area where she lived.

In 1625, six years after her arrival, Angela is listed in the colony muster with the Portuguese spelling of her Christian name - " Angelo, a Negro Woman" - living in the household of Captain William Pierce. By then, she had endured the transatlantic ordeal and survived Indian attacks in 1622 that nearly devastated the colony. Angela's resilience is remarkable since colonists often died within months of arrival, just by dint of weather and disease.

Very few accounts of enslaved people exist in conventional public records - African Americans tracing their roots can turn to plantation records and ship manifests, but often African people are listed as property or cargo. The few known details about Angela - her name, home and country of origin - and her place at the beginning of the American story make her stand out among the millions of enslaved people who were often nameless and faceless. She is a symbolic holy mother for generations of African Americans searching for their heritage.

"There is something about having a name and a real person to connect to," says historian Linda Heywood, who specializes in Central African history. "She is one of the earliest Africans for whom we know something."

Bringing Angela's story to life has become personal for Valarie, who has worked at Colonial Williamsburg and other historic sites for 25 years as an actress. She is a New Jersey native living in Virginia whose parents passed away several years ago.

At 63, Valarie could imagine Angela's longing for her family and homeland in the same way that she often thinks about her own younger days. But she admits that researching Angela's life and writing the script for the role was a challenge since much of what she knew about Africa came from Tarzan movies.

So she taught herself the history of Central Africa by reading books by Boston University professors Heywood and John Thornton, chatting with the archaeologists and even watching an online animated Canadian feature about Njinga Mbande, Angola's most revered queen. Horn's books helped her understand Jamestown, and she relied on the 1611 King James Bible and an 1828 Webster's Dictionary for language Angela would have known.

But there was still one big writer's block.

"I realized I wasn't able to tell the story of Angela in Jamestown because she wasn't there," Valarie said. "She was in Angola."

1619: 400 years ago, a ship arrived in Virginia, bearing human cargo

The young woman called Angela was a citizen of one of the largest and most influential kingdoms in Central Africa, the Ndongo. Since the mid-1400s, the Portuguese had established trade with the Ndongo kings and queens, whose title Ngola gave the country its name.

"From the time they (the Portuguese) got here, they were in contact with the Ndongo," said Edgar Marcolino, 36, a historian in Angola.

Missionaries were in Ndongo as well, recording the history of the people as they converted them to Roman Catholicism. A famous late-17th century watercolor painting by Italian Capuchin priest/historian Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo shows the king of Ndongo forging tools in a demonstration of the metal-working prowess for which the Ndongo were renowned.

Slavery had been a concept and condition all over Africa for millennia; enslaved people were currency. Slavery already existed in the social order of Kabasa, a sophisticated city of its day rivaling Lisbon or Rome in influence.

But by 1617, the Portuguese greed for highly skilled slaves who could mine their metals and grow their food in the New World clashed head-on with the Ndongo, whose rulers pushed back against the Portuguese as they moved farther into Angola and started taking people and resources without their sanction. The Portuguese enlisted a tribal adversary feared for its violence and witchcraft, the Imbangala, to wage war, enslave everyone they could and wipe out the rest.

The Imbangala scoured Kabasa, some 130 miles east of Portugal's Luanda colony on the Atlantic coast, rounding up thousands of men, women and children.

Angela was one of them.

Young women like Angela were valuable to slave traders. They could be worked as hard as the men but also be made to bear child after child, ensuring even more slaves.

The Portuguese knew the women who came from densely populated towns and villages around Kabasa had versatile skills. They grew the family's vegetable gardens and raised pigs, cattle and fowl. They cooked the meals, cared for the children and washed their hand-sewn clothes in the rivers. The Portuguese knew these women bartered, bargained and sold their goods at the crowded local markets, speaking in at least two languages: their native Kimbundu and Portuguese. Angela had all the skills necessary to keep a home in the New World.

The Imbangala knew this too.

As a prisoner, Angela was marched more than 70 miles to the Fortaleza de Massangano on the Kwanza River. One of the oldest Portuguese forts in Angola, its primary function was to channel enslaved Africans to Luanda.

Because of poor Portuguese record keeping and oral-only Kimbundu traditions, "we don't have a lot of sources to tell numbers" of enslaved people who moved through Massangano, but it was in the thousands, says Marcolino, who teaches middle schoolers just yards from the fort. According to Thornton, about 50,000 slaves were exported from Angola between 1617 and 1621. The countryside between Ndalatando and Luanda remains sparse and silent today, having never recovered from the population drain.

