Investigating a Tabby Slave Cabin teaches students about a cabin at Kingsley Plantation in northeastern Florida used by enslaved people in the early 1800s and about the descendants of the people who lived there, through authentic archaeological and historical inquiry. To understand the history of the United States of America it is important to understand the period of time when slavery existed. Slavery was filled with incidents of brutality, punctuated here and there by moments when individuals reached across the barriers of race, gender and class to be decent to each other. Kingsley Plantation offers the opportunity to encounter this doubled-faced reality in the complex lives of Anta Majigeen Ndiaye (Anna Kingsley) and Zephaniah Kingsley.
Instructions for the Teacher:
The teacher’s document is 41 pages, consisting of background information and four sections corresponding to the student notebook. It includes archaeologists’ interpretations of the Tabby Slave Cabin site and details about the artifacts found. Quadrant maps from the archaeological site of the Tabby Slave Cabin are provided for students to study and use.
Student Archaeology Notebook:
The student notebook is 30 pages of articles and activities about the Tabby Slave Cabin. Mrs. Deborah Bartley-Wallace, a descendant of enslaved people who lived at Kingsley Plantation, guides students through the investigation. Through archaeology students discover artifacts left behind and how artifacts assist archaeologists in understanding the lifeways of the site’s residents and tracing their African ancestry.
