The Underground Railroad

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The Underground Railroad
Alison Sharp Betsy Brown Nancy Kipler Kelly
Campbell Lisa Smith
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The Underground Railroad

• This unit on the Underground Railroad is targeted
  for children in third grade.
• Lessons from this unit, however, could be used
  with any 1st-5th grade.

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The Underground Railroad

• Objectives
• The students will gain an understanding of what
  the Underground Railroad was and its effect on
  our national history.
• Students will learn where the underground
  railroad began and where it ended.
• Students will learn when the Underground
  Railroad took place.

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The Underground Railroad

• Materials needed
• Follow the Drinking Gourd song.
• Map of the Underground Railroad.
• Venn Diagram
• Pictures for picture dictionary

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The Underground RailroadWebsites

• http//www.surfnetkids.com/undergroundrr.htm
• Great interactive website!
• The HeadboneZone
• Interactive site with timelines, stories and
  games.
•  Aboard the Underground Railroad.
• http//www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
• Pictures of the Underground Railroad This is a
  good website and third graders did it!
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html
  
• Travel along with slaves along the Underground
  Railroad.

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The Underground RailroadWebsites

• Websites (cont.)
• Harriet Tubman The Underground Railroad
  http//www2.lhric.org/pocantico/tubman/tubman.html
  
• The students in Mrs. Taverna's second grade
  class at Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow,
  New York created this website.
• Addys Escape to Freedom 
• http//www.americangirl.com/agcn/addy/escape/inde
  x.html
•  History Happens
• Stories from American History on Music Video
• http//www.ushistory.com/railr.htm

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The Underground RailroadActivities

• Follow the Drinking Gourd Song
• Students will learn the words to the song Follow
  the Drinking Gourd.
• Students will be able to translate the song.
• STANDARD People in Societies Cultures 1.
  Compare some of the cultural practices and
  products of various groups of people who have
  lived in the local community including a.
  Artistic expression (Page 122)

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Follow the Drinking Gourd

• Explanation of "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
• When the sun comes back and the first quail
  calls,Follow the Drinking Gourd.For the old man
  is waiting for to carry you to freedom,If you
  follow the Drinking Gourd.
• "When the sun comes back," means winter and
  spring when the altitude of the sun at noon is
  higher each day. Quail are migratory bird
  wintering in the South. The Drinking Gourd is the
  Big Dipper. The old man is Peg Leg Joe. The verse
  tells slaves to leave in the winter and walk
  towards the Drinking Gourd. Eventually they will
  meet a guide who will escort them for the
  remainder of the trip.
• Most escapees had to cross the Ohio River, which
  is too wide and too swift to swim. The Railroad
  struggled with the problem of how to get escapees
  across, and with experience, came to believe the
  best crossing time was winter. Then the river was
  frozen, and escapees could walk across on the
  ice. Since it took most escapees a year to travel
  from the South to the Ohio, the Railroad urged
  slaves to start their trip in winter in order to
  be at the Ohio the next winter.
• The river bank makes a very good road,The dead
  trees show you the way,Left foot, peg foot,
  traveling onFollow the Drinking Gourd.
• This verse taught slaves to follow the bank of
  the Tombigbee River north looking for dead trees
  that were marked with drawings of a left foot and
  a peg foot. The markings distinguished the
  Tombigbee from other north-south rivers that flow
  into it.
•  

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Follow the Drinking Gourd

• The river ends between two hills,Follow the
  Drinking Gourd.There's another river on the
  other side,Follow the Drinking Gourd.
• These words told the slaves that when they
  reached the headwaters of the Tombigbee, they
  were to continue north over the hills until they
  met another river. Then they were to travel north
  along the new river, which is the Tennessee
  River. A number of the southern escape routes
  converged on the Tennessee.
• Where the great big river meets the little
  river,Follow the Drinking Gourd.For the old man
  is awaiting to carry you to freedom if youfollow
  the Drinking Gourd.
• This verse told the slaves the Tennessee joined
  another river. They were to cross that river
  (which is the Ohio River), and on the north bank,
  meet a guide from the Underground Railroad.

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The Underground RailroadActivities

• Map the Math in Miles
• 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 use average calculations to
  determine the total distance traveled and the
  time it took. EX. Traveling 6 miles per day, 7
  days a week.
• 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.
• STANDARD Geography Location 1. Use 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. (Page
  122-123)

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(No Transcript)
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Materials

• Map of eastern part of the United States.
• Rulers
• Paper for computations and to write their
  findings.