In full view of the Ndongo citizens of Massangano, Angela and other prisoners were marched past the fort up a narrow, winding path to the praça de escravos, the "Slave Garden," which overlooks the river.

Prisoners were bathed, baptized and branded before being displayed for sale. Once sold, the Africans were marched to the fort where they would sometimes wait weeks before being forced to go through a tunnel and onto canoes that would take them down the Kwanza River to the courtyards of the merchants who now owned them. After waiting days or weeks in Luanda, Angela would have joined the other captives in being rowed out to the slave ships anchored in the harbor.

Even if Angela was a Christian before her capture, she would have gone through another baptism: the sprinkling of water on her head, the administering of salt under her tongue for wisdom, the receipt of a blessing and a Christian name to replace her Kimbundu name.

This ritual of enslavement happened over and over just steps from the Church of Nossa Senhora da Victoria, where the Portuguese worshiped.

But Christian blessings would have been little comfort in a place that felt nothing like home.

The uncultivated land around Jamestown, with its red clay soil, was similar to the land near Kabasa, but even the oldest oak and cypress trees were younger than the Angolan savanna's imbondeiro trees.

The night sky in Jamestown, on the other side of the world from Kabasa, was a constant reminder that she was in a strange land. Even the stars were different here.

"I would think that would be the scariest thing imaginable because of your sense of vulnerability. You are removed from everybody that you know and everything that you know," said Cassandra Newby-Alexander,a professor of history at Norfolk State University.

All Angela had was her work. And that was invaluable, as evidenced by her mention by name in the 1625 Virginia Colony muster as one of the four servants living in the Pierce household, the only one black.

According to Horn, she was likely enslaved, not indentured. Unlike white servants from Europe, the Africans lacked signed contracts specifying their terms of service and thus could be kept in servitude indefinitely.

In the Pierce's city home, Angela worked alongside her mistress, Joan Pierce. Joan was admired for her resourcefulness and will - while her husband was stranded on Bermuda after a hurricane wrecked his ship, she survived the colony's Starving Time in 1609. She worked and became known for her fig preserves.

Angela likely grew the figs and raised the hogs, keeping house the way she had done in Kabasa. The fact that this enslaved African woman was listed in the muster alongside the other servants as if she were equal indicates the Pierces' must have had high regard for her.

"To take someone's humanity away, the first thing you do is take their name - you make them nameless and faceless," says Kym Hall, the NPS superintendent at Colonial National Historic Park, which oversees Historic Jamestowne, Jamestown Island and other nearby sites. "When you give her name back, it changes the way you think about (her). It brings her back to life in some small way."

Archaeologist Lee McBee, whose team was charged with finding physical evidence of her world, understands Angela's value like few others.

On a recent 95-degree day that felt more like 105, he wiped his forehead with a rag, stuffed it in a back pocket of his khaki shorts and leaned against his shovel, taking as deep a breath as he could in the stifling summer heat. His team reminded him to re-hydrate before he resumed scraping the red clay earth, removing hundreds of years of soil one layer at a time. Wheelbarrows and buckets around the square patch of ground held dirt waiting to be sifted through a fine colander.

Lee's connections to Jamestown are strong. Though he grew up in middle Tennessee, he had been coming to Jamestown since the fifth grade. His history teacher father would take the family on vacations to plantations and battlefields. Lee, 62, earned degrees in education and history and over the years has collected graduate hours toward a doctorate. He made a hobby of joining Revolutionary War re-enactments.

Life kept leading him back to Jamestown. His townhouse is not five minutes from his workplace and is filled with 17th- and 18th-century antiques and replicas. During slow stints in archaeology he taught and coached football in the Charles City County public schools, where he met his wife, Christine, a self-described history nerd. They got married at Jamestown last year.

The empty-nesters have come to think of Angela as their daughter.

"We have a purpose," Christine said, nearly in tears, while sitting in the couple's kitchen. The purpose is to educate others about Angela's life and remind them that she was not a commodity.

"She's a person," Lee said. "You want them to respect her. She's not a product or a thing."

After a few years of digging in 10-by-10-foot squares around what used to be Capt. Pierce's home, Lee's crew knew the typical yield: oyster shells, tiny pieces of roofing slate, broken bricks, and lots and lots of colonial square-headed nails.

But good days yield treasures such as a small white pipe bowl dating to the late 17th century; nearly intact amber bottles; pieces of European-made ceramic dishes, vessels that Angela and the other servants might have handled. Another find included a small gold ring, its crystal intact, which would have adorned the hand of a well-to-do woman.

