Working with documents - Summarizing historical information about life for slaves (Activity I)

[John Lee]

This is the first of three activities that use the SCIM-C method to explore resources on the Plantation Letters website.

Activity I

The Plantation Letters website includes numerous letters written by Paul Cameron, Charles Lewellyn, and others involved in the Cameron family dealings. Select one of these letters and summarize the content of the letter. Below are questions you can use to scaffold your work.


{from David Hicks and Peter Doolittle - http://www.historicalinquiry.com/scim/index.cfm}


Summarizing
Summarizing is the first phase of the SCIM-C strategy and begins with having students quickly examine the documentary aspects of the text, in order to find any information or evidence that is explicitly available from the source. Within this phase students should attempt to identify the source's subject, author, purpose, and audience, as well as the type of historical source (e.g., letter, photograph, cartoon). In addition, the student should look for key facts, dates, ideas, opinions, and perspectives that appear to be immediately apparent within the source. The four analyzing questions associated with the summarizing phase include:
1. What type of historical document is the source?
2. What specific information, details and/or perspectives does the source provide?
3. What is the subject and/or purpose of the source?
4. Who was the author and/or audience of the source?

[Lauren Bass]

Summary
This is a letter written between Charles Lewellyn and Mr. Cameron. The letter was written by Mr. Lewellyn, and discusses the life on his farm. He talks about growing crops (specifically corn), their teams, and the weather. It seems to me that letter writing is their only form of communication, seeing that they are in different areas. There is one reference about how long the mail has been taking in a specific city, Montgomery, and how Mr. Lewellyn was afraid Mr. Cameron would not receive a letter from him as quickly as he had hoped. This is a good representation of the casual correspondence between two men living in this time period.

Summarizing
1. What type of Historical document is the source?
-This historical document is in the form of a letter. The letter is between Charles Lewellyn and Mr. Cameron.
2. What specific information, details, and/or perspectives does the source provide?
-He discussed the exact amount of corn he has planted (acreage), the rainfall, his team (which I am assuming are his slaves), Milton ( a slave who was a runaway), Martha (a slave who bore a son) and the near completion of his team's summer clothing.
3. What is the subject and/or purpose of the source?
-In my opinion, the subject of this letter was to serve as a form of communication between the two men. They are discussing their crop, as well as life and plantation issues. With no telephone or internet, the primary way to communicate in these days was in the form of a letter, and that is exactly what these two men were doing.
4. Who was the author and/or audience of the source?
-The author of this letter was Charles Lewellyn. The audience was obviously intended just for Mr. Cameron, but has since been made available to the public.

[Laura Smith]

Summary From Index:
Paul describes his journey from North Carolina to Alabama, consisting of railroad, stagecoach, and steamboat. Paul was not pleased to share his stagecoach with slaves. Paul describes many families immigrating west to Texas and Arkansas, and the general state of crops along his journey.

1. Historical document in form of three letters.
2. Specific information about the locations Paul has traveled through, his methods of travel, the cotton crop, and people he sees/knows.
3. The purpose of these letters is Paul telling his father about his travels and keeping him up-to-date about when he will be home.
4. Author: Paul Cameron:
Audience: Paul’s father Duncan Cameron

[Mr. Groh]

I read the Lewellyn 1847-02-27 letter. Mr. Lewellyn is an overseer and is describing the difficulties of a rainy season. He is unable to sow his fields, people are getting sick from the dampness, and he has even had a slave run away. He complains about stolen cotton as well. Furthermore a major in the area has been shot by a houservant, although he does not describe the importance of this major, it is clear in the letter he was a man of some importance. Finally the letter states that the overseer was unable to purchase a mule.

[Eric Pullen]

I read a letter from Paul Cameron to his father concerning the purchase and setting up of a new plantation in Alabama.

