Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6

Legacy of the Underground Railroad

SUBJECTS

Language Arts, History, Social Studies

GRADE LEVEL

6–9

LESSON SUMMARY

What is the legacy of the Underground Railroad? Students explore this question through the use of primary sources, monuments and newspaper articles.

OBJECTIVES

Students will: 1. Become aware of legacies to the Underground Railroad. 2. Interpret newspaper articles. 3. Interpret primary sources.

OHIO ACADEMIC CONTENT STANDARDS

See Lesson Correlations on page 17.

TIME NEEDED

3 to 4 class periods

MATERIALS

See each individual activity.

TECHNOLOGY

Computer with Internet access Safe Passage video Safe Passage CD-ROM 163 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

VO CA BU LARY

Legacy — Something that is transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.

NOTES FOR THE TEACHER

There are four major activities in this lesson. Choose those that will work best in your classroom. It is suggested that you use only one activity each day.

PREPARATION

Make copies of Handouts 1–7 (as needed) for students.

PROCEDURE

1. The Meaning of Legacy Write the word LEGACY on the board or an overhead projector. Ask the students if they know what the word means. According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, legacy is something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.

Discuss the legacies of Wilbur and Orville Wright, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Neil Armstrong. Ask students to determine what legacy they would like to leave to future generations. Brainstorm with students the legacy of the Underground Railroad (e.g., people, places, things, emotions, etc.).

2. Monuments Monuments are tributes to a legacy. Students will become more familiar with the creation of monuments through a webquest at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (http://www.freedomcenter.org/freedomquests/monuments/).

3. Rankin Monument Before beginning this activity, have the class watch the Rankin segment of the Safe Passage video.

In May 1892 the Rankin Monument was dedicated. Distribute Handout 1 and allow students 20 minutes to complete in small groups. Handout 1 has photographs of the monument dedication and how the monument looks today. Consider having a copy of the photographs projected for all to see. Discuss as a class and record thoughts. Keep student interpretations displayed in the classroom.

After reviewing the photograph of the Rankin monument dedication, reenact the dedication of this monument or another monument close to where you live. The dedication will be a class project with students working in groups and planning the 164 logistics of the ceremony. Handout 2 provides a planning guide for students. Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6

Reporters from The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Afro-American newspapers would be present for this dedication. Choose some students to write headline articles from the perspective of each newspaper.

Mastheads for period newspapers can be found at the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) website (http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/index.stm). Have students create their own front page for the newspaper. Insert mastheads found at the OHS website on the student newspapers. Consider having students include articles of national and international importance for the front page of their newspaper for May 1892. A list of African-American Ohio newspapers can be found on the OHS website (http://dbs.ohiohistory.org/africanam/nwspaper/index.cfm).

4. Hartford Courant The issues of slavery are present today. On July 4, 2000, The Hartford Courant, the nation’s oldest newspaper, published an article,“Courant Complicity in an Old Wrong,” which apologizes for running ads in the 1700s and 1800s that supported the sale and capture of slaves. Have students read the article (Handout 3), using the questions on Handout 4 as a guide through the original article.

Have students write a response to the Hartford Courant. Encourage students to support opinions with documented facts and quotes from the article. They should be sure not to lift a quote out of context.

Next, have students read the responses published by a conservative writer at the National Review Online (Handout 5), a liberal writer at The Guardian (Handout 6) and the Associated Press (Handout 7). Have students answer the corresponding questions on Handout 4.

Next, have students (individually or in small groups) answer the questions on Handout 8 for each of the three response articles (The Guardian, National Review Online and the Associated Press). As a class discussion, analyze the qualities of a “good response” to an original article.

165 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

ASSESSMENT

Provide students with these directions: You are the descendant of one of the people spotlighted in Safe Passage (i.e., Arnold Gragston, Levi and Catherine Coffin, John P.Parker, John and Jean Rankin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Josiah Henson, Margaret Garner). Research and develop a memory book that you can give to the next generation in your family. To tell the story of your ancestor, include timelines, maps, charts, graphs, illustrations, primary sources, letters or representative objects such as a needle, thread, fabric (to represent a doll), etc. Although some items in your book may be ones you created, all information must be based on fact. Include a works cited page for this project. Example: Catherine Coffin sewed dolls for young children passing through her house. The dolls were to comfort the children as they continued their journey. A piece of fabric, needle and thread would represent this practice.

