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  1. History Assessments
  2. Contextualization
  3. Slavery and Expansion
  4. Defender of Slavery
Topic: U.S. History
Historical Skills: Contextualization, Sourcing, Use of Evidence
Time Period: Slavery and Expansion
  • Assessment
  • Rubric

Alternative Versions of Assessment

  • Unions in Paterson, New Jersey
  • Post-Civil War South
  • Traders in the West
  • Portrait of an Iroquois Leader
  • Seven Years' War
  • The Virginia Company
  • Kathleen Cleaver Interview
  • Qing Engraving
  • Japan and America
  • Jacob Riis
  • Children Working in Mines
  • Arabian Peninsula
  • Hawaiian Annexation
  • Cuban Missile Crisis Interview
  • Vietnam War
  • The Florentine Codex

Defender of Slavery

Like the Unions in Paterson, New Jersey assessment, this question gauges whether students can source and contextualize a document. Students must first examine an 1850 speech by Senator Solomon Weathersbee Downs then determine which fact can help them evaluate the reliability of Downs' argument about the conditions facing enslaved people in the South. Strong students will be able to explain that Downs had a vested interest in protecting the institution of slavery because he was an enslaver (Fact 2) and his constituents were pro-slavery (Fact 4).

Download Materials

Defender of Slavery Assessment Register or Log in to download
Defender of Slavery Rubric Register or Log in to download
Speech of the Hon. Solomon W. Downs - Library of Congress Register or Log in to access

Alternative Versions of Assessment

  • Unions in Paterson, New Jersey

    View assessment
  • Drawing of "Contrabands" Escaping in Virginia

    Post-Civil War South

    View assessment
  • Traders in the West

    View assessment
  • Portrait of Tee Yee Neen Ho Ga Row

    Portrait of an Iroquois Leader

    View assessment
  • Seven Years' War

    View assessment
  • The Virginia Company

    View assessment
  • Kathleen Cleaver Interview

    View assessment
  • Qing Engraving

    View assessment
  • Japan and America

    View assessment
  • Jacob Riis

    View assessment
  • Children Working in Mines

    View assessment
  • Arabian Peninsula

    View assessment
  • Annexation newspaper article. From the Library of Congress

    Hawaiian Annexation

    View assessment
  • McNamara Interview image

    Cuban Missile Crisis Interview

    View assessment
  • Laird interview image

    Vietnam War

    View assessment
  • Florentine Codex Illustration

    The Florentine Codex

    View assessment
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