1. The historical document I read is a letter.
2. The source provides exact sums on the amount of money it has taken to purchase the plantation, approximately $29,000 at the time. He also provides the numbers of mules, slaves, and other items such as cotton, fodder, and corn that he is purchasing from the former owner. Perspective is from son to father, employee to his supervisor even. Paul is serving as his father's purchasing and establishment agent in Alabama, and is fairly unhappy about being away from home for so long.
3. The subject is the new plantation, and the purpose is to update his father and boss with how the purchase is going, how much it is costing, and how much land they are gaining.
4. The author is Paul Cameron, and the audience is his father, Duncan Cameron, and Duncan also serves as the owner of these plantations ultimately. Paul acts almost more as an employee than a son.

[Andy Harding]

1: Personal Letter
2. Paul Cameron is giving his father a detailed account of his trip from Raleigh to Greensboro in 1845. He seems concerned about some of the slaves on the Plantation, because some of them do not seem to be in the best heath conditions. Examples of the children are fat as pigs and the elders seem tired and sick. He also gives a detailed account of the crops at the plantation and how they are growing very well. He also lets his father know of his travels, how he is doing and when he will be returning home.
3. Heath of the Slaves and the crops at the Greensboro Plantation and others that he travels through.
4. Paul Cameron and his audience was his father Duncan.
.

[Debbie Hall]

1. The type of historical document that is the source is a letter from Charles Lewellyn to Mr. Cameron that was written in May of 1845.
2. The information in the letter is describing situations going on at the Plantation: Injuries, Deliveries of goods, Crop updates, runaways, Work, and sickness. The perspective is from a person that has evidently been placed in a position of being in charge of the Plantation, and making sure it is working efficiently.
3. The subject/purpose is just an update on the situation at the Plantation and whats been going on.
4. The author is named Charles Lewellyn and is obviously "in charge" at the Plantation and has some degree of accountablilty for the goings on there.

[Amanda Waldroop]

This is a slave narrative; a firsthand account from a former male slave who ran away. His account deals with every slave's desire to be educated, though there were strict punishments for being caught learning to read and write. Also, any white person caught teaching a negro how to read and write was heavily fined/jailed. According to my former slave, the greatest power whites had over blacks was the power to keep them ignorant. The interviewer here is a man by the name of Cecil Miller. Interviewee is a black male from Indiana, a northern slave state.

[Amanda Waldroop]

Another thought...this former slave must have lived after the Fugitive Slave Act was put in place, as he mentions the severity of punishments for aiding slaves several time.

[mark lanunziata]

1. A personal letter by Paul cameron to his relatives.

2. The descriptioin of one of his slaves and her condition.

3. The condition of the person using the procedure of galvanism.

4. Paul Cameron

[ron gibson]

Dr. Paul Moore living in Alabama on a planation owned by the Cameron family writes to Paul Cameron in 1847. Paul Cameron, living in North Carolina, is given the news that one of his slaves, Caroline, is in the second phase of syphilis and is likely to die. Caroline's mother and Caroline refuse to admit that there has been a case of syphilis before among either one of them. Fanny, another slave, is less critical, but is suffering from Dropsy. She seems to be recovering. Dr. Moore adds that the cotton crop is suffering from too much rain and there is a danger of worms infesting the full foliage of the plants. However, the corn is doing nicely and promises to be very productive during harvest this year.

[Sandy]

This letter was written by Cy Hart, an ex-slave. He tells about Marse Cameron buying his Daddy on the slave
block. He then tells about growing up on the Cameron plantation and describes his chores starting at age 8.
In the middle of the letter, Hart describes the Yankees coming onto the plantation and his Mother feeding them
and their kind treatment of her.Hart continued living on the Cameron plantation even after being granted his freedom. The end of the letter relates the funeral of Marse Cameron and how the
writer was asked to be a pall bearer and his feelings about his former owner's death.

[Julie Caddy]

This primary document, an interview of ex-slave Abner Jordan, maintains the dialect of the speaker. This document discusses Abner family and some of their jobs, and also a little bit of how they were treated or threating. She also briefly writes about how the Civil War was affecting her life on the plantation and what happened when the Yankees came to the farm. One purpose of this document would be to explain how slaves viewed the war and how they reacted when Yankee soldiers were present in their life.