An assessment rubric is provided. Consider providing the assessment to students in advance, so they can successfully meet the expectations of the project.

LESSON EXTENSIONS

EXTENSION 1 Rebuses are groups of letters, numbers, pictures, etc., that represent words or phrases. Prepare a rebus of terms from the Underground Railroad. Suggested terms would include the following: Underground Railroad, John Rankin, Levi Coffin, Ohio River, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John P.Parker, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Margaret Garner,Abraham Lincoln, North Star, Ripley, freedom, slavery, fugitive, courage, runaway. Pretend students’ rebuses would be published in the Cincinnati Enquirer or the Afro-American. Students should decide which newspaper would be suitable for their rebus.

EXTENSION 2 Students will research and create their own legacies to the Underground Railroad by creating poems, stories, plays, songs or pictures. Select one of the following from the Safe Passage program: Underground Railroad, Ohio River,Arnold Gragston, Ripley, John P.Parker, Quakers, Levi Coffin, abolitionist, Emancipation Proclamation, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, John Rankin, Josiah Henson, Margaret Garner. Other subjects may include North Star, Amazing Grace, Drinking Gourd, courage of fugitive slaves, lighted lamp. Be sure each legacy has a title.

166 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

WEBSITES Newspaper Apologizes for Slave Sale Ads http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1076331

A Newspaper Apologizes on Nation's Birthday http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20000707tony.asp

Church Apologizes for Role in Slavery http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2001/06/15/ke061501s37787.htm

Benin Ambassador Apologizes for Slavery http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/6193032.htm

21st Century Slaves – National Geographic http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0309/feature1/index.html

Last Voyage of the Slave Ship Henrietta Marie – National Geographic http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0208/feature4/

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html

Kentucky’s Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom http://www.ket.org/underground/

Levi Coffin House http://www.waynet.wayne.in.us/nonprofit/coffin.htm

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center http://www.freedomcenter.org/

Autobiography of Josiah Henson http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/henson49/menu.html

UC Davis Underground Railroad Site http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/contents.htm

167 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

PRINT RESOURCES Berlin, Ira, Marc Favreau and Steven F.Miller, editors. Remembering Slavery:Africans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Freedom. New York: The Press, 1998.

Bial, Raymond. The Underground Railroad. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

Fradin, Dennis. Bound for the North Star:True Stories of Fugitive Slaves. New York: Clarion Books, 2000.

Hamilton,Virginia. Many Thousand Gone:African Americans From Slavery to Freedom. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.

Haskins, James and Kathleen Benson. Following Freedom’s Star: The Story of the Underground Railroad. New York: Benchmark Books, 2002.

Sanders, Nancy I. A Kid’s Guide to African American History. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2000.

Sawyer, Kem Knapp. The Underground Railroad in American History. Berkeley Heights, New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 1997.

Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 2002.

“The Underground Railroad and the Antislavery Movement.” Cobblestone. February 2003.

168 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 ASSESSMENT ASSESSMENT RUBRIC – LEGACY

Name ______Date______The project/presentation contains The project/presentation or spelling errors.no grammatical within used correctly Citations are of the paper and a works the text is included. cited page the is above Vocabulary level. expected The project/presentation spelling or three contains two errors.or grammatical in the used correctly Citations are majority of the paper and a works with two is included cited page errors.to three is at the Vocabulary level. expected The project/presentation spelling or five contains four errors.or grammatical not used correctly. Citations are cited page. is no works There the is below Vocabulary level. expected • • • • • • • • • The project/presentation has eye The project/presentation appeal with a title and name of visible. the student clearly contains The project/presentation an introductory paragraph, body with supporting detail and a conclusion. has The project/presentation some eye appeal with a title and the name of student clearly visible. is The project/presentation stated missing or has not clearly the introduction, with body supporting detail and a conclusion. has no The project/presentation eye appeal or the title name of the student is missing. is The project/presentation missing or has not clearly of the following:stated two the introduction, with supporting body detail and a conclusion. • • • • • • Twenty or more or more Twenty facts, concepts or are interpretations in the included project/presentation. to 20 facts, Fifteen concepts or are interpretations in the included project/presentation. Less than 15 facts, concepts or are interpretations in the included project/presentation. NEEDS OUTSTANDING SATISFACTORY IMPROVEMENT 169 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

JOHN AND JEAN RANKIN MONUMENT DEDICATION

Name ______Date______HANDOUT 1 HANDOUT

Source: Ohio Historical Society

Study the photograph of the dedication of the Rankin monument, May 1892, Ripley Cemetery.

