Curated OER
Voluntary Movement or Not? Africian-American Movement to the West
Ninth graders, in groups, determine reasons for African-American migration to the west
Curated OER
Trusting Statistics Lesson Plan
Students read a section of the Runaway Journey narrative and conduct a survey. They use survey statistics to question their validity and decide why a respondent might not answer truthfully.
Curated OER
Differences in Location Lesson Plan: Treatment of Early African Americans
Students reach The Domestic Slave Trade, then examine the differences between the people enslaved in North America as opposed to those in Brazil.
Curated OER
Little America in Liberia
Students study the history of Liberia prior to and after the influx of immigrants of African Americans. They investigate the cultural differences between the African Americans and newly-arrived Liberians.
Curated OER
Transportation and African-American Migration
Students explore the means of transportation available in the 19th century and its role as both facilitator and enabler of the westward expansion. They create a project board illustrating their findings.
Curated OER
Open Door, Closed Door Lesson Plan: Discrimination in Immigration And Migration
Students read The Northern Migration and research immigration policies of different nations for the past and the present. They create a bulletin board or spreadsheet using their information.
Curated OER
City Upon a Hill: Urban Centers and African-American Migrants
Students examine why fugitive slaves migrated to cities and towns rather than rural areas. In this lesson, students consider the social, economic, and political benefits provided by cities and towns in comparison to rural areas.
Curated OER
The Transatlantic Slave Trade Lesson Plan
Students study former slave ports in the South.
Curated OER
The Underground Railroad
Eleventh graders work in teams to play a game that is based on the Underground Railroad in Delaware.
Curated OER
Push and Pull Factors: Tug O' War
Pupils analyze the factors that led to migration in the 19th century including the forces that drew people to resettle as well as to return a place where they previously lived.
Curated OER
Sing Down The Moon
Fifth graders read Sing Down The Moon independently and keep a journal where they write their reactions to the book. Students access websites imbedded in this plan and research a variety of other Indian tribes.
Curated OER
Heroes and Heroines of the Underground Railroad System (UGRR)
Fourth graders choose one leader, either Tubman or Coffin, and write a persuasive summary paragraph that explains why the leader displays the character traits of a hero/heroine in the UGRR
Curated OER
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Students discuss contemporary situations in which governments mistreat people. They examine real-life instances in which people break the law for what they believe is a higher good. They role play a variety of human rights injustices.
Curated OER
It's A Free Country, Isn't It?
Students examine immigration into the United States. They identify the rights and responsbilities of being a citizen of this country. They create a new verse to be included in the National Anthem.
Scholastic
Scholastic: The Underground Railroad: Escape From Slavery
Imagine being a slave escaping from the South in 1860, and heading to freedom through the underground railroad. Students will hear from first-person accounts and investigate other primary sources from the 1800s.
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History: Escape From Slavery, 1838
Excerpts from the narrative of Frederick Douglass' escape from slavery in 1838. Includes photographs and references.
Other
Digital Text: My Escape From Slavery
This site provides a narrative of Frederick Douglass' escape from slavery.
Scholastic
Scholastic: The Underground Railroad: Escape From Slavery
In this interactive unit students travel back to 1860 to follow a young slave as he flees a Kentucky plantation for Canada along the Underground Railroad. The interactive slideshow lets students read a short article at each stop. They...
Library of Virginia
Virginia Memory: Henry Box Brown Escapes Slavery
How did Henry Box Brown escape from slavery? A lesson based on the true story of his escape, Henry's Freedom Box by Elden Livine.
Other
Liberty Letters: Behind the Story: Escape on the Underground Railroad
Josiah Henson's eyewitness accounts of his escape from slavery on the freedom train to Canada.
Read Works
Read Works: Wesley Harris: An Account of Escaping Slavery
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text about Wesley Harris's escape from slavery. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia: My Escape From Slavery
The full text of a famous work by Frederick Douglass that made a huge impact on the abolitionist movement.
Teachers.net
Teachers.net Lesson Plans: Slavery
This lesson offers a way to teach about the Underground Railroad by using maps and discussion about the problems fugitive slaves would encounter while trying to escape.
US National Archives
Docsteach: Oh Freedom! Sought Under the Fugitive Slave Act
This activity includes primary sources from the official records of the U.S. District Court at Boston that tell the story of William and Ellen Craft, a young couple from Macon, GA, who escaped to freedom in Boston in 1848. Students will...