The Underground Railroad : The Trail to Freedom

1
The Underground Railroad The Trail to
Freedom

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The Underground Railroad3rd grade UnitBy
Alison Sharp, Betsy Brown, Nancy Kipler, Kelly
Campbell and Lisa Smith

• History
• People in Societies
• Geography
• Economics
• Government
• Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities
• Social Studies Skills and Methods

3
History
4
History

• Benchmark A, ChronologyUse field trip
  experiences that focus on the Underground
  Railroad to place learned information on a
  timeline.
• Indicator Place local historical events in
  sequential order on a time line.
• Benchmark C, Growth Describe and draw house
  plans for houses used to hide slaves compared to
  our house structures today. Students could draw
  the layout of their house and tell where they
  would hide slaves today if they needed to.
• Indicator Describe changes in the community
  over time including changes in physical features
  architecture.
• Benchmark C, Growth Create a lesson plan for a
  class of slaves based on what they needed or were
  only allowed to learn and a lesson plan of what
  Caucasian students were learning during the time
  of the Underground Railroad and a lesson plan on
  what the students learn today. Students will then
  present their lesson plans to the class and the
  class will make a three-ringed Venn diagram based
  on the characteristics of each lesson plan. (The
  lesson plan could be as informal or formal as the
  teacher felt the students were capable of a
  basic description of what would happen in class
  is acceptable.)
• Indicator Describe changes in the community
  over time including changes in education.

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History

• Benchmark C, Growth Students will discuss the
  advantages and disadvantages to traveling the
  Underground Railroad in the winter and the
  summer. Students will form small groups and
  design a Venn Diagram showing the pros and cons
  to traveling in the winter and summer. Students
  will discuss their Venn Diagram with the class.As
  a whole group, the students will combine all the
  ideas on the Venn Diagrams and make a whole class
  display.
• Indicator Describe changes in the community
  over time including changes in physical features.
• Benchmark C, Growth Research the schools
  created by former slaves to educate their
  children.
• What effect does education have on changing our
  society?
• Indicator Describe changes in the community
  over time including changes in education.

6
History

• Websites
• White House Kids.gov
• http//www.whitehouse.gov/kids/timeline/railroad.
  html
• Harriet Tubman The Underground Railroad
  http//www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/tubman.html
  
• National Underground Freedom Center
  http//www.freedomcenter.org/learn/underground-rai
  lroad/timeline/timeline.html
• Friends of the Underground Railroad
• http//www.fourr.org/history_timeline.html
• Discover Ohios History
• http//consumer.discoverohio.com/consumer/support
  /blackhistory/attractions.asp

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The wind blows from the south today warning of
slave bounty hunters nearby A friend with
friends A password used to signal arrival of
fugitives with underground railroad conductor
The friend of a friend sent me a password
used by fugitives traveling alone to indicate
they were sent by the underground railroad
network Load of Potatoes, Parcel, or Bundles of
Wood fugitives to be expected  
The wind blows from the south today warning of
slave bounty hunters nearby A friend with
friends A password used to signal arrival of
fugitives with underground railroad conductor
The friend of a friend sent me a password
used by fugitives traveling alone to indicate
they were sent by the underground railroad
network Load of Potatoes, Parcel, or Bundles of
Wood fugitives to be expected  
The wind blows from the south today warning of
slave bounty hunters nearby A friend with
friends A password used to signal arrival of
fugitives with underground railroad conductor
The friend of a friend sent me a password
used by fugitives traveling alone to indicate
they were sent by the underground railroad
network Load of Potatoes, Parcel, or Bundles of
Wood fugitives to be expected  
People in Societies
The wind blows from the south today warning
of slave bounty hunters nearby A friend with
friends A password used to signal arrival of
fugitives with underground railroad conductor
The friend of a friend sent me a password
used by fugitives traveling alone to indicate
they were sent by the underground railroad
network Load of Potatoes, Parcel, or Bundles of
Wood fugitives to be expected  
8
People in Societies

