The Underground Railroad: Three Perspectives
By Tracy Ajello

Overview

In this lesson, students use the map of The Underground Railroad on the slaveryinamerica.org web site and assume the role(s) of three different participants in the Underground Railroad: a runaway slave, a slave catcher, and an Underground Railroad station conductor. They will evaluate the characters’ motivations and actions from each point of view, then share their discoveries with the class through diary writing or drama. This lesson is appropriate for the fifth-eighth grades.

Curriculum Standards

For a list of standards that this unit addresses, click here.

Time required

At least three, 45-minute to one-hour class periods (one to plan and begin research, one to research and write, and one to share and assess.)

Materials

• Secret Signs by Anita Riggio
• Other books, you may decide to choose (see Option One in the Lesson, Day One, Procedures section)
• Access to the Internet and/or library so each group has materials, such as:


• http://www.waynet.org/nonprofit/coffin.htm (good source for how one Underground Railroad station worked and access to great links)
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/states.htm (links to Underground Railroad stations in USA)
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ulrnmore.htm (great links to research all issues)
• http://www.nps.gov/undergroundrr/ugsum.htm
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/ugrr/exuggr4.htm (written from M.S. and H.S.)
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/ugrr/exuggr3.htm
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/ugrr/exuggr2.htm
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/aahistory/travel/travel.htm
• http://www.indianahistory.org/heritage/levic.html
• http://education.ucdavis.edu/new/stc/lesson/socstud/railroad/contents.htm (great links to personal narratives, literature, music, maps, etc.)
• http://education.ucdavis.edu/new/stc/lesson/socstud/railroad/BrentEsc.htm
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/delta/underground/slave.htm
• http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/opugrr.htm
• http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/lp2.html
• http://sortorfamily.theenchantedforest.com/Underground_Railroad/underground_railroad.html
• http://sortorfamily.theenchantedforest.com/Slave_Owners/slave_owners.html
• http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/ugrr/home.html
• http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/ugrr/hor5.html
• http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/ugrr/hor7.html
• http://www.niagara.edu/cam/special/ugr/ugrstations.html
• http://www.nps.gov/inde/archeology/NRamend.htm

The Lesson

1. Lesson Day One
   
   Anticipatory Set
   
   
   1. Share the map of the Underground Railroad with the class to explore the meaning of the Underground Railroad in U.S. history. Facilitate students in brainstorming reasons why slaves would run.
   
   
   
   2. Have students read the Historical Overview Essay section on Escaping Slavery.
   
   
   
   3. Ask them to identify groups of people that would be affected by the Underground Railroad.
   
   
   
   4. Write drapetominia on board and ask students to predict what it means. (It means: "running away disease.")
   
   
   
   5. Divide the class into three groups (slave catcher, runaway, Underground Railroad station conductor) and tell them they will:
   
   
   • Investigate, research, and evaluate motivation and details about roles.
   • Complete their portion of graphic organizer as they research
   • Share discoveries with class later.
   • Write diary entries from their point of view and act out their roles for class.
   • Actively listen, as a class, to all presentations and add information to the graphic organizer.
   
   Procedures
   
   
   1. Read Secret Signs by Anita Riggio. (You might want to read this picture book aloud, as it is an easy five-minute and gets kids thinking of one incident from three perspectives. You can get it online for as little as five dollars.)
   
   
   
   2. Create a three-way Venn diagram on the board for three characters: slave catcher, runaway, and Underground Railroad station conductor.
   
   
   
   3. You could also consider building either of the following options into your lesson:
   
   
   Option One: For differentiated learning options (reading levels), or if you’d like to do literature theme, here are some other literature options:
   
   
   • Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco: another great read-aloud to discuss the same event from two different points of view. (It’s great for all ages, and I’ve used it successfully with adults.) You also could choose to read this on Day Two.
   
   
   
   • Hidden in Plain View A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D.: for higher level readers.
   
   
   
   • Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt: a children’s book based on a story the author heard and the nine patch plantation map.
   
   
   
   • The Journal of James Edmond Pease, A Civil War Union Soldier, Virginia, 1863 by Jim Murphy: another perspective on the Underground Railroad.
   
   
   
   • Silent Thunder, A Civil War Story by Andrea Davis Pinkney: a novel for fifth-seventh grade reading level students and from different point of view.
   
