GO FIGURE

(answers at bottom of page—no cheating!)

Joseph’s gross pay for three years on the Ivy Ann whaler was $217.96, or 1/188 of the ship’s total profit. Use Joseph’s gross pay to figure the gross profit for the owner of the Ivy Ann.

After the agent subtracted expenses, Joseph’s net pay was $57.96. Joseph worked on the Ivy Ann for thirty-three months. What was his monthly net pay?

TRAVELS WITH JOSEPH - EASY

(This activity requires computer skills. Don't be shy. Ask for help if you need it.)

• Open a blank document in a word processing program on your computer.
• Copy and paste the United States map below into the blank document. Print the page.
• After reading Letters from a Slave Boy, label the towns, cities, and states where Joseph lived in the United States. The first one is done for you.
• Label the large oceans that are east and west of the United States. 
• Draw a line that points toward Australia, which is off the map.
• Hint: The map should identify a total of one town, two cities, three states, two oceans, and one continent.
• Beginning with Edenton, NC, draw lines that connect the places where Joseph lived. 

TRAVELS WITH JOSEPH – HARDER

• At the bottom of the map or on the back, list the states you have labeled.
• For each state, briefly explain the slavery law or laws that frightened Joseph.  Refer to Letters from a Slave Boy as often as needed.
• Provide a date for each law.  This can be the year in which state legislators passed the law.  Or you can use any year in which the law was in effect.  
• Think of a title that describes your map.  Add the title at the top. 
• You’ve worked hard.  Now it’s show-off time.  Explain your map to an audience of friends, teachers, or family. 

• In the painting below, an enslaved African American plays a gourd banjo. This stringed instrument is similar to ones played in Africa. You could even say that it is the great-great granddaddy of banjos played in America today. Find a picture of a modern banjo and compare the two instruments. List the ways in which they are alike.
• What other African instrument can you see in the picture?

The Old Plantation, artist unknown
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Museum, Williamsburg, Virginia
http://www.history.org/history/museums/abby_art.cfm

• Joseph learns a tune called Roustabout. This old-time African-American song has different names and various lyrics, depending on who plays it. 

Click to hear a 30-second version by Dink Roberts, an African-American banjo player from North Carolina. 

You can hear the entire song on Black Banjo Songsters of North Carolina and Virginia. The CD is available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

As Joseph learned in Boston, the popularity of African-American banjo tunes led to the rise of racist minstrel shows. Professor Eric Lott from the University of Virginia explains the history of minstrelsy in “Black Face Minstrelsy: Past and Present.”  Before reading the text, review the meaning and pronunciation of:

caricature
malapropism
impediments
syncretism
percussive
commodified
capitalism

For a video of Professor Lott’s talk, click here and scroll down to his photo.  Then click on the box underneath labeled “video.” (Use the slider to skip the 60-second introduction.)

After hearing and/or watching the talk, answer these questions:

• Why did low-paid white workers call themselves “wage slaves”?
• Why were minstrel shows popular with white workers?
• Who were the Lords of the Loom?
• Who were the Lords of the Lash?

WANT ANOTHER CHALLENGE? GO FOR IT!

Read two books that Professor Lott mentioned in his talk.

Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in American Culture by Robert Toll, 1974.
Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. Dubois, 1935.

WHO WERE THE NISENAN?

(pronounced NEE suh nahn)

When Joseph is in California he meets a young Nisenan woman.  Click here to learn more about the Nisenan, a group of Native Americans almost destroyed by the California gold rush.

Click here to see an early photograph of a Nisenan man.

Answers to Go Figure:
$40,976.48
$1.75