One of the most cherished finds: four cowrie shells.

Angelina Towery-Tomasura, 23, has been searching for Angela at Jamestown ever since graduating in 2017 from Washington College. She remembers the day they found the first shell early this year. It was uncovered after only a few shovelfuls in a new area. Ironically, they had just spoken with a visitor at the dig site. Her name: Angela.

"It was just sitting there, on top of the dirt," Angelina said. "After we found it, everyone was real quiet all day."

The dime-sized oval shells are ivory and smooth but for the jagged teeth of the opening down the center. Their origin is the Indian Ocean. In Africa they were used as currency and because of their rounded shape, revered as a symbol of fertility.

They establish an African presence in Virginia like nothing else Lee's team had found. And the fact that these shells had holes opened at the back indicated they were altered to attach to clothing, jewelry or hair.

The thought that they might have been Angela's only reminders of home sobers the team.

They keep a photocopy of Angela taped to a wall in their shed, an artist's rendering in graphite, to remind them why they're here.

Angela disappears from official records after 1625. It's unknown if she ever married or had children. It's possible she could have been sold or sent to live among other enslaved Africans on Pierce's Mulberry Island plantation 20 miles south. Some historians and archaeologists like to fantasize that she escaped to freedom.

Or perhaps at long last, after everything she'd endured, Angela died.

If her grave is identified as one of three near the Angela site, it would give closure to her story, Newby-Alexander said, because testing would reveal whether she gave birth, what her health was like, how long she lived and how she died.

Hall says the parks service is studying other areas on Jamestown Island where African people were known to have lived and skeletal remains have been found. Although the grant money for the Angela site expired in September, other grants may be found to uncover more untold African stories.

"I think what you will see is an evolution of the story, not a cessation," Hall says.

Lee and Christine vow to create a nonprofit in Angela's name, to teach more children about archaeology and the importance of the First Africans. One of the cowrie shells his crew found is in the Archaearium at Historic Jamestowne. The others will be examined and cataloged by NPS with the other artifacts, then tucked away in a storage facility, available only to scholars and museums for the time being.

Lee has already returned to the classroom. "I'm in a perfect place to continue the story," he says.

Valarie, who has performed Angela at Jamestown since March, is on the schedule for the rest of the fall. She will keep interpreting Angela's life as long as Historic Jamestowne needs her. Like Lee and Christine, she is invested. She has come to need Angela, too.

"When I think of Angela, I think of a powerhouse," Valarie says. "A survivor."

Angela's long and impossible journey, her fortitude and her survival, has a lesson for everyone. Valarie believes it is a lesson in hope and healing that supersedes the ways Americans continue to divide themselves.

"I have seen so much interest, so much bonding between races, between religions because of the First Africans and specifically Angela," Valarie says.

"There is peace that I feel for her. ... Maybe we have all learned how far this young woman has taken us."

For such a time as this.

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She was captured, enslaved and she survived. Meet Angela, the first named African woman in Jamestown

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JAMESTOWN, Va. - Valarie Gray-Holmes sits quietly, her back to the audience gathered at benches under oak and cypress trees by the James River at Virginia's Historic Jamestowne. She smooths her beige, cotton skirts and grease-stained apron as she waits to be introduced.

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Captain John Smith's Journals

Historian Lens: What can we learn from this document?

[13] Smith's First Report
John Smith. A true relation of such occurrences and accidents of noat as hath hapned in Virginia since the first planting of that colony. (London, 1608).

"The Indians, thinking us neare famished, with carelesse kindness, offered us little pieces of bread, & small handfuls of beanes or wheat, for a hatchet or a piece of copper."

"At this time were most of our chiefest men either sicke or discontented, the rest being in such dispaire, as they would rather starve and rot with idleness, than be persuaded to do anything for their own reliefe without constraint."

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Jamestown Artifact 3: Translated navigation guide from Spanish to English, 

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Jamestown Artifact 3: Translated navigation guide from Spanish to English, 

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Historian Lens: What can we learn from this document?

Martín Cortés. The arte of navigation ... translated out of the Spanyshe into English by Richard Edeni. (London, 1561).

By mid-century Spanish travel accounts and navigation manuals began to appear in English translation. Stephen Borough, chief pilot for the Muscovy Company, which had been established in 1555 to expand English trading networks, visited Spain in 1558 and was impressed by the maritime expertise and organization he saw there.  He persuaded the Company to support the translation into English of Martín Cortés’s official Spanish treatise on navigation. It became a popular text in England.