1. When did John Rankin and his wife, Jean Lowery Rankin, die?

______

2. How long had they been dead before the monument’s dedication?

______

3. Where is the monument? Why do you think this site was selected?

______

4. Describe the people who attended the ceremony. (Examples: age, gender, race, economic status, dress, etc.).

______

170 ______Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 1 5. Who would attend a ceremony dedicating a monument to John and Jean Rankin?

______

6. What do you think the flag represents?______

______

7. How many people attended the ceremony?

______

8. How do you think the African Americans present at the dedication felt?

______

171 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

RANKIN DEDICATION CEREMONY

The dedication of the Rankin Monument was held in May 1892. Pretend it was your job to organize the event.

Prepare the guest list and program for this ceremony. A possible program guide might include the following: Introduction of special guests (family members, friends, political officials, former fugitive slave, etc.) Keynote speaker discussing the lives of John and Jean Rankin A friend of John Rankin—a fellow abolitionist paying tribute A former fugitive slave paying tribute to John Rankin Poem dedicated to John and Jean Rankin Rev. John Rankin Song performed by the band, choir, individual or previously recorded Closing remarks—Discuss what you hope people 200 years from today will think

HANDOUT 2 HANDOUT when they see this monument and hear the name of John Rankin. What is John Rankin’s legacy?

Planning for the ceremony: Design an invitation (appropriate to the time period). Prepare a guest list and send invitations. Designate key players in the ceremony. Prepare a program guide. Invite press to cover the ceremony. Invite reporters and photographers from the Cincinnati Enquirer (white-read newspaper) and from the Afro-American (black-read newspaper). A reception following the ceremony is optional (serve period food).

172 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 3 THE HARTFORD COURANT

July 4, 2000

COURANT COMPLICITY IN AN OLD WRONG Newspaper’s Founder Published Ads in Support of the Sale and Capture of Slaves

By Jesse Leavenworth and Kevin Canfield; Courant Staff Writers

“To be sold... When Aetna Inc. apologized in March for insuring slaves, The Courant ran the story on the front page.

“…a likely, healthy, good-natured NEGRO BOY...

In another Page 1 story the next day, the paper explored the complicity of other businesses in propping up the nation’s shameful institution.

“about 15 years old...

But the stories about Connecticut’s slave profiteers had a glaring omission: The Courant itself.

“…Inquire of T.Green.’’

From its founding in 1764 well into the 19th century, The Courant ran many ads for the sale and capture of human beings, including the example above from May 1765. In effect, Courant publishers, including founder Thomas Green, profited from the slave trade.

It was accepted practice. Slavery was so woven into the nation’s economy and social fabric that such ads were probably less controversial than gun or tobacco marketing would be today.

“I don’t know of any newspaper which took a stand against taking advertisements for slaves unless they were [abolitionist] papers that were committed to ending slavery,’’ said Ira Berlin, a professor of African American history at the University of Maryland and author of the acclaimed 1999 book Many Thousands Gone:The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America.

Scholars have long known about the prevalence of such ads, but Hartford students researching the city’s African-American heritage were astounded.“I will never, ever forget the looks of dismay on their faces as they were scrolling through all the microfilm and finding these ads and for-sale notices,’’said former Hartford teacher Billie Anthony, who helped middle school students with the research several years ago.

One of those young black students,Andriena Baldwin, said she remembered in particular an ad listing a young boy along with pigs, butter and other commodities for trade.“We just stood there for, like, five minutes,’’said Baldwin, who will be a senior this fall at Westminster School in Simsbury.“We were just shocked that they would put a person 173 in the same category as food.’’ LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

Detailed Descriptions Blacks had been enslaved in the state since 1640. They were used primarily as domestic servants and farmhands. Many of the state’s prominent families -- Wadsworths, Seymours and Wyllyses -- owned slaves. In 1774, Connecticut had the most black residents among the New England colonies -- about 6,500 people, representing about 3 percent of the population. The black slaves in this region, for the most part, did not face the dawn-to- dusk, stooping labor and intense abuse suffered by their counterparts in the mid-Atlantic and Southern states.

“The treatment of slaves was different at the North from the South; at the North they were admitted to be a species of the human family,’’James Mars, a former slave who lived in the northwest corner of the state and the Hartford area, wrote in his autobiography. Still, African Americans in Colonial Connecticut could not vote, had to carry passes outside the towns where they lived and could be whipped for minor transgressions, including any threat to a white person. They could be sold away from their families at any time.