• Benchmark A, Cultures Teacher could work with
  the art teacher to introduce and explain to the
  students what art was like during the Underground
  Railroad. Students could then create pieces of
  each era and report to the class the significance
  of their art.
• Indicator Compare some of the cultural
  practices and products of various groups of
  people in the local community including artic
  expression.
• Benchmark A, Cultures Using information from
  visited field trips regarding the Underground
  Railroad students could research which churches
  the families who hid slaves went to. Which
  denominations were sympathetic issue of slavery?
• Indicator Compare some of the cultural
  practices and products of various groups of
  people in the local community including religion.
• Benchmark A, Cultures Similar to above, have
  students describe church traditions of slaves, if
  they were not allowed to attend a service, how
  did they worship their religion and
  explain/describe their religious beliefs
  (obviously it would be based on the majority of
  slaves, as religion is an individual experience).
• Indicator Compare some of the cultural
  practices and products of various groups of
  people in the local community including religion

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People in Societies

• Benchmark A, Cultures Read about the common
  words slaves used to one another and to their
  owners. Research if slaves had their own language
  with those who hid them. As a class create a list
  of words that we use now that only have
  significant meaning, or perhaps have a different
  meaning, when we use them with one another.
• Indicator Compare some of the cultural
  practices and products of various groups of
  people in the local community including language.
• Benchmark A, Cultures Food Have students eat a
  traditional slave meal and write about it, then
  the next day have students bring and eat a
  traditional meal they share with their family and
  write about it. When students write have them
  include the time and ease of preparing the food,
  the taste (bland or flavored), etc.
• Indicator Compare some of the cultural
  practices and products of various groups of
  people in the local community including food.
•  

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People in Societies

• Websites
• What We Eat http//burttravels.com/whatweeat/news
  letters/Africa.pdf
• Civil War era recipes http//www.foodtimeline.o
  rg/foodpioneer.htmlcivilwar
• Slavery in America http//www.slaveryiname
  rica.org/amliterature/amlit_lp_language_slaves.htm
  
• Religion of the Slaves http//www.guyana.org/fea
  tures/guyanastory/chapter28.html
• Pathways to Freedom http//pathways.thinkport.or
  g/about/about13.cfm
• Black American History, a history of black
  people in the United States
• http//www.africanaonline.com/slavery_codewords.h
  tm
• Bob Gore, African Storyteller
• http//www.hillhouse.ckp.edu/bobgore/

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Geography
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Geography

• Benchmark A, Location Have students use a
  compass and write directions to their home,
  school, and favorite place (i.e. playground,
  park, restaurant, church, etc) and design logos
  or symbols where to indicate these places.
• Indicator Use a compass rose and cardinal
  directions to describe the relative location of
  places.
• Benchmark B,Places and RegionsHave students
  research the climate in Africa and the climate
  where slaves were inhabited in America. The
  teacher could divide the class into two groups,
  one group being the slaves in America and the
  other group in Africa. Each day the teacher would
  describe the day to the two groups the weather
  the two groups are encountering, what food they
  have that day, what their chores for the day are.
  Have each student write in a journal about their
  work and their feelings on their life as either
  the slave or the African. In their groups student
  can keep a chart hung in the classroom on the
  weather, what they ate so they can compare and
  contrast the two situations.
• Indicator Identify and describe the landforms
  and climate, vegetation , population, and
  economic characteristics of the local community.
• Benchmark A, LocationStudents would create a
  symbol based on their family, like an Icthus
  (Christian fish sign) or a dog because their
  family pet is a dog. Students would then transfer
  the design on black construction paper and poke
  holes through the paper to create an astronomy
  like sign. Students could share the design on the
  overhead with classmates. Students could then
  create directions or symbols to find and follow
  or write a song based on their family following
  their sign to a place the students feel is a safe
  or favorite place of their family.
• Indicator Read and interpret maps using
  symbols.