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Jamestown Artifact 2: Map from the 1500s

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Jamestown Artifact 2: Map from the 1500s

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What information does this map reinforce based on our knowledge of world events in the 1590s? Columbus landed in America in 1490.

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***1 Jamestown Artifact 1: Human Remains

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***1 Jamestown Artifact 1: Human Remains

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Historian Analysis -- What have historians uncovered from remains of settlers in Jamestown in 1607?

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Cannibalism At Jamestown: Listening To The Bones | TIME

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Describe the significance of the British settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, in the 1600s by summarizing key details from relevant primary sources.

Key Questions
1) What are we learning about Jamestown from the primary sources?

2) Looking back at history, what is the significance of Jamestown in history?

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If you were Queen Elizabeth (pictured below), and saw that Spain got rich all of a sudden thanks to Christopher Columbus, what would be your mood? What would you likely be plotting?

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How would you describe Christopher Columbus' mood in the picture below? Why did his MOOD matter when it came to reaching his goals?

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START HERE! Good morning Tuskegee :) Answer questions 1 - 4 in the comments.

1. Are you a morning person or a night person? Why do you say that?

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2. MOOD FR. How would this change your mood today? :) What's the first thing you would buy? 

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2. MOOD FR. How would this change your mood today? :) What's the first thing you would buy? 

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29. CLOSING: INDIGENOUS DAY > columbus day 

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29. CLOSING: INDIGENOUS DAY > columbus day 

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SAY NO TO COLONISTS!!

SAY YES TO INDIGENOUS EMPOWERMENT!

TAKE COLUMBUS DOWN

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Crews removed statues of the explorer from Grant Park and Arrigo Park early on Friday.

Video

Back

transcript

Chicago Takes Down 2 Columbus Statues Overnight

Crews removed Christopher Columbus statues from two Chicago parks early Friday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered their temporary removal in response to the ongoing protests.

[cheering]

Crews removed Christopher Columbus statues from two Chicago parks early Friday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered their temporary removal in response to the ongoing protests. Credit Credit... Tyler Lariviere/Sun-Times/Chicago Sun-Times, via Associated Press

Statues of Christopher Columbus were taken down in two Chicago parks early on Friday, making the city the latest to remove a monument to the Italian explorer blamed for the genocide and exploitation of Indigenous people.

In Grant Park, a crew using a large crane lifted the statue from its pedestal, removing a symbol that had been the scene of violent clashes between protesters and the police last week. A crowd cheered and passing cars honked as the statue came down at about 3 a.m., The Associated Press reported, and the removal was shown live on local television.

A Columbus statue was also removed in Arrigo Park in Little Italy, the mayor's office said in a statement.

"This statue coming down is because of the effort of Black and Indigenous activists who know the true history of Columbus and what he represents," one resident, Stefan Cuevas-Caizaguano, told The Chicago Sun-Times while watching the removal in Grant Park.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a statement that the statues were removed, temporarily, "in response to demonstrations that became unsafe for both protesters and police, as well as efforts by individuals to independently pull the Grant Park statue down in an extremely dangerous manner."

"In addition, our public safety resources must be concentrated where they are most needed throughout the city, and particularly in our South and West Side communities," the statement said.

In the coming days, it said, the mayor and city officials would announce a process to assess other monuments, memorials and murals across Chicago and "develop a framework for creating a public dialogue to determine how we elevate our city's history and diversity. "

The mayor's decision was criticized by some in the city.The Fraternal Order of Police said that the mayor was "bowing down to the lawlessness of these anarchists." Its president, John Catanzara, Jr., wrote a letter last week asking President Donald Trump for federal help to deal with the city's crime.

Last Friday, a group of protesters clashed with police officers at the Christopher Columbus statue in Grant Park, and some tried to tear down the statue. Some officers were hurt during the clashes and treated at the scene or transported to the hospital, CBS reported.

Four protesters were also hurt in the confrontation, and the police said 14 people were arrested, it reported.

Statues of Columbus have also been taken down in other American cities, including Boston, Richmond, Va., and St. Paul, Minn., where a group of protesters tied ropes around the statue's neck and yanked it from its pedestal outside of the State Capitol last month, about 10 miles from where a Minneapolis police officer pinned his knee on George Floyd's neck. Mr. Floyd's death in May set off weeks of worldwide protests about racial injustice and violent policing, as well as a reckoning over statues and symbols.