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The Underground RailroadActivities

• The Best Time of the Year to Travel the
  Underground Railroad
• 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.
• STANDARD Social Studies Skills and Methods
  Problem solving 6. Use a problem-solving/decision
  -making process, which includes a. identifying a
  problem b. gathering information c. listing and
  considering options d. considering advantages
  and disadvantages of options e choosing and
  implementing a solution. (Page 125)
•  

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The Underground RailroadActivities
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Materials

• Paper for individual Venn Diagrams or notes.
• Venn Diagram large enough for the class to see.

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The Underground RailroadActivities

• Picture Dictionary
• 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.
• STANDARD Social Studies Skills and Methods
  Communicating Information 5. Communicate
  information using pictographs and bar graphs.
  (page 125)
•  

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The Underground RailroadActivities
River crossing safe farmhouse go
this way  
Follow the North Star Travel
at night Over the
mountains    
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Materials

• Songs and poems to use to gather information.
• Paper, crayon, markers to draw and write about
  the pictures, in order to make a picture
  dictionary.

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The Underground RailroadActivities

• Follow the Drinking Gourd using the North Star
• a. Students will identify the North Star using
  the constellation The Little Dipper.
• b. 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.
• c. 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.
• d. Students will analyze why the people in the
  North made this song to help the slaves.
•  STANDARD Citizenship Rights and
  Responsibilities Participation 2. Demonstrate
  effective citizenship traits including a.
  civility/ b. Respect for the rights and dignity
  of each person c. volunteerism d. compromise
  e. compassion f/ persistence in achieving goals
  g. civic-mindedness. (Page 124)
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The Underground RailroadActivities
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Materials

• Pictures of the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper,
  in order to locate the North Star and determine
  the relationship of the Big Dipper to the North
  Star.
• Song Follow the Drinking Gourd
• Book Follow the Drinking Gourd ,by Jeanette Winter

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The Underground RailroadBooks

• Ayres, Katherine. North By Night A Story of the
  Underground Railroad.
• Edwards, Pamela Duncan. Barefoot Escape on the
  Underground Railroad. HarperCollins, 1997.
• Hopkinson, Deborah. Sweet Clara and the Freedom
  Quilt.  New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.
• Hopkinson, Deborah. Under the Quilt of Night. New
  York Atheneum, 1993
• Lasky, Katherine. True North A Novel of the
  Underground Railroad. Blue Sky Press, 1996.
• Wyeth, Sharon Dennis. Freedoms Wings Coreys
  Underground Railroad Diary.Scholastic, 2002
• Winter, Jeanette. Follow the Drinking Gourd.
  Knopf, 1988

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Map of the Underground Railroad
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Pictures
Hiding Spot on the Underground Railroad
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Houses on the Underground Railroad

• Historic Site Listings
• Ohio
• SavannahEzra Garret
• WestervilleBenjamin Hanby House
• AshtabulaCol. William Hubbard House
• RipleyJohn Rankin HouseJohn Parker House

• XeniaRev. Samuel Wilson HomeFerguson
  HomeHilltop Rd. HouseNosker ResidenceLeach
  HouseRodin HouseDavid Monroe HouseDavis House
• OberlinWilson Bruce Evans House

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Houses on the Underground Railroad

• Fosters MillButterworth Foster Home
• BelpreCaptain John Stone House
• IrontonJohn Campbell Home
• BurlingtonMacedonia Church
• HillsboroScott HouseRitten-House
• WilberforceCol. Charles Young HouseThe Maxwell
  HouseHowell Place

• Highland CountyJacob Chapman HouseLyle
  HouseHyer House
• MowrystownGotherman House
• GreenfieldPommerest House
• LincolnvilleEdward Easton House
• ClevelandAshtabula Harbor

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Timeline

• 1501-African Slaves in the New World
• Spanish settlers bring slaves from Africa to
  Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican
  Republic).
• 1619-Slaves in Virginia
• Africans brought to Jamestown are the first
  slaves imported into Britain's North American
  colonies. Like indentured servants, they were
  probably freed after a fixed period of service.
• 1700-First Antislavery Publication
• Massachusetts jurist and printer, Samuel
  Seawell, publishes the first North American
  antislavery tract, The Selling of Joseph.
• 1705-Slaves as Property
• Describing slaves as real estate, Virginia
  lawmakers allow owners to bequeath their slaves.
  The same law allows masters to "kill and destroy"
  runaways.