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Geography

• Benchmark A, Location Students will discuss
  how secrecy was important to the success of the
  Underground Railroad.
• Students will discuss the lack of education
  (inability to read and write) among slaves and
  why slave owners preferred the lack of education.
  Students will read, analyze and discuss the
  symbols used in songs and writings to communicate
  to the slaves how to follow the Underground
  Railroad. In small groups, students will make a
  picture dictionary of items in environment
  (school, home, playground, etc.) Using only
  pictures, students will write one letter to share
  with the class.
• Indicator Read and interpret maps using
  symbols
• Benchmark A, Location Students will be given a
  map of the eastern half of the United States and
  calculate the miles the slaves traveled along the
  Underground Railroad to reach freedom by picking
  a beginning point in the South and an ending
  point in the North. Students will relate what
  they learned about who the slaves were, when they
  traveled and how they traveled to estimate the
  time and distance. EX. Families with small
  children used the Underground Railroad to leave
  slavery. Traveling could only happen at night
  when the hunters were not looking for them.
  Slaves traveled by foot through woods and tough
  terrain to reach freedom.
• IndicatorsUse political maps, physical maps and
  aerial photographs to ask and answer questions
  about the local community. 2. Use a compass rose
  and cardinal directions to describe the relative
  location of places. 3. Read and interpret maps by
  using he map title, map key, direction indicator
  and symbols to answer questions about the local
  community.

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Geography

• Websites
• River-To-Lake Freedom Trail http//www.ohiounder
  groundrailroad.org/Marker_Trail.htm
• Let your Journey Begin
• http//historyday.crf-usa.org/1830/maps.html
• Underground Railroad Routes 1860
• http//education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/s
  ocstud/railroad/Map.htm
• Quilt Codes
• http//www.africanaonline.com/slavery_quilts.htm
• Songs of the Underground Railroad
• http//historyday.crf-usa.org/1830/songs.html

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Economics
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Economics

• Benchmark C, Markets Students could research
  what slaves made and sold or traded with one
  another. Each student could then decide what they
  can create to sell or trade to their classmates.
  On a designated day students would spend the
  morning time creating their goods and in the
  afternoon they would run a market trading and
  selling their goods. For those students whose
  goods were not selling or being traded with as
  much the class would discuss why and what could
  be done to the product to make it more desirable.
• Indicator Explain how the local community
  is an example of a market where buyers and
  sellers exchange goods and services.
• Benchmark A, Scarcity and Resource
  AllocationStudents could search their classroom
  or bring form home objects that are equivalent to
  tools, clothing, and other goods to what slaves
  had. Each student would describe their item(s)
  and explain what it resembles from the past and
  create a Venn diagram to present to the class of
  the similar and non-similar characteristics of
  the objects.
• Indicator Identify productive resources needed
  to produce a good or service.
• Benchmark C, Markets The class could create a
  new money system, based on the value slaves had
  on objects and their availability of having
  money/currency to purchase things (if at all).
• Indicators Identify different forms of money
  used over time, and recognize that money
  facilitates the purchase of goods, services and
  resources and enables savings.

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Economics

• Scarcity and Resource Allocation Read Sweet
  Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson.
  Children will discuss the use of available
  resources to make items needed- such as a quilt.
  Children will bring in scraps of cloth and old
  clothes that can be cut and made into a quilt.
• Indicator Identify productive resources
  needed to produce a good or service.
• Scarcity and Resource Allocation The class
  will discuss what opportunity cost means. The
  children will give personal examples showing
  their understanding of the words. Examples may
  include, cutting grass at my grandmas house all
  summer to save money for a bike, deciding not to
  share my candy with my sister and having to go to
  my room, doing my homework for the whole week in
  one night so I can have extra time to play. The
  children will now talk about what they think the
  opportunity cost for a slave to escape might have
  been. The children will talk about what the pros
  and cons of running away from slavery and wanting
  freedom.
• Indicator Define opportunity cost and give an
  example of the opportunity cost of a personal
  decision.