Native Americans and others have long called for statues of Columbus to be removed, and also to replace Columbus Day, which is marked on the second Monday in October, with Indigenous Peoples' Day. Protesters have said that Columbus's arrival in the New World led to the genocide and exploitation of Indigenous populations in the Americas.

In dozens of cities, statues or monuments portraying Confederates and other historic figures have been marked with graffiti and challenged with petitions and protests. In some cities, officials have made plans to remove contested statues. In others, protesters have toppled them. In Roanoke, Va., this week The A.P. reported that a monument to Robert E. Lee that the city had planned to remove was found toppled and broken on the ground.

At Virginia's Capitol in Richmond, The Washington Post reported, around the same time the Columbus statues were being removed in Chicago, workers overnight carted away a statue of Lee and busts of seven other Confederates.

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Protesters gathered around the statue in Chicago's Grant Park last week. Credit... Madeleine Dupre, via Reuters

With camouflage-clad federal agents already sweeping through the streets of Portland, President Trump has said he plans to deploy federal law enforcement to Chicago and other major cities - all controlled by Democrats. Mayor Lightfoot's office said on Wednesday, after a "brief and straightforward" conversation with the president, that those forces will be "investigatory" and coordinated through the United States Attorney's office.

"The mayor has made clear that if there is any deviation from what has been announced, we will pursue all available legal options to protect Chicagoans," the statement said.

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Christopher Columbus Statues Removed From 2 Chicago Parks

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Crews removed statues of the explorer from Grant Park and Arrigo Park early on Friday. Statues of Christopher Columbus were taken down in two Chicago parks early on Friday, making the city the latest to remove a monument to the Italian explorer blamed for the genocide and exploitation of Indigenous people.

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28. Comment: How did exploring the voices of regular people in history affected by those in power impact us as historians? Why don't all historians do this, though? SMH

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28. Comment: How did exploring the voices of regular people in history affected by those in power impact us as historians? Why don't all historians do this, though? SMH

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How did Columbus essentially ruin the lives of Native Americans and Africans alike?

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Comment: How did the transatlantic slave trade benefit Europeans but contribute to the dehumanization of Africans?

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The Atlantic slave trade: What too few textbooks told you - Anthony Hazard

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21. NATIVE AMERICAN GENOCIDE @ the hands of the Europeans 

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21. NATIVE AMERICAN GENOCIDE @ the hands of the Europeans 

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Comment: How did Columbus and his Spanish allies commit genocide on the American Natives?

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Columbus Was a Genocidal Rapist | Decoded | MTV News

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20. COLUMBUS' VOYAGE IMMEDIATELY SPARKED THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE. 

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20. COLUMBUS' VOYAGE IMMEDIATELY SPARKED THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE. 

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Comment: What was the Columbian exchange? How did it impact Europeans v. Natives?

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26. Artifact C: Caribbean Enslaved Folks Narratives 

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26. Artifact C: Caribbean Enslaved Folks Narratives 

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Comment: How did the transatlantic slave trade impact the African people?

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SOURCE C: Caribbean Slave Narratives, Cudjoe (1793) and Clara (1784)

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25 Artifact B: Aztec account of illness, as told to a Spanish priest, 1529  

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25 Artifact B: Aztec account of illness, as told to a Spanish priest, 1529  

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Comment: What is your impression on the Aztecs and the Spaniards mentioned in the account? Why?

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Aztec account of illness, as told to a Spanish priest, 1529  

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24. Artifact A: Christopher Columbus' journal entry from his first voyage to America, 1492

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24. Artifact A: Christopher Columbus' journal entry from his first voyage to America, 1492

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Comment: What is your take on Columbus' words here?

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After paper was invented, journals were all the rage with explorers. This is a game-changer for historians like us because we can see what these historical figures were thinking and doing as they recorded their thoughts.

It is important, though, that we also hear from the voices of the people affected by this history -- the natives from the Americas and from Africa.
Today we are going to analyze excerpts from:

1) Columbus' journals
2) Aztec warriors' accounts, as told to Spanish priests
3) Stories told from Caribbean enslaved folks, as told to historians.

What's your take on this approach?

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18. Columbus: skilled navigator -- or just incredibly lucky? Why? 

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18. Columbus: skilled navigator -- or just incredibly lucky? Why? 

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Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer who proposed to sail west to find a route to the trade riches of the "Indies." Believing that the world was flat, and with no knowledge of the existence of the American continents, Columbus thought going west would prove easier than the route around Africa.

Columbus made his proposal to Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who were determined to compete with neighboring Portugal. In 1492, Queen Isabella gave her support to the mission. In the contract, she named Columbus governor of the lands he might discover and claim for Spain.

