This week we started our unit on Forced Immigration and Slavery in America. 

I told students about my great-great-great grandparents, Hiriam and Adelaide Young (a different family than YoungE) who were enslaved on a plantation in South Carolina around 1840.  They had 8 children who were also slaves, one of whom was named Jordan Young.  Perhaps around the Civil War, everyone gained their freedom and for a while they stayed in South Carolina.  Then Jordan moved to Fowler, California in the 1890’s and the rest is Ms. Younge’s history! 

We also read a book called The Village That Vanished, a beautiful story about a Yao African tribe who band together to escape slavers from the north. 

Next we will be working on maps that illustrate the Triangle Slave Trade, where slaves and gold from Africa were traded for sugar and molasses from the West Indies, tools and guns from Europe, and Rum from North America.  Understanding the economic trading systems of the time period is critical to understanding why slavery happened in America.