Underground Railroad Road to Freedom Grade Eight Sheryll Johnson Lori Shewman Fall 2004.

Underground Railroad

Road to Freedom

Grade Eight

Sheryll Johnson

Lori Shewman

Fall 2004

Table of Contents1. History – Time, Continuity, and Change2. People in Societies – Culture; Individual

Development and Identity; Individuals, Groups and Institutions

3. Geography – People, Places, and Environments; Global Connections

4. Economics – Production, Distribution, and Consumption

5. Government – Civic Ideals and Practices6. Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities –

Power, Authority, and Governance; Civic Ideals and Practices

History• Students will create a timeline indicating major

events in the rise and fall of the empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay.

• Students will describe the effect European exploration and colonization had upon the African Kingdoms. How did it change slavery? Students will create a play focusing upon a first encounter of Europeans and Africans.

History

• Students will analyze how the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850 affected African Americans as free persons, manumitted slaves, and escaped slaves. Students will write a journal entry as one of these people describing how they felt and why.

• Students will create a 2-tier timeline with major U.S. and world events along the top and events of the Underground Railroad underneath

• Field trip to Springboro to visit Underground Railroad Sites

WebsitesWest African Kingdoms

http://www.csusm.edu/Black_Excellence/documents/pg-g-m-s-empires.html

Medieval African Kingdoms

http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~jboston/Student/materials.html

Black History

http://www.blackhistory.com/

Websites

Olde Springboro Village

http://www.shakerwssg.org/olde_springboro_village_ohio.htm

Civil War

http://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/

People in Societies

• Students will choose an individual and create a presentation about the person and their life and adventures and what effect they had on others. Students will bring this person “to life” by dressing up and telling about “yourself”, reading something the person has written or relating on of the person’s “adventures”. Students may choose famous African Americans and/or abolitionists. Example: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Phillis Wheatly, Frederick Douglass, William Garret

People in Societies• Students will play Mancala. A

double elimination tournament will be held.

• Develop a timeline of a famous African American person or Abolitionist. Include events that were occurring in the United States and globally

• Students will create a game using signals and jargon of the railroad. Students will then teach game to the class for them to participate.

• Read Uncle Tom's Cabin for knowledge of slave conditions and treatment

WebsitesHelp Addy Escape

http://www.americangirl.com/agcn/addy/escape/index.html

National Geographic Escapehttp://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html

Runaway Gamehttp://pathways.thinkport.org/following/

WPA Slave Narrativeshttp://www.newdeal.feri.org/asn/index.htmWords and Music to the Drinking

Gourdhttp://www.contemplator.com/america/gourd.html

Geography• Students will create a poster

mapping out the Trade Triangle. Students should indicate each passage route. On the poster the African continent should be enlarged to show the major countries involved in the “trade”.

• Students will create maps indicating total U.S. population distribution and slave distribution in the late 1600”s, late l700’s and right before the civil war.

Geography• Students will student the

geography of the Ohio River and it’s changing conditions throughout the year. Students will create a relief map of the river in groups. Each group will present their map and share with the class potential hazards the river presented to run-away slaves.

• Research the diet a slave would have had while on the plantation, then research the types of food that would have been available along the escape route. Bring in examples of some to share and eat.

Geography• Map (4 groups, 3

groups take 1 of 3 major routes of UGRR and plot route including terrain obstacles, cities nearby, major roads of the time, etc.  Fourth group show on map where slave populations were including crops tended, etc)

WebsitesNASA’s Drinking Gourd

http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/mlk/gourd1.html

Trans-Atlantic Slavery Tradehttp://africanhistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa080601a.htm

Plantation Lifehttp://www2.gwu.edu/~folklife/bighouse/panel9.html

Underground Railroadhttp://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/Map.htm

Slave Diethttp://www.slaveryinamerica.org/history/hs_lp_african_food.htm

Economics• Mark off a 6 foot by 8 foot rectangle on the floor. This will be the

ship’s hold. Staying within these lines, see how many people you can fit inside by laying down. Do it again, this time having everyone sit. Do it once more having everyone on the long sides sit and those in the middle lie down. How many did you fit in? Which arrangement contained more people? Using insights gained from this exercise students divide into two groups. One group will research the economics of a lot of people in the ship and subsequent loss and the other group will research the economics of “humanistic approach”.

Economics• In groups students will pretend to be a

wealthy plantation owner in the 1830’s. Each group will design a plantation and drawing it on a large poster board. Special care should be taken in the layout so that everything works well together and has the look of a self-sufficient community. Each plantation should include the following: Big House, Kitchen, Ginning shed, Barns and outbuildings, driveways, Slave quarters, vegetable gardens, cemeteries, Overseer’s quarters, cash crop fields, stables, and specialty buildings. Layouts will be judged on the economic feasibility.

Economics

• Students will study primary source and secondary source documents to determine the “losses” to plantations owners and also determine how much bounty hunters could make.

• Research and report on what escaped slaves found with their newfound freedom in the North. These will include job possibilities, discrimination, possible return to slavery, etc

• Discuss the cash crops of the plantations. Why they were so profitable and what happened when slave labor was no longer available

Websites

Slave Ship

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/slaveship.htm

Plantation Life

http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit07/context_activ-4.html

Native Americans and UGRR

http://www.naja.com/projects/nativevoices/pdf/rvpage02.pdf

Colonial Black Life in New England

http://csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/durableRedirect.pl?/durable/1997/10/29/feat/feat.1.html

Canadian Anti-Slavery Movement

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/05/0531_e.html

Government• Students will research the

positions of famous congressmen involved in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. Class will be divided into the North and the South. Students will then participate in a session of Congress for that time period.

• Students will research Northwest Ordinance and early Ohio laws regarding slavery and runaway slaves. Students will create a poster delineating their findings.

Government• Students will debate the Fugitive

Slave Act of 1850 and the reasons why and why not people were willing to help the slaves in their escape even though they might be punished.

• Research the U.S. govt. stand on slavery and black rights up until the Civil War. They should include lawful selling of slaves before we were a country and continue with the treating of slaves as property in the constitution and so on.

• Debate between 'North' and 'South' on need for slavery and need to abolish it.

WebsitesKansas Nebraska Act

http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/iht1010302cm.html

Compromise of 1850http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm043.html

Missouri Compromisehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h511.html

Northwest Ordinancehttp://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/ordinance/

Northwest Ordinancehttp://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/bdsds/territ.html

Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities• Students will compare and contrast

the expected “responsibilities” of an abolitionist and how they actually reacted.

• Students will research the rights and responsibilities a slave owner had and what, if any, a slave had. What rights and responsibilities did any non-slave U.S. citizen have in regards to a slave or run-away? Students will present findings as either a slave owner, a slave, or a run-away.

Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities• Students will research

Canadian law regarding people of African decent. What rights and responsibilities did they have in Canada? Students will write a report.

• Write an article to be published in Fredrick Douglass' newspaper 'North Star', expressing thanks and appreciation to abolitionists for their sacrifices and courage in helping runaways, like yourself.

Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• Research who these abolitionists were and why they felt compelled to help the runaways. Were they just nice people, a certain religion, rebels against the government, who? Students will pretend they were an abolitionist and in a paragraph describe where they would put a secret hiding place and describe the conditions there.

WebsitesFollow the Northstar Reenactment

http://www.connerprairie.org/Education/dlFNS.pdf

Abolitionists

http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/Abolit.htm

Abolitionists

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html

Abolitionists

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam005.html

Frederick Douglass

http://www.nps.gov/frdo/freddoug.html