Columbus set sail on August 3, 1492. On October 12, the three small ships made landfall on one of the islands in the Bahamas. Columbus had found America, the "Indians," and a new source of silver and gold.

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17. What were Portugal and Spain competing about in the 15th century? Why? 

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17. What were Portugal and Spain competing about in the 15th century? Why? 

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New Empires
History.com
During the 15th century, the land roads to Asia were devastated by the Black Death pandemic. China went into isolation and closed its doors to trade. Attempting to get ahold of spices and other trading goods, several European nations sponsored sea expeditions hoping that explorers would bring back great wealth.

The Portuguese were the earliest explorers. Starting in about 1420, small Portuguese ships zipped along the African coast, carrying spices, gold, slaves and other goods from Asia and Africa to Portugal.
Spain was eager to share in the limitless riches of the “Far East” -- and struck gold, literally, through an explorer by the name of Christopher Columbus.

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19. What do these vocabulary words have to to with colonialism, exploration, and Christopher Columbus?

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19. What do these vocabulary words have to to with colonialism, exploration, and Christopher Columbus?

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Vocabulary
Dehumanization: depriving a person or group of their human qualities.
Genocide: the mass execution of a group of people who share the same cultural background..

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8) We must acknowledge the pain that was caused to do better in the future.
9) Natives in America and enslaved Africans were decimated and dehumanized by the Columbian Exchange and by the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Those who survived were forced to live in the cruel system of racism and oppression that to this day denies them of opportunities and freedom.
10) Our ancestors are some of the most resilient people in the world. Honor them by studying their story.

What is your take on these norms? Which one resonates most with you? Comment it in, chat it in, or mic it up.

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15. Norms for a Very Sensitive Historical Topic 

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15. Norms for a Very Sensitive Historical Topic 

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Today we are discussing how Europeans enslaved and destroyed whole populations of indigenous Americans and Africans to feed their greed for power and wealth.

Remember these norms as we discuss these heavy topics:
1) Racism is not debate-able. It existed, and still exists today.
2) Humanization is not debate-able. We are all human, and we've always been.
3) We don't blame the victims.
4) We use evidence to prove our points.
5) We are specific -- we don't assume anything of any group.
6) It actually did NOT have to happen this way.
7) It actually WASN'T that long ago, and the impact is felt heavily today.

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Describe how Christopher Columbus sparked the creation of an unjust system of power and oppression that led to genocide for Native Americans and dehumanization for African communities.

Agenda:
1) Video
2) Primary Source Analysis
3) Discussion of Injustice

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After analyzing these artifacts, what conclusions (or inferences) can you make about human nature, human skill, and human ambition? Why?

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11. Artifact 10: Portrait of the Black Death Pandemic

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11. Artifact 10: Portrait of the Black Death Pandemic

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EMMANUELLA,

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AKILAH, AFSU, JOMAINE, KIIAH, SORAYA, TYRIEK

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GLENDON, MR. MADRID,

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JAYDEN, JOAQUIN, SHAREESE

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7. Artifact 6: A painting on silk of Chinese women folding silk. 1100s from China. 

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7. Artifact 6: A painting on silk of Chinese women folding silk. 1100s from China. 

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CARLOS,

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ANAFRANETTE, JIMMY,

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FELICIA, GERSHOM,

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The Great Wall of China stretches more than 5,000 miles through northern China. China's first emperor, Qin, began constructing the wall in the 3rd century BC.

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ANTHONY

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3. ARTIFACT 2: An engraving of a camel during 100 A.D. 

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3. ARTIFACT 2: An engraving of a camel during 100 A.D. 

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BOBFREDPACO,

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HAKEEM, ISAIAH, SHALEIKAH,

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1. HELLO TUSKEGEE!!! START HERE! Weds 9/23

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1. HELLO TUSKEGEE!!! START HERE! Weds 9/23

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1. Sign-up for your Padlet account if you haven't yet. www. padlet.com
2. Check out what our class selected as most important artifacts of the 1,000s - 1,400s in the next boxes.
3. Select THREE MORE ARTIFACTS that you think also made a difference in the history of the world. Explain why you are choosing them. (All the BLUE slides below)
4. If there is an artifact you DISAGREE with, explain why in the comments, too.

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Artifact 10: Portrait of the Black Death Pandemic

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Artifact 10: Portrait of the Black Death Pandemic

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The Silk Road enabled one of the first great pandemics—the plague known as the Black Death—to spread along its route and eventually reach the edge of Europe, where it killed more than 50 million people between 1346 and 1352.