In his 1798 autobiography,former Connecticut slave Venture Smith told of being separated from his wife and young daughter for 18 months. He also wrote about a run-in with his owner’s wife and the beating he suffered when the master returned.“I received a most violent stroke on the crown of my head with a club two feet long and as large around as a chair post,’’Smith wrote.“This blow very badly wounded my head, and the scar of it

HANDOUT 3 HANDOUT remains to this day.’’

Some of this abuse surfaced in the newspaper ads for runaways, generally the only forum in which slave owners had to be completely honest about the condition of their property. The ads, which described scars, brandings and amputations, bolstered abolitionists’ arguments that slavery was evil. The detailed descriptions, right down to the pewter buttons on one runaway’s coat, also proved a treasure for historians researching slavery.

“Those ads have become extremely useful to scholars because they are one of the few places that describe slaves physically, their appearance, what type of clothes they wore, whether they were literate, what type of talents they had,’’said Richard Newman, research officer at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University. “While slaves are treated impersonally as a group, when one runs away, then we get a personal description.’’

Slave hunters pored over the ads, looking for runaways with prices on their heads. “It was a professional job -- just like bounty hunters,’’Newman said.“It’s a major enterprise.’’ However, Karl Valois, a history professor at the University of Connecticut, said slave hunters were rare in the state.“There wouldn’t have been enough fugitive slaves in Connecticut or the North, for that matter, to make it worthwhile,’’Valois said.

Almost all of the ads for runaways did offer cash rewards. Many owners also offered to cover expenses of those who returned slaves. The Courant was circulated throughout the state, so citizens looking for supplementary income would have taken notice.

174 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 3 Complicity The question, then, is: How successful were the ads and how much did The Courant profit from slavery?

The full answer will never be known, but historians say the fact that slave owners continued paying for the newspaper space—about 25 cents in 1768 for 10 lines running for three weeks—shows they had some effect.

“At least in the Colonial period, they did seem to work,’’Berlin said.“The runaways followed the same transportation routes that newspapers did. It would raise an alarm along that path.’’“The ads had to be effective,’’Newman said.“There’s no photography so there has to be physical descriptions.’’

Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, a 34-year-old lawyer and activist whose research into Aetna Inc.’s 19th century practice of insuring the lives of slaves prompted the company to issue a public apology in March, said she would not rule out asking The Courant and other newspapers that ran slave ads to apologize. But Farmer-Paellmann said such ads have not been a priority in her research. Farmer-Paellmann said she hopes to establish a trust to hold restitution payments dedicated to improving the living standards and education of black Americans.“I have not actually considered newspapers in that context,’’she said. “What I thought about at one time was whether any of the papers actually had slaves working for them. That is probably what I’d be more interested in.“But I would say that if you would like to make an apology, that’s great,’’she said.

“Unfortunately, the practice of advertising for slaves was commonplace in newspapers prior to abolition,’’said Ken DeLisa, a spokesman for The Courant. “We are not proud of that part of our history and apologize for any involvement by our predecessors at The Courant in the terrible practice of buying and selling human beings that took place in previous centuries.“In fact, The Courant has editorially called on the president and on Congress to acknowledge ‘a dreadful part of their nation’s otherwise grand legacy’ and issue an apology on behalf of our government (“Should There Be An Apology?’’June 22, 1997). We can do no less as an institution,’’DeLisa said.

That’s a long way from the views of editors and owners early in The Courant’s history. The paper was never pro-slavery; editors took strong stands against its expansion into new territories. But the views of early editors were undeniably racist. Thomas Day, who bought the paper in 1855, often gave readers large doses of his—hence the paper’s— racial theory.

“We believe the Caucasian variety of the human species superior to the Negro variety; and we would breed the best stock,’’Day wrote in one editorial.

The Courant did not openly embrace emancipation until the Civil War was well under way. Nevertheless, many Northerners thought slavery did not mesh with the Revolutionary cry for freedom, and slave ads throughout the region began to fade soon after local patriots took up arms against their British oppressors.

175 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

“From about the Revolution on, the economic importance of those ads just continually declined in Northern newspapers. They become rare in Northern newspapers around 1810,’’said John Nerone, a professor of media studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. But they did appear occasionally in The Courant, until at least 1823. In August of that year, Elijah Billings of Somers placed an ad announcing that “a mulatto boy’’named William Lewis had run off. Notably, Billings offered a reward of only one penny for William’s return. Slavery was outlawed in the state in 1848.

