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 Name ASSESSMENT RUBRIC OUTSTANDING Twenty or more • The project/presentation has eye • The project/presentation contains __________________________________________________ facts, concepts or appeal with a title and name of no grammatical or spelling errors. interpretations