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Economics

• Websites
• Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt
• http//www.mcps.k12.md.us/curriculum/socialstd/gr
  ade5/Sweet_Clara.html
• National Geographic
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.htm
  l
• Putting it in Perspective  The Symbolism of
  Underground Railroad quilts
• http//www.quilthistory.com/ugrrquilts.htm
• Steal Away
• http//www.kimandreggie.com/steal_cd.htm
• Slavery in the South
• http//americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/
  civwar/slavery.html

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Government

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Government

• Benchmark A, Role of Government Students would
  create/write down the rules they have at home.
  The students will explain the fairness of the
  rules, having the opportunity to challenge such
  reasoning.
• Indicator 5 Define power and authority.
• Benchmark A Role of Government As a class,
  the students would create class rules and the
  teacher would create her list of class rules and
  the two groups would compare they answers.
  Students will discuss and decided on how fellow
  classmates should be held accountable for their
  actions.
• Indicator 1 Explain the major functions of
  local government including making laws.
• Benchmark A, Role of Government Students would
  individually or in pairs create a constitution
  that would benefit every person in their class,
  whether it includes race, ethnicity, religion,
  hobbies, sports and their abilities, restroom
  rights, etc.
• Indicator1 Explain the major functions of
  local government including protecting the rights
  of individuals.

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Government

• Benchmark A, Role of Government Students will
  discuss and decided on how fellow classmates
  should be held accountable for their actions.
• Indicator 6 Explain why the use of power
  without legitimate authority is unjust.
• Benchmark A, Role of GovernmentAt the end of
  the Underground Railroad Unit, students can
  identify why a system without the proper
  authority is unlawful, unfair and unjust.
  Students should be able to give examples of
  unlawful acts performed during the time of
  slaves. Children will draw conclusions about
  their lives today and what would happen if there
  were not a legal power and authority to maintain
  order. How would things be different at school,
  the grocery store, driving a car down the street?
•   Indicator 6 Explain why the use of power
  without legitimate authority is unjust (e.g.
  bullying, stealing).
•  

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Government

• Websites
• Classroom Rules
• http//gigglepotz.com/expectations.htm
• Slavery in America
• http//www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/ugrr_18
  60.htm
• Headbone Zone
• http//www.headbone.com/derby/escape/
• Rails and Trails
• http//www.railtrails.org/index.html
• Black Laws of 1807
• http//www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec1
  505

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities
24
Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• Benchmark B,Rights and ResponsibilitiesThe
  class will read about our voting system and our
  democracy. Students will work individually or in
  pairs to create a voting system and democracy
  based on the conditions during the Underground
  Railroad era. This would include the
  responsibility each member of the system has to
  ensure others are receiving their rights.
• Indicator 3 Describe the responsibilities of
  citizenship with emphasis on voting.
• Benchmark A,Participation Students could write
  a joint letter to the owners of Underground
  Railroad houses explaining their recent learning
  of the Underground Railroad and their desire to
  help keep their house involved in the history of
  the Underground Railroad . Students would decide
  what they would want to do with or for the owner
  to the house, whether it be pick up trash on the
  road in front of the house, make a sign for their
  yard in honor of the house, plant flowers, etc.
  Students would each add their own letter
  explaining their favorite fact of the Underground
  Railroad for the owner of the house to know the
  students understand the happenings of history.
• Indicator 1 Describe how people help to make
  community a better place in which to live
  including working to preserve the environment.
• Indicator 2 demonstrate effective citizenship
  traits including volunteerism.
• Benchmark A,Participation Because the actual
  Underground Railroad trail is not accessible to
  the students, they could work jointly or in
  groups cleaning the local bike trails in honor to
  helping people, like Harriet Tubman helping
  others in her creation of the Underground
  Railroad.
• Indicator 2 demonstrate effective citizenship
  traits including volunteerism and civic-
  mindedness.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• Benchmark A,Participation Each students will
  write a paragraph on how the people who helped
  escaped slaves participated in making the country
  better.
• Indicator 2 Demonstrate effective citizenship
  traits including compassion.
• Benchmark B,Rights and Responsibilities What
  were the slaves rights and responsibilities?
  What were the slave owners rights and
  responsibilities? Have students divide into 2
  groups and present this information to the whole
  class.
• Indicator 3 Describe the responsibilities of
  citizenship with emphasis on respecting the
  rights of others, voting, paying taxes, obeying
  laws and being informed about current issues.
• Benchmark A,Participation Follow the Drinking
  Gourd using the North Star Students will
  identify the North Star using the constellation
  The Little Dipper. Students will discuss how the
  North Star is a constant in the night sky and why
  it was used to lead the slaves to freedom.
  Students will use black or bright blue
  construction paper and chalk to map the
  constellation the Little Dipper and the North
  Star (Polaris). They will also look at the Big
  Dipper to see how the star in the dipper points
  to the North Star. Students will analyze why the
  people in the North made this song to help the
  slaves.
• Indicator 2 Demonstrate effective citizenship
  traits including compassion and respect for the
  rights and dignity of each person.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• Websites
• Classroom Bill of Rights http//www.enchantedlear
  ning.com/history/us/documents/constitution/classro
  omconstitution/
• Underground Railroad
• http//www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/
  1281.html
• Underground Railroad resources in the United
  States
• http//www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/theme
  e.htm
• Underground Railroad
• http//www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASundergro
  und.htm
• Four Routes of the Underground Railroad
• http//www.state.nj.us/state/history/rail
  rd_t.html

