Standards & MethodsFran O’MalleyDelaware Social Studies Education ProjectUniversity of Delaware

Slavery in a Land of FreedomTAH Freedom Project

10/13/12

Activity I

Whisper Down the Lane. Count off 1-5. #1 is lane leader. Lane leader reads slave population statistics off of handout to

Person 2. Person 2 tells Person 3 what the population statistics were but

does not provide the document. Person 3 tells Person 4…until Person 5 hears the statistics. Person 1 records accuracy data (without verbal or visual cues).

Literacy Connection

Optional Reading

Hidden in Plain View

Activity II: Create an Underground Railroad Quilt Code

Create a UGRR quilt.

Use quilt template, yarn, crayons.

Be able to explain how the quilt’s messages.

Tools

Analyzing Claims

   A. Do you believe that the earth has been visited by aliens from outer space?

B. If someone told you that aliens have visited earth, would that be enough to convince you of alien visitations?

C. Why do you (or do you not) believe that aliens have visited?

D. What evidence do we have that aliens have visited?

E. What evidence would you require to serve as proof of alien visitations? 

What is “evidence?”

Work in small groups to complete the Frayer Model for the concept of EVIDENCE.

Definition: a thing or things that are helpful in forming a conclusion or judgment; or that are used to “prove” something.

Circling Round:Whisper Down the Lane

How accurately were the slave population statistics transmitted orally?

Would the data on the number of slaves in Delaware from 1790-1860 have been more or less accurate if information had been passed down via the document i.e. Resource 1 rather than orally?

Should information passed down orally through generations be counted as evidence by historians? Why or why not?

Are documents flawless sources of evidence about the past? Explain.

Is the quilt code a case of “problematic prior learning (PPL)?”

Competing Interpretations: Why? “Hidden in Plain View, is based on the oral

testimony of an elderly lady,

In my opinion, this book is a major insult to intelligent people everywhere yet it has been picked up to be shared as "fact" in Social Studies classes across America, instead of the "fiction" that it is. The book does not jibe with what we know about the Underground Railroad and African American history. Most certainly, the depiction of quilt blocks is not in tandem with known quilt and/or quilt block history.

Members of the American Quilt Study Group, a group that is comprised of University professors, professional writers/book authors, appraisers, publishers, and many others associated with the quilt world, have privately and publicly condemned this book.”

Patricia L. CummingsSelf described Quilt Historian/author

Amazon Book Reviewer

Ms Cummings, I cannot disagree with you more strongly. My paternal great grandmother, my half-brother's grandmother, and my future mother-in-law's family "wrote" stories in the quilts they made. These women who were born between 1842 and 1895. To say books like Hidden in Plain View are American myths is just plain wrong and borders being an out-right lie. I personally spoke with my great grand mother and my brother's grand mother about these "story" quilts and received a first hand account. These women were not in their dying moments, they were in their 60's and 70's and were of very sound mind.

And just as an additional note, using a quilt to tell a story is not limited to Black history, my maternal great grandmother (from Russia) also used quilts to tell stories and taught me the same way her grandmother taught her. “

Shelley JeltemaAmazon review response

PPL Intervention:“Refutational Text”

“Some people believe that slaves and others who assisted with the Underground Railroad used a quilt code to communicate messages to escaping slaves.

Perhaps you were one of those believers.

Though the idea of a quilt code is very interesting, most historians have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the claim.”

Summarizing Activity

Students compose a “museum caption” that can be placed under their quilts that explains the quilt code theory and why it should or should not be considered historically accurate.

See handout

Potential Research Lesson

Standards Addressed

History 3a, Gr. 4-5: Students will explain why historical accounts of the same event sometimes differ and relate this explanation to the evidence presented…

History 2b, Gr. 6-8: Students will examine historical documents, artifacts, and other materials, and analyze them in terms of credibility…

History 2b, Gr. 9-12: Students will examine and analyze primary and secondary sources in order to differentiate between historical facts and historical interpretations.

Activity 3: The Nature of Slave Life

Work in triads. Review the documents and images in your folders. Use Post-It Poster paper to design a poster that offers a

description of slave life based on the documents in your folders.

Create a title from the stem “Slave Life Was _________.” Cut and paste images and write quotes from the documents to

support your title.

Debrief: Competing Accounts

Account 1

Slaves as objects. Horror remembered.

Account 2

Slaves as subjects Better moments remembered.

Why might there be different interpretations of slave life?

Big Idea

Slaves as SubjectsSlave as Objects

History Standard 3

Interpretation [Grades 4-5]: Students will explain why historical accounts of the same event sometimes differ and relate this explanation to the evidence presented or the point-of-view of the author.

Interpretation [Grades 6-8]: Students will compare different historians descriptions of the same societies in order to examine how the choice of questions and use of sources may affect their conclusions.

Interpretation [Grades 9-12]: Students will compare competing historical narratives, by contrasting different historians' choice of questions, use and choice of sources, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view, in order to demonstrate how these factors contribute to different interpretations.

Attending to Standards

Considering the wrap-around activity with slavery as a context… how might the evidence presented influence the conclusion one arrives

at? (Grades 4-5)

how might one’s use of sources explain differences in conclusions about slavery? (Grades 6-8)

How might one’s choice of sources explain differences in historical interpretations? (Grades 9-12)

History 1: Chronology

Slavery trends over time in Delaware

Continuity or change?Why?

Slavery trends over time in the United States

Continuity or change?Why?

Slavery in Delaware over Time

1. Did the slave population in Delaware change or remain the same between 1790 and 1860? [History Standard 1 - continuity v change]

2. Why might Delaware's slave population have changed or remained the same from 1790-1860? [History Standard 1 - causation]

Slavery in the U.S. over Time

1. Did the slave population in the United States change or remain the same between 1790 and 1860? [History Standard 1 - continuity v change]

2. Why might the U.S. slave population have changed or remained the same from 1790-1860? [History Standard 1 - causation]

Mapping Slavery in the United States

Students will demonstrate development of mental maps of Delaware and of the United States which include the relative location and characteristics of major… political divisions... [G1, 4-5]

Students will explain how conflict and cooperation

among people contribute to the division of the Earth's surface into distinctive cultural regions and political territories. [G4, 6-8]

Big Ideas: History StandardsChronology/Analysis

Slave life changed over time.

Understandings of property have changed over time.

Interpretation

Slaves as objects.

Slaves as subjects with agency.

Problematic Prior Knowledge:Misconceptions

Slavery only existed in the U.S. Slavery in the U.S. was the same as slavery

everywhere. Slavery only involved whites owning blacks. All blacks were slaves prior to the Civil War. All slave owners were white. Most southerners owned slaves. All slave work involved picking cotton. Slavery was the same across time in the U.S.

Kolchin presentation 10-12-12