Billie Anthony, the former Hartford teacher who now teaches in Bloomfield, says she and her students were, in the end, grateful that history had been preserved in The Courant’s slave ads.“The nation’s oldest continuously published newspaper is a treasure for historians,’’she said.“The complicity of the Connecticut Courant in the slave trade is evident, and we may not always like what we find, but the truth is valuable.’’

Reprinted with permission of TMS Reprints and The Hartford Courant. HANDOUT 3 HANDOUT

176 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 4 HANDOUT HARTFORD COURANT

Read the article that was published in the Hartford Courant, America’s oldest newspaper. Write your answers to the following questions on a separate piece of paper.

1. Write a response to this article. Do you agree or disagree with the position of the newspaper?

2. Why did the newspaper print this article?

3. What is the significance of the date on which it was published? Do you think this was planned? Why or why not?

4. If you were the current owner of the Hartford Courant would you have published the article? Support your thoughts.

RESPONSES TO THE HARTFORD COURANT Read three articles responding to the Hartford Courant article. Write your answers to the following questions on a separate piece of paper.

Read the response from The Guardian (Liberal View). 1. Does Michael Ellison, the columnist, agree with the article published in the Hartford Courant? How does he support his position in this response? Be sure to give supporting details from the article.

2. Does he think other newspapers should begin to apologize for their part in slavery?

3. List statements that are opinions of the author.

Read the response from the National Review Online (Conservative View). 1. Does Michael Graham, the columnist, agree with the article published in the Hartford Courant? How does he support his position in this response? Be sure to give supporting details from the article.

2. Does he think other newspapers should begin to apologize for their part in slavery?

3. List statements that are opinions of the author.

Read the response from the Associated Press. 1. Does the Associated Press agree with the article published in the Hartford Courant? How does the AP support its position in this response? Be sure to give supporting details from the article.

2. Does the AP think other newspapers should begin to apologize for their part in slavery?

3. List statements that are opinions of the author.

177 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

THE NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE

July 6, 2000

AU COURANT! A p.c. stunt from the nation’s oldest newspaper sets a dangerous precedent.

By Michael Graham, political columnist and talk radio host in South Carolina

After carefully reading the front page of the Hartford Courant, perusing various wire stories and interviewing the paper’s deputy publisher, I can confidently report the following: On Wednesday, July 5th, somebody apologized to somebody else for something to do with slavery. Beyond that is only conjecture.

That there was a news story is beyond doubt. Wednesday’s front-page lead was “A Courant Complicity, An Old Wrong,”in which the paper revealed that “From its founding in 1764 well into the 19th century, The Courant ran many ads for the sale and capture of human beings. It was accepted practice. Slavery was so woven into the nation’s economy and social fabric that such ads were probably less controversial than gun or tobacco marketing would be today.”

HANDOUT 5 “We are not proud of that part of our history and apologize for any involvement by our predecessors at The Courant in the terrible practice of buying and selling human beings,” said the newspaper’s spokesman, Ken DeLisa.

But get past the hang-dog headline and the token shame, and what did The Courant actually do — other than set the dangerous precedent that media owners are responsible for the content of their ads?

First, note that the apology is not directed to anyone — not to slaves, their descendants, or the descendants of The Courant’s 19th-century readers who died serving in the Union army helping to bring an end to slavery.

Secondly, and more interestingly, the apology also comes from no one in particular. Are the paper’s current owners, the Tribune Company of Chicago, apologizing on behalf of The Courant’s predecessors? Their immediate predecessor is the Times Mirror company, who owned the paper from 1979 until this year.

The fact is, The Courant has changed hands repeatedly in the last 200 years. At one point in the mid-1800s, it was owned by Thomas Day, whose views would be considered virulently racist today but who was in the mainstream of Western thought in 1855. Later, the paper became a major booster of Abraham Lincoln’s and supporting his candidacy in 1860.

Which begs the question, precisely what is The Courant apologizing for? They did not issue an apology for any specific editorial stances taken by editors of the past. And when I spoke to deputy publisher Lou Golden, he was quick to point out that the slavery-related ads they ran were neither unusual or illegal at the time.“We weren’t doing anything other 178 newspapers weren’t,”he told me. Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 5 So, having established that the paper did nothing wrong (given the Zeitgeist of the moment), that on the issue of slavery and racism The Courant was as progressive as any national paper, Golden proceeded to apologize again.