“The Silk Road allowed, possibly for the first, the sustained transmission of diseases endemic to Central Asia to move out along the Road to Europe,” explains Mark Welford, a professor at the University of Northern Iowa and author of the 2018 book Geographies of Plague Pandemics.

The roads immediately closed and left sailors looking for alternative ways to get to India.

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Pepper, along with other spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, was such a hot commodity five centuries ago that it drove nations to sail across vast oceans searching for new routes to the spice-rich Orient.

Spices didn't just make merchants rich across the globe — it established vast empires, revealed entire continents to Europeans and tipped the balance of world power. If the modern age has a definitive beginning, it was sparked by the spice trade, some historians have argued.

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*Cavalry is army on horses. Genghis Khan conquered more than twice as much land as any other person in history, bringing Eastern and Western civilizations into contact in the process. He made sure the Silk Roads were safe and open so that trade could continue throughout his empire. Without him, the roads would not have been as conducive to travel.

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This is a Han Dynasty Compass. One of the first civilizations to develop sophisticated compasses was China. This model of a compass dates from the Han Dynasty, between the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The spoon, magnetized with ore, served as this compass' needle. Thanks to the exchange of ideas and inventions facilitated by the Silk Road, Europeans were able to develop a compass to help them navigate the world by sea.

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Artifact 6: A painting on silk of Chinese women folding silk. 1100s from China. 

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Artifact 6: A painting on silk of Chinese women folding silk. 1100s from China. 

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The Silk Road earned its name from Chinese silk, a highly valued commodity that merchants transported along these trade networks.
Silk, owing to its soft texture and appealing shimmer, became so hotly desired that it was used as currency in central Asia. However, the process of raising silkworms and creating fabric from their cocoons remained a Chinese secret through the 6th century C.E. The fact that China remained the only source of silk meant that trade goods continued to travel across Asia. This involved many people and locations in the Silk Road trade networks.

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The origins of gunpowder are less well known, although there are references to fireworks and firearms in China as early as the 600s. Historians believe that gunpowder was indeed exported along the Silk Road routes to Europe, where it was further refined for use in cannons in England, France and elsewhere in the 1300s.

The nation-states with access to it had obvious advantages in war, and thus the export of gunpowder had an enormous impact on the political history of Europe.

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The Great Wall of China stretches more than 5,000 miles through northern China. China's first emperor, Qin, began constructing the wall in the 3rd century BC.

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The Great Wall of China stretches more than 5,000 miles through northern China. China's first emperor, Qin, began constructing the wall in the 3rd century BC.

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Paper was invented in China during the 3rd century B.C., and its use spread via the Silk Road, arriving first in Samarkand in around 700 A.D., before moving to Europe through the then-Islamic ports of Sicily and Spain.

Paper’s arrival in Europe fostered significant industrial change, with the written word becoming a key form of mass communication for the first time. The eventual development of Gutenberg’s printing press allowed for the mass production of books and, later, newspaper, which enabled a wider exchange of news and information.

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Artifact 2: An engraving of a camel during 100 

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Artifact 2: An engraving of a camel during 100 

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Traders had to find ways to move their goods efficiently. This is where camels come in, as they were the best way to travel. Nomadic peoples in Central Asia started domesticating camels as early as the second millennium BCE. For example, the Han Chinese used camels captured from the Xiongnu to carry military supplies. Camels were tough. They withstood the harsh desert conditions of Central Asia and could carry up to 500 pounds! Without pack animals—especially camels—transporting goods over land on the Silk Road would not have been worth the trouble.

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The Silk Road was a network of trade routes connecting China and the Far East with the Middle East and Europe. Established when the Han Dynasty in China officially opened trade with the West in 130 B.C., the Silk Road routes remained in use until 1453 A.D., when the Ottoman Empire boycotted trade with China and closed them. Although it’s been nearly 600 years since the Silk Road has been used for international trade, the routes had a lasting impact on commerce, culture and history that resonates even today.
Trade along the so-called Silk Road economic belt included fruits and vegetables, livestock, grain, leather and hides, tools, religious objects, artwork, precious stones and metals and—perhaps more importantly—language, culture, religious beliefs, philosophy and science.

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You've been sent to review artifacts from between 130 B.C. in until 1453 A.D, years right around the height of the Roman Empire and the Mongol Empire.

The first step is to review all of the artifacts and figure out what they tell you about history.