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Social Studies Skills and Methods
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Social StudiesSkills and Methods

• Obtaining Information Students in the class
  will create a books of facts on the Underground
  Railroad, using the internet and books as
  sources,to place in the school library. This
  will be informative and formal including citing
  references and their table of contents will be
  specific to lead readers to desired areas of the
  book. This will later be turned into a webpage.
• Indicator Obtain information about the local
  issues from a variety of sources.
• Communicating InformationBased on the activity
  above, students create graphs of the students
  favorite pieces of information. Students will
  first tally on a piece of paper under the
  evidence and as a whole the class will create a
  bar graph.
• Indicator Communicate information using
  pictographs and bar graphs.
• Thinking and Organizing Students will make a
  chart listing what the cause of the slaves escape
  was and the effect that the escape had on the
  slaves lives.
• Indicator Identify possible cause and effect
  relationships.

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Social StudiesSkills and Methods

• Obtaining Information Communicating
  InformationStudents will research the internet
  for the number of houses in Ohio that
  participated in the Underground Railroad. They
  will look for the places on a map of Ohio and put
  the number of houses in a particular town on the
  map.
• Indicators Obtain information about local
  issues from a variety of sources- maps
• Obtain information about state and
  local issues from a variety of print and
  electronic sources, and determine the
  relevance of information to a research topic.
• Thinking and organizingIn small groups, the
  children will discuss how owners of slaves could
  have done things differently so the slaves would
  not want to leave. List five causes that would
  change the effect on the relationship. What could
  the slaves and owners have been called other than
  slaves and owners that would have changed the
  way they both looked at their relationships?
• Indicator 3. Identify possible cause and effect
  relationships.

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Social StudiesSkills and Methods

• Websites
• Ohio's Underground Railroad to Freedom
• http//www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/explore/magazine
  /sprsum96/UNDERGRR.htm
• Underground Railroad Ohio History Central
• http//www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec1
  518
• Runaway Slaves
• http//www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec6
  26
• Underground Railroad Collections
• http//worlddmc.ohiolink.edu/OMP/YourScrapbook?us
  erUGRR
• Underground railroad Resources
• http//www.albany.edu/sg0068/isp523/isp02/resour
  ces.htm

31
References

• Pictureshttp//www.math.buffalo.edu/sww/0history/
  hwny.html

• Words of the slaves
• http//www.africanaonline.com/slavery_codewor
  ds.htm

• Picture Songs of the Underground Railroad
• http//www.kimandreggie.com/steal_cd.htm

• Picture
• http//americanrevwar.homestead.com/files/civwar
  /
• slavery.html