Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources
Reading Comprehension Worksheets
Black History and Blacks in U.S. History
A Nation Divided
(1840-1861)

Slave Life

Black History and Blacks in U.S. History
Black History and Blacks in U.S. History


Slave Life
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Print Slave Life Reading Comprehension

Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   5.9

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    brutality, improvment, undermine, presented, humanity, desirable, overseer, provided, genuine, disrespectful, brutal, generally, decency, disgraceful, outdoor, exhaustion
     content words:    United States


Slave Life
By Mary L. Bushong
  

1     Do you know what a slave is? Any person could be a slave. It is someone who has no control over his or her life. They can be bought or sold and have nothing to say about it. Slavery has occurred in almost every culture since the beginning of time, but what we are going to talk about here is slaves in the United States.
 
2     There was nothing easy about the life of a slave. They generally worked either in the house or in the fields. For house slaves, all the cooking and cleaning was done by hand. They were often the ones to take care of any children of their master. While they sometimes received better food, their working days were longer because of lights in the house.
 
3     Field slaves would work from dawn until dusk. The work was back breaking, and overseers often did not care if a slave was worked to death. Until the early 1800's slaves were cheap. If one died, they would just go to the slave market and buy another one.
 
4     If a slave was thought to be disrespectful or did not do their work correctly, punishment was often brutal. It was not unusual for them to be beaten or whipped. One slave, who eventually escaped slavery, was hit in the head with something heavy that the overseer threw at her. She nearly died, but recovered after several months. She suffered from terrible headaches the rest of her life. Other slaves were punished with starvation, sold to a harder master, or possibly sent to a slave breaker.

Paragraphs 5 to 12:
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Black History and Blacks in U.S. History
             Black History and Blacks in U.S. History


A Nation Divided
(1840-1861)

             A Nation Divided
(1840-1861)



United States
             United States


    American Government  
 
    Black History and Blacks in U.S. History  
 
    Children in History  
 
    Government Careers  
 
    Hispanic Heritage  
 
    How Can I Help?  
 
 
    Immigration  
 
    National Parks and Monuments  
 
    Native Americans  
 
    Presidents of the United States  
 
    Women's History  
 


United States History
    A Nation Divided
(1840-1861)
 
 
    A New Nation
(1776-1830)
 
 
    After the Civil War
(1865-1870)
 
 
    American Revolution  
 
    Cold War
(1947-1991)
 
 
    Colonial America (1492-1776)  
 
    Lewis and Clark
(1804-1806)
 
 
    Pearl Harbor  
 
    Spanish American War (1898)  
 
    The 1890's  
 
    The 1900's  
 
    The 1910's  
 
    The 1920's  
 
    The 1930's  
 
 
    The 1940's  
 
    The 1950's  
 
    The 1960's  
 
    The 1970's  
 
    The 1980's  
 
    The 1990's  
 
    The 2000's  
 
    The Civil War
(1861-1865)
 
 
    The Great Depression
(1929-1945)
 
 
    The United States Grows
(1865-1900)
 
 
    The War of 1812  
 
    Wild, Wild West  
 
    World War I
(1914-1918)
 
 
    World War II  
 


50 States

             Fifty States Theme Unit


Document Based Activities
      Document Based Activities



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