“On our editorial pages, we have called on Congress to issue a national apology for slavery. We’ve also written about other companies that profited from slavery like Aetna (a Connecticut-based insurance company which apologized for issuing insurance policies on slaves). We felt we should hold ourselves to those same standards,”he said.

So I asked him:“No doubt, The Courant has run ads in the past for tobacco, for guns, even for private schools which denied admission to Jews and blacks. Does The Courant intend to apologize for these?”

No plans at this time, he said.

“If you’re really attempting to right a wrong committed by your ‘institution,’do you intend to track down the descendants of these advertisers and refund their money in inflation-adjusted dollars?” I asked.

No plans at this time.

“Isn’t this just a political-correctness stunt that will make the editors at The Courant feel better about themselves while muddying the history of your paper and exacerbating race relations?”

He declined to answer the question.

But there was one question that even Mr. Golden conceded was troubling, namely, the precedent that media outlets are responsible for the morality of the content of their ad spaces. After all, if The Courant must apologize today for legal, publicly accepted ads of the 18th century, then these same Courant employees must feel some responsibility for the content of the ads they allow to run today.

“Is The Hartford Courant in the business of limiting speech in its ad spaces to only those advertisers who are politically correct?” I asked Mr. Golden.

He declined a direct answer, but he acknowledged that it put newspapers and other media outlets in a precarious spot. How do you accept moral responsibility for someone else’s speech without limiting their freedom to speak?

So I offered this example:“If PETA wins their political fight in the future, will The Courant apologize for every steakhouse ad currently running in the paper? What about hospitals that currently perform abortions, or ads for political candidates that support or oppose affirmative action.”

“Hey,”I demanded,“how about apologizing to America for Lowell Weicker?”

He hadn’t thought of that, he said, but they currently had no plans. 179 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

Exactly. As is so often the case with political posturing by self-righteous members of the media, there was no thought of the consequences. Conservatives are already seeing the suppression of ideas in paid advertisements. In 1998, for example, three Santa Monica, CA TV stations refused to run ads by an anti-abortion group as part of a congressional primary. Similar stories abound about pro-life, pro-Second Amendment and other conservative messages being banned from ads in print and on the airwaves.

The decision by the current ownership of The Hartford Courant to swim with the au courant tide of political correctness was a cost-free step on the path of self-righteousness. But it has indirectly added another brick to the road away from a free press and the free exchange of ideas.

Reprinted with permission of the author. HANDOUT 5

180 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 6 HANDOUT THE GUARDIAN

July 6, 2000

SLAVERY LINK SHAMES NEWSPAPER America’s oldest publication makes front-page apology for profiting from trade in lives.

By Michael Ellison in New York

As corrections and clarifications go it was late and long, but America’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication has apologized for its complicity in the slave trade nearly 180 years ago.

In an 1,800-word article on its front page, the Hartford Courant in Connecticut said it felt obliged to acknowledge that it had profited from advertisements for the sale of slaves and the recapture of runaways until at least 1823.

“We are not proud of that part of our history and apologize for any involvement by our predecessors at the Courant in the terrible practice of buying and selling human beings that took place in previous centuries,”said Ken DeLisa, a spokesman for the paper, which sells more than 200,000 copies a day.

The adverts—which cost 25 cents for 10 lines in three issues in the mid-18th century— included detailed descriptions of scars, brandings and amputations.

One read:“To be sold, a likely, healthy, good-natured Negro boy about 15 years old. Inquire of T. Green.”

This was Thomas Green, who founded the paper in 1764 and who acted, among other things, as a slave broker.

The Courant’s role in the trade was raised by Billie Anthony, a teacher whose students found 90 of the adverts while researching African-American history in colonial Connecticut.

She raised the issue after the paper ran a series of pieces earlier this year about an insurance company which apologized for having sold policies to slave owners.

“The stories about Connecticut’s slave profiteers had a glaring omission: the Courant itself,”said the paper.

“It was accepted practice. Slavery was so woven into the nation’s economy and social fabric that such ads were probably less controversial than gun or tobacco marketing would be today.”

But Ms Anthony said:“I will never, ever forget the looks of dismay on their [the students’] faces as they were scrolling through all the microfilm and finding these ads and for-sale notices. The complicity of the Courant in the slave trade is evident.” 181 LESSON 6 – Legacy of the Underground Railroad

One black student,Andriena Baldwin, said she remembered coming across one listing a young boy, pigs and butter.“We just stood still for, like, five minutes.”

