Highsmith, Carol M. Cemetery located in Africatown, Alabama. 2010. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2010637870/.
Students will begin by examining the photograph of the Africatown cemetery. The teacher will first present the photo without explanation to spark curiosity and allow students to share what they see and wonder. After a brief discussion, the teacher will introduce the story of Africatown, its founders—formerly enslaved Africans brought aboard the Clotilda—and how the cemetery reflects the legacy and resilience of this rural, self-built community. The teacher should expect students to analyze the image critically, ask thoughtful questions, and make connections between the visual evidence and the historical context.
Africatown, Alabama, was established by a group of West Africans who were illegally trafficked to the US aboard the Clotilda, the last known slave ship. Despite being in a rural, segregated region, they built a self-sufficient community, and the cemetery stands as a powerful symbol of cultural preservation, resilience, and generational memory.
Source:
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/slave-wrecks-project/africatown-alabama-usa
- What visual clues in this image tell you it’s a cemetery? Point to shapes or symbols you can spot in the photo and explain how they help you know.
- Pick one grave marker you can see. What does its size, shape, or placement make you wonder about the person buried there or about how the community remembers people?
- Where does your eye go first, and how does the photographer’s framing (trees, sky, shadows, open space) guide your attention?
ELA Standard
AL.3.34. Write informative or explanatory texts about a topic using sources, including an introduction, facts, relevant details with elaboration, and a conclusion.
Social Studies Standard
3rd Grade 13c. Describe the significance of the Clotilda’s delivery of kidnapped people to Mobile Bay as an effort to expand slavery.
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.
- This lesson centers on student inquiry into the photo of a cemetery in Africatown, Alabama, a community founded by formerly enslaved West Africans brought to the US on the Clotilda. The lesson begins with students observing the photo independently and recording their observations, thoughts, and questions. Students will engage in a structured discussion to surface themes such as memory, culture, and resistance.
- After viewing the image, students will learn the historical context of Africatown as a rural, self-sustaining community built after emancipation. Emphasis should be placed on the significance of the cemetery as a cultural site that links the past to the present. Students will read a short background text from Kiddle website or watch a short video explaining the story of the Clotilda and the founding of Africatown, followed by a mapping activity to locate its place in Alabama.
- Next, students will work in small groups to answer supporting inquiry questions about the photograph (i.e., What do the grave markers look like? How are they the same or different from ones you may have seen before? If you could step into the photo, what would you want to look at more closely and why?). They will analyze how the cemetery reflects community identity and how the rural environment may have shaped life and survival in Africatown. Groups will then create short written or illustrated captions interpreting the photo and presenting what it teaches us about the community.
- To close, the class will reflect on how memory is preserved through places and traditions. Students will be invited to write a short personal reflection or create a class mural connecting their own family or community traditions to what they learned about Africatown.
Highsmith, Carol M. Gravesite of escaped slave turned emancipation orator and statesman Frederick Douglass at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Around 1843, Douglass moved to Rochester, where he embarked on a career as a newspaper publisher. 2018. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018700830/.