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Timeline

• 1775-Abolitionist Society
• Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the
  world's first abolitionist society. Benjamin
  Franklin becomes its president in 1787.
• 1776-Declaration of Independence
• The Continental Congress asserts "that these
  United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be
  Free and Independent States."
• 1793-Fugitive Slave Act
• The United States outlaws any efforts to impede
  the capture of runaway slaves. (Also see 1850)
• 1808-United States Bans Slave Trade
• Importing African slaves is outlawed, but
  smuggling continues.
• 1820-Missouri Compromise
• Missouri is admitted to the Union as a slave
  state, Maine as a free state. Slavery is
  forbidden in any subsequent territories north of
  latitude 3630'.

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Timeline

• 1834-1838-Slavery in England
• England abolishes slavery in its colonies
  including Jamaica, Barbados, and other West
  Indian territories.
• 1850-Compromise of 1850
• In exchange for California's entering the Union
  as a free state, northern congressmen accept a
  harsher Fugitive Slave Act different from the
  previous one of 1793.
• 1854-Kansas-Nebraska Act
• Setting aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820,
  Congress permits these two new territories to
  choose whether to allow slavery. Violent clashes
  erupt.
• 1857-Dred Scott Decision
• The United States Supreme Court decides, seven
  to two, that blacks can never be citizens and
  that Congress has no authority to outlaw slavery
  in any territory.

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Timeline

• 1860-Abraham Lincoln Elected
• Abraham Lincoln of Illinois becomes the first
  Republican to win the United States Presidency.
• 1861-65-United States Civil War
• Four years of brutal conflict claim 623,000
  lives.
• 1862
• On September 22, Lincoln drafts the preliminary
  Emancipation Proclamation. The final is issued on
  January 1, 1863.
• 1863-Emancipation Proclamation
• President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all
  slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1,
  1863. The Proclamation only freed those slaves in
  states that were in rebellion against the United
  States. The proclamation did not free slaves in
  the states that never left the Union.
• 1865-Slavery Abolished
• The 13th Amendment to the United States
  Constitution outlaws slavery.
•  

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Field Trips
National Underground Freedom Center

• 50 East Freedom WayCincinnati, Ohio
  45202Telephone [phone] or
  877.648.4838Open Tuesday - Sunday 1100 - 500
  Ticket Prices 12 Adults, 10 Seniors, 8
  Children, Children under six are FREE

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Field Trips
Freedom Center Exhibits
Escape! Freedom Seekers and the Underground
Railroad provides families and students with a
concise, age-appropriate summary of the history
of the Underground Railroad

• A Freedom Hero is an individual or group that
  takes action to protect or extend freedom.

The Slave Pen is an authentic structure that
serves as a centerpiece of reflection and stark
reality within the Freedom Center.
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Field Trips
John P Parker House Ripley, Ohio

• Open weekends through December during the
  following hours
• Saturdays 10-5Sundays 1-5
• Tours may be arranged at any time by contacting
  us to schedule an appointment by calling
  937-392-4188.
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• Admission3.00 Adults (19 above) 1.00
  Students (5-18)Free Children (birth to 4)
  Directions

330 N Front Street Ripley, OH 45167
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Areas of Interest

• The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum
• Canada was the promised land for the
  thousands of slaves. They followed the North
  Star until they reached the border to safety.
• One one hour from Detroit, North Buxton is an
  example of a town where these escapees settled.
• The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum
  features an 1861 school house, build by the
  escaped slaves to educate their children. As
  well as a Baptist church built and attended by
  the former slaves.

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The Buxton National Historic Site and Museum
Buxton School class picture 1910.
Buxton Baptist Church
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Areas of Interest

• Old Slave Mart
• Charleston, South Carolina
• It is estimated that 40 of the slaves entered
  the US to be sold in slave markets such as this
  one in Charleston.
• This is now part of an open air market, where
  African descendants can be seen weaving baskets
  and selling their wares. These artisans speak a
  dialect called Gullah and are born storytellers.

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Old Slave Mart Charleston, South Carolina

• The Old Slave Mart shown here was opened in 1852.
  It was in this building where slaves were
  auctioned off after being inspected in the
  courtyard. In 1879 the bars were removed and the
  building was made into a two story living
  quarters. In 1938 it was opened as the Slave Mart
  Museum, making it the oldest black museum of
  slave artifacts in America. (www.gullahtours.com)