“We were just shocked that they would put a person in the same category as food.”

Early editors openly embraced racism. Thomas Day, who bought the newspaper in 1855, wrote in one editorial:“We believe the Caucasian variety of the human species superior to the Negro variety; and we would breed the best stock.”

Slavery came to Connecticut in 1640 and by 1774 the state had more blacks than any other New England colony: about 6,500, or 3% of the population. As a rule they were treated better than those in the southern states.

But in a 1798 autobiography,Venture Smith, a former slave, wrote of a beating from his master:“I received a most violent stroke on the crown of my head with a club 2ft long and as large around as a chair post…the scar of it remains to this day.”

Slavery—what the American south called its “peculiar institution”—was banned in Connecticut in 1848, three years before the outbreak of the civil war. Abraham Lincoln declared slaves to be free in the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.

HANDOUT 6 Richard Newman, a research officer at the WEB DuBois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University, said:“These ads have become extremely useful to scholars because they are one of the few places that describe slaves physically, their appearance, what type of clothes they wore, whether they were literate, what type of talents they had.”

Reprinted with permission of the author.

182 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 7 HANDOUT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 5, 2000

NEWSPAPER APOLOGIZES FOR ROLE IN SLAVERY

Hartford, Connecticut, July 5 – In a startling front-page admission of “complicity”in the slave trade, The Hartford Courant acknowledged that it profited in the 1700s and 1800s by publishing scores of ads for the sale of slaves and the recapture of runaways.

Although such ads were commonplace in newspapers in the Yankee North until the Civil War was well under way, the newspaper said it felt compelled to apologize for that dark chapter in its history as the nation’s longest continuously published daily.

“We are not proud of that part of our history and apologize for any involvement by our predecessors at The Courant in the terrible practice of buying and selling human beings that took place in previous centuries,”said Ken DeLisa, a spokesman for the newspaper.

Recent Coverage Spurred Apology In its story, which ran across the top of Page 1 on Tuesday, The Courant noted how it recently had published stories examining how insurer Aetna Inc. had apologized in March for having sold policies to slave owners.

“The stories about Connecticut’s slave profiteers had a glaring omission: The Courant itself,”the paper said in an account detailing slave ads signed by Thomas Green, who founded the newspaper in 1764. It said the paper ran such ads at least until 1823, and that many ads placed by the owners of runaway slaves offered cash rewards.

One ad read:“To be sold, a likely, healthy, good-natured Negro boy about 15 years old. Inquire of T.Green.”

The paper’s early editors also espoused openly racist views. Thomas Day, who bought The Courant in 1855, wrote in one editorial:“We believe the Caucasian variety of the human species superior to the Negro variety; and we would breed the best stock.”

Andriena Baldwin was reviewing old editions of The Courant on microfilm along with other high school students researching Hartford’s black heritage when she spotted an ad including a boy for sale along with swine and butter.

“We just stood there for five minutes,”she said. “We were just shocked that they would put a person in the same category as food.”

Slavery Widespread in Connecticut Ira Berlin, a professor of black history at the University of Maryland and author of a book about slavery, said the practice was widespread and accepted even in Connecticut, where prominent families owned slaves as far back as 1640.

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“I don’t know of any newspaper which took a stand against taking advertisements for slaves unless they were [abolitionist] papers that were committed to ending slavery,” Berlin said.

Because ads in The Courant and other newspapers gave detailed descriptions of slaves, they have become an invaluable tool to historians trying to reconstruct how slaves lived and were treated, said Richard Newman, a scholar at Harvard University’s W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African-American Research.

Billie Anthony, a former Hartford teacher whose students have examined the ads, said they were as important as they are disturbing.

“We may not always like what we find,”she said,“but the truth is valuable.”

Reprinted with permission of The Associated Press. HANDOUT 7

184 Legacy of the Underground Railroad – LESSON 6 HANDOUT 8 RESPONSES TO THE HARTFORD COURANT

Name ______Date______

Title of response article: ______

1. What is the author’s perspective?______

______

2. List evidence of stereotyping or bias. ______

______

3. Was the original document quoted accurately?______

______

4. List any out-of-context quotes. ______

______

5. What is the author’s opinion?______

______

6. List evidence that supports the author’s opinion. ______

______

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