What was the Underground Railroad?

http://edu.aea14.k12.ia.us/iacivilwar/underground_railroad.htm

Many heroic men and women joined forces with others in a vast network that helped runaway slaves secure freedom. These brave people risked the loss of property, money, imprisonment and even death if caught hiding or helping fugitives.

        "The Underground Railroad is an important, yet not widely known, part of American history."

        "It speaks of the struggle of African-Americans to achieve their freedom, but it also speaks of cooperation in protesting something that was perceived to be wrong even though it was legal at the time."

--Diane Miller, National Park Service, Department of Interior, Omaha, Nebraska, Adams County Free Press, Corning, Iowa, October 22, 1998

Introduction

We have been discussing several issues leading up to the United States Civil War in 1860. Slavery was an important point of discussion for all Americans at that time. Some slaves chose to change their destiny and escape north to freedom. One means of escape was the Underground Railroad. How much do you know about the Underground Railroad? The purpose of this assignment is to learn as much as you can about
1) the origins of the Underground Railroad, 2) the important people involved in this part of American history, and 3) what the journey north was like for an escaping slave.

The Task

In this assignment we will learn about a slave's best hope for freedom and a new life: the Underground Railroad.

• Was it really underground?
• Was it really a railroad?
• How did this system for helping slaves leave plantations begin?
• What were the risks to escaping slaves and the free people who helped them?

We will investigate the history of the Underground Railroad, the key figures that fought for slaves' human rights, and what life was like for an escaping slave and the people who helped him. You will work individually and in small groups to investigate what the Underground Railroad was, why a slave would want to leave plantation life, who might help an escaped slave along the way, where the escaped slave would go, and how they would escape.

Read “A Typical Message on the Underground Railroad” at the following site http://edu.aea14.k12.ia.us/iacivilwar/message.htm .  Now write your own hidden message, place it in the envelope included in your groups’ packet.  We will share these on the day of presentations.

Read “History of the Drinking Gourd” http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/gourd1.html and answer the following questions:

 Follow the Drinking Gourd

Pretend that your group is living back in the time of slavery and want to help slaves reach the North.  Your group is responsible for explaining one of the verses from “Follow the Drinking Gourd” listed below. http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/mlk/gourd2.html.   Now using Hyperstudio, write and illustrate the lyrics to your verse. After your group has finished drawing, we will link each group’s drawings and share the hidden meaning with the class and recited the lyrics to that verse.

 Journey to Freedom

The Underground Railroad was a series of trails, hideouts, and safe havens that slaves followed to freedom in the northern states.  Click on the link http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/99/railroad/j1.html and play “You Are a Slave”, http://pathways.thinkport.org/following/home.cfm “Following the Footsteps” (you will needed to go to the interactive button.) and http://www.americangirl.com/agcn/addy/escape/index.html “Addy's Escape to Freedom”  to find out what it was like to travel the Underground Railroad.  Then, imagine yourself on this journey.  Write your thoughts in the journal entries below as you “travel” toward freedom.

http://education.ucdavis.edu/new/stc/lesson/socstud/railroad/SlaveLaw.htm At the site above, collect the 3 posters of runaway slaves and places them into the table below.

What was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?  http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h137.html

Who are these famous faces and what was their contribution to freedom? http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/hfame.html  

Copy the “Underground Railroad Routes 1860” http://education.ucdavis.edu/new/stc/lesson/socstud/railroad/Map.htm and the “U.S. Free and Slave States” maps http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/socialstd/grade5/UGRR2.JPG into a Word document, then print them out, color both maps labeling free states, slave states, territories, railroad routes and general movement.  Remember to color code the keys to match your maps.  Then scan both maps and place them in the table below.

Each student will be assigned a state to visit and research the important features located there. http://www.cr.nps.gov/NR/travel/underground/states.htm You must include a picture and description of the location.

Read “The Language of the Quilt”  found at the following site to answer the following question: http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/quilts1.cfm.

What would the Drunkard’s Path Pattern quilt tell the runaways to do?

Make your Own Quilt

After designing your quilt and explaining the symbols (print out “My Own Secret Quilt Message”) at the following site make you own quilt.  http://pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/secret_quilt.cfm.  In art class you will make your own quilt using a 12’ by 12’ piece of paper and different colored construction paper.  We will hang these in the hall along with your explanation of the symbols.

Classroom Connections

Group Activities

·        Students make a model of a plantation to learn about life in colonial Georgia.

·        Pop-up Book on Slavery in the United States

Math

·        Slavery in the Colonies Bar Graph

·        Slavery Circle Graph

·        Using Ratios To Compare Slaves to Freedmen

Literacy Groups

·        Miles’s Song by Alice McGill

·        Steal Away to Freedom by Jennifer Armstrong

·        Rebels Against Slavery “American Slave Revolts” by Patricia C. Mckissack & Fredrick L. Mckissack

·        Silent Thunder, “A Civil War Story” by Andrea Davis Pinkney

·        Freedom Train, “The Story of Harriet Tubman” by Dorothy Sterling

·        Which Way Freedom? By Joyce Hansen

·        A Picture of Freedom “The Diary of Clotee a Slave Girl” by Patricia C. McKissack

Parent Sharing Activity

Students from both Mrs. Howley’s class and Mr. Wright’s class are now paired-up working together on creating a poster from one of the pictures in The Story of the Underground Railroad, by Peter F. Copland. Materials needed; 1.      Large brown roll of paper 2.     Overhead 3.     Pencil and Black Marker 4.     Two sticks, each a meter long

          Each pair will be given a transparency portraying a scene from this grim period in American history.  Students will then take their dramatically rendered illustrations that include shocking views of “below decks” aboard a slave ship, slave pens, a family being seized by slave catchers, methods of punishing runaway slaves, escaping slaves, refugees arriving at a safe house, and more and using the school’s overheads, trace them onto a 3’ by 4’ foot brown paper.  Once they have traced the illustrations, students will outline the scenes with black markers.  Now students will crumple the paper, afterwards smoothing it out and attaching the sticks to the top and bottom (like a scroll).  These scenes will be hung in the hall along with written descriptions of the illustration.  Parents will be invited to spend an hour visiting the chronological gallery to view and listen to the students.

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This page last updated: 02/10/06 .