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Emperors wanted to trade with others parts of the world. The most famous influential trading route was the Silk Road, between Asia and Rome, which dramatically changed the course of history.

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Comment or Chat In: How did agriculture and farming lead to war? How did humans respond?

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Mankind: The Story of All of Us: Birth of Farming | History

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What's happening here?.

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Examples: The Roman Empire, the Chinese Empire. One ruler  managed to get control of communities across swaths of land through war.

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What's happening here?

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How did all these inventions impact humanity -- even today -- including yourself!

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Infer: Why would early humans want to write?

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All became religious and built massive temples in honor of the Gods, hoping they would be compensated with good weather for their crops.

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25. WILD COINCIDENCES THO: Across the world, humans learned to farm and domesticate animals 

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25. WILD COINCIDENCES THO: Across the world, humans learned to farm and domesticate animals 

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Americas, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and Asia were all engaging in the same practices at around the same time.

Agriculture, domestication of animals, the organization of societies, all occurred at around the same time even though these humans did not interact.

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28. Source 2: Canadian Museum of History 

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28. Source 2: Canadian Museum of History 

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Civilization.ca - Mystery of the Maya - Maya calendar

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The Maya calendar in its final form probably dates from about the 1st century B.C., and may originate with the Olmec civilization. It is extremely accurate, and the calculations of Maya priests were so precise that their calendar correction is 10,000th of a day more exact than the standard calendar the world uses today.

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Historians have theorized that there was an Ice Age when the Ocean Froze, and this created the Bering Straight, allowing early humans to walk from Russia to Alaska and America.

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Why did humans migrate to the Americas?

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The sandy shore of the Chilean coast was 50 miles west of Monte Verde 14,000 calendar years ago. Early migrants are thought to have traveled to and from the ocean as well as inland for food prompting researchers to question how rapidly human migration in the Americas occurred.

Credit: Tom Villehay, Vanderbilt University

The Americas were the last (well, second-to-last if you count Antarctica) continents to be inhabited by early humans. Archaeologists estimate that people entered North America by crossing over the Bering Strait, which back then was a wide swath of land, about 15,000 years ago.

In other words, people got here by walking a very long distance.

Our image of this major migration is fanciful. When I teach about the peopling of the Americas, I show a slide of people purposefully trekking in a straight line on a tundra from Siberia to Alaska, as if there was some destination on the other side and the only way to get there was to follow the leader, one behind the other.

But the truth is that human migration is much more complex, as suggested by genetic evidence presented recently by Ugo Perego and Alessandro Achilli of the Università di Pavia, Italy. Using mitochondrial DNA, they found two rare haplotypes (gene groupings) in modern Native Americans that point to two simultaneous ancestral migrations into this part of the world. One group took the fast track down the Pacific Coast to Tierra del Fuego (they may have used boats for part of the journey) and the other came across the Strait, maybe even with the coastal folks, and then took a sharp left turn past the ice sheet and spread out over inland North America.

But what compels people to walk that fast and that far into the unknown?

The most obvious reason is that one has to pack up and go because things are not so good at home. Long ago, that probably meant that the climate had changed and made life impossible. It might have become too hot or too cold or too wet, which in turn would have affected not only quality of life but also make survival a shaky proposition. Drought, flood, and temperature changes could certainly push people to move on.

Climate change also affects the food supply, and anthropologists have assumed that people came to the Americas because they were following food on the hoof. Humans are famous for wiping out big game as they go, so these early travelers might have been walking behind herds and not realizing they were covering new ground as they ate their way into the New World.

People also migrate when they are being chased. Back then, there weren't enough people to cause civil unrest, tribal warfare, or religious persecution, but there could have been conflicts over land use or hunting rights.

Or maybe, they came because they could. Humans seem to have a universal penchant for moving around, and not always under duress. These days, people sometimes move to have a new life in a new land, or just for fun. Sometimes they want a new view, an adventure, or they want to reinvent themselves.

Maybe the two major groups of people coming to the New World were looking for a new life and they found it beaching it to Tierra del Fuego or chasing the herds across the plains of Canada.

Meredith F. Small is an anthropologist at Cornell University. She is also the author of "Our Babies, Ourselves; How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent" (link) and "The Culture of Our Discontent; Beyond the Medical Model of Mental Illness" (link).

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The Americas were the last (well, second-to-last if you count Antarctica) continents to be inhabited by early humans. Archaeologists estimate that people entered North America by crossing over the Bering Strait, which back then was a wide swath of land, about 15,000 years ago. In other words, people got here by walking a very long distance.