   
   
   • Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
   
   Option Two: If you wanted to spend more time reading, note taking, analyzing and gathering information, you could have each group read each selection, share what they learn, and then switch.
   
   4. After reading Secret Signs, have students journal or discuss these issues:
      
      
      • Why are Luke and Mama willing to risk their lives to deliver the messages in the eggs?
      
      
      
      • Why did the man feel he had the right to terrorize the family and take the boy to the store?
      
      
      
      • What kind of risk was the girl taking? How would you have felt?
      
      
      
      • What message does this story give about the way an individual understands his present life in relation to his or her culture, traditions, and heritage?
      
      
      
      • The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 made it a crime, among other things, to assist an escaped slave. Read about and evaluate this law.
      
      
   5. With students, generate a list of possible signs (quilt designs, paint on chimney) for Underground Railroad stations.
   
   
   
   6. Look at the Underground Railroad Map. Have students draw a map and plan a route on the Underground Railroad, remembering that there were approximately 10-20 miles between stops.
   
   
2. Lesson Day Two
   
   Procedures
   
   
   1. With the class, read and listen to some slave narratives, focusing on ones in which they talk about their escape from slavery. See the Narratives/Biographies section of this site and some good external sites with documented slave narratives:
   
   
   • This site: Narratives/Biographies
   
   
   
   • Other sites:
   • http://www.slavenarratives.com/narr/samp.htm
   • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASdomestic.htm
   
   
   2. Now, divide the class in thirds and assign each group to write or act out their diary of a runaway slave, slave catcher, or Underground Railroad conductor. Make sure students follow these guidelines when writing about their characters:
   
   
   • "Slaves" must address the reason they are running, and their plan and hopes.
   • "Slave Catchers" must address their reasons for hunting down the slaves.
   • "Underground Railroad Conductors" must explain why they are willing to risk their lives and livelihood to help slaves get to freedom.
   
   
   3. Have students share their viewpoints with the class.
   
   
   
   4. Then, ask students to complete the appropriate section of the graphic organizer with their point of view. As other class members share, students will fill in the rest of their graphic organizer for all three roles.
   
   
   
   5. Have students write diary entries, including a map of station stops, on how they felt and what they saw, said, observed, and did. They should reflect on their motivation and prepare to act out their roles for class. (They will have characters from two other groups in their skit.)
   
   
   
   6. Students should finish the graphic organizers for homework and hand them in for an assessment.
   
   
3. Lesson Day Three
   
   Procedures
   
   
   1. Ask students to share their diary entries.
   2. Have the class discuss the state of mind of the diary characters.
   3. As a bridge to studying the Emancipation Proclamation in more depth, ask students to speculate on the effect of Lincoln’s Proclamation on slaves and slavery. For the text of the Emancipation Proclamation, click here: http://www.nps.gov/ncro/anti/emancipation.html.

• Abolitionist: an individual who held strong anti-slavery views


• African Diaspora


• Bondsperson: someone held in servitude to another as human property


• Coffle: a group of enslaved individuals transported over land for sale


• Conductor: an individual who helped escaping persons move from station to station on the Underground Railroad


• Drapetominia: running away disease


• Enslave: to force another into bondage


• Manumit: to free


• Maroons: runaways who escaped


• Middle Passage: the trip across the Atlantic Ocean to slavery

1. Write a novel to share with fifth and sixth graders (Use the "Dear America" series as model) or write a Patricia Polocco-inspired picture book from the point of view of either a runaway slave or those people who helped guide and hide fleeing slaves.



2. Put themselves in the positions of slaves who chose not to run and explain their choice.



3. Listen to several slave spirituals and then write a song that slaves would have sung to pray, hope, and/or plan for freedom.



4. Read and listen to narratives of slaves who escaped and then returned to their masters, and discuss their reasons for doing so.

Assessment Options

Each lesson element has an assessment piece for which teachers can create a rubric for grading:

1. Literature reflection questions; 3-way Venn diagram point of view



2. Journal questions and graphic organizer



3. Diary entries

• What did this statement, "Sometimes it takes courage to do what needs doing," mean in ____________ (fill in year you chose from your diary). What does it mean to you today?



• What effect did the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 have on slavery from all three perspectives (runaway slave, Underground Railroad conductor, slave catcher)?



• What effect did President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation have on all three participants’ perspectives?

Tracy Ajello is a teacher at the Doolittle School in Connecticut.