What is an Abolitionist?

The fourth grade has been studying about abolition and exploring the idea of what made a person an abolitionist. The students were given over forty images of people from the 1700-1800's and were tasked with discovering who they were. The only clue given was that they were abolitionists. They immediately went to their computers and started searching Google images. For some of the more famous images the search was quick work. But, many of the images were much more obscure, and the students really had to think of other words or phrases that might lead them to the identity of the person in their photo.

Once discovered, they needed to find what their individual's most important contribution was to the Abolition Movement. What they learned was that black, white, men women, children, manumitted, enslaved and fugitive enslaved people who believed in the abolition of slavery were all abolitionists. The most amazing thing was to observe the students making connections with each other as they discovered that the person they researched was connected to a fellow classmate's person. Students also learned there were committees, societies and newspapers dedicated to Abolition. Many were interconnected and much was secretive in order to keep the Underground Railroad alive.

The fourth grade research is hanging on the walls in the classroom, and we are currently outlining relationships and connections with red thread. The finished work will represent a web similar to a spider's in its intricacy and connectedness. The fourth grade headed downtown today to visit the PA Historical Society to learn about primary documents and see some from the abolition era. They had the opportunity to see the original documents of the some of the things they have learned about through their research.