Michigan and The Underground Railroad

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Michigan and The Underground Railroad

• Created by
• Kelly Lake
• Julie Lindsay

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3rd grade GLCS Covered by The Underground Railroad

• Social Studies GLCS
• 3H1 use narrative or visual data to compare the
  past with present-day life.
• 3H2 Evaluate a past regional decision based on
  the short-term and long-term consequences of the
  decision.
• 3Q2 organize Social Studies information to make
  simple maps, graphs, tables, and pictographs,
  and interpret what they mean.
• Language Arts GLCS
• R.CM.03.01 Connect personal knowledge,
  experiences, and understanding of the world to
  themes and perspectives in text through oral and
  written responses.
• R.CM.03.04 Apply significant knowledge from
  grade-level science, social studies, and math
  texts
• S.DS.03.04 Plan and deliver presentations using
  an effective organizational pattern supportive
  facts and details reflecting a variety of
  resources

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4th grade GLCS Covered by The Underground Railroad

• Social Studies GLCS
• 4 - G1.0.2 Use cardinal and intermediate
  directions to describe the relative location of
  significant places in the United States.
• 4 - G1.0.3 Identify and describe the
  characteristics and purposes (e.g., measure
  distance, determine relative location, classify a
  region) of a variety of geographic tools and
  technologies (e.g., globe, map, satellite image).
• 4 - C2.0.2 Identify situations in which specific
  rights guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of
  Rights are involved (e.g., freedom of religion,
  freedom of expression, freedom of press).

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Resources

• Carson, Mary Kay. The Underground Railroad for
  Kids From Slavery to Freedom. Scholastic, 2002.
• McConnell, David. Our Michigan Adventure.
  Hillsdale Educational Publishers, 2001.
• Winter, Jeanette. Follow the Drinking Gourd.
  Dragon Fly Books, 1992.
• Levine, Larry. If You Followed the Underground
  Railroad, Scholastic, 1993.
• www.followthedrinkinggourd.org
• www.rubistar.com
• http//www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html
  
• www.pathways.thinkport.org/secrets/secret_quilt.cf
  m
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html
• www.history.rochester.edu/class/ugrr/home.html

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Students K-W-L
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K-W-L Continued
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Facts about the Underground Railroad and
Michigans Role

• The Underground Railroad is used to describe the
  complete range of ways and means that slaves fled
  bondage.
• What the Underground Railroad did was help
  escaped slaves make their way from the
  slave-owning southern states up through the
  northern states and eventually into Canada and
  freedom. This was accomplished by secretly
  transporting the fugitive slaves from safe-house
  to safe-house, steadily moving north until
  freedom was secured.
• Slaves were treated as useful property and had no
  rights.
• Michigan cities were used as several stops along
  the Underground Railroad including Adrian, Ann
  Arbor, Detroit, and Lansing. Slaves also passed
  through Toledo, OH.
• In 1837 slavery was forbidden by the first
  Michigan Constitution
• There were many codes of the Underground
  Railroad. Quilts patterns appeared to have
  contained secret messages that helped direct the
  slaves to freedom. Chants also contained secret
  messages telling them when to flee their
  plantations (exp. Follow the Drinking Gourd).

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Underground Railroad Facts continued

• Slavery led up to the beginning of the Civil War
  because the Southern wanted slavery whereas the
  North was opposed.
• Using modern roads, the trip would be 560 miles
  (900 kilometers) long.
• A strong, lucky runaway might have made it to
  freedom in two months. For others, especially in
  bad weather, the trek might have lasted a year.
• According to one estimate, the South lost 100,000
  slaves between 1810 and 1850.
• The routes from safe-house to safe-house (houses
  where fugitive slaves were kept) were called
  'lines'.
• Stopping places were called 'stations'.
• Those who aided fugitive slaves were known as
  'conductors'.
• In order to keep terms as clandestine as
  possible, the fugitive slaves were known as
  'packages' or 'freight'.

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Underground Railroad Inquiry Projects

• Students will have the option to complete one of
  following inquiry projects based on their
  personal interests.

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Student Inquiry Project 1 Research the Codes of
Quilts

• Since the beginning of time, people have always
  needed to reach out to others. They need to
  express their thoughts, dreams, and needs.
• Many slaves did not have the chance to learn how
  to read and write. In some cases they were not
  even allowed to talk to one another. They had to
  be clever and learn how to talk. Quilts were
  used to do this.
• Students will create a paper quilt and tell the
  message of their quilt.

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Student Inquiry Project 2Translating Follow
the Drinking Gourd

• Students will learn how Harriet Tubman, a runaway
  slave herself, formed the Underground Railroad
  and with the help of Peg Leg Joe and others led
  their people to freedom during the early days of
  slavery in the 1840s.
• Follow the Drinking Gourd was supposedly used
  by an Underground Railroad operative to encode
  escape instructions and a map.
• Students will have the option to decode the
  lyrics of Follow the Drinking Gourd.

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Student Inquiry Project 3Key Players on the
Underground Railroad

• Those who aided fugitive slaves were known as
  conductors. Escaped slaves also helped others
  escape.
• Students will be able to choose a key player from
  the Underground Railroad to find out the
  following information
• What was their role on the Underground Railroad?
• What were some of their accomplishments?
• How were they viewed by others?
• Other important experiences?
• Possible choices The Crosswhites (escaped
  slaves), Harriet Tubman (Conductor), or Laura
  Havilland (teacher to African American children).

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Student Inquiry Project 4Journal Entries of an
Escaped Slave

• The life as a slave was very difficult long
  days in the fields, serving their master,
  maintaining the plantation, and living in fear of
  being beaten.
• Students will have an opportunity to keep a
  journal about their trek across America to
  freedom along the Underground Railroad or life on
  the plantation
• Students will need at minimum of 10 entries in
  their journal.

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Assessment of Student Inquiry Projects