The fourth grade traveled to Center City Philadelphia this week and visited the PA Historical Society. They were able to see primary documents dating from 1800's regarding enslavement, Abolition and the Underground Railroad. The students started their morning with a discussion about key events that happened in the city during the 18th and 19th century. They were asked to decide if the events were positive or negative for the city and its inhabitants. The students then organized themselves into a human time line in the chronological order that the events occurred.
After this session the 4th grade went downstairs to the reading room and got to look at some primary sources relating to slavery and abolition. The students rotated through four different stations. They were able to examine cartoons leading up to the civil war and worked at unraveling what the images meant and who was being satirized.
They also had the opportunity to learn more about William Still and see to actual transcribed passages from his records from book C housed in the archives. The passages described fugitive slaves appearance, size, old name, new name, where they came from and any family they left behind. There was also an accounting of monies spent to clothe, house and transport the person to their next destination. There was so much the students were able to deduce about the individuals from these passages.
They got to see Henry "Box" Brown's book which related the story of his life and treatment as an enslaved person and his inventive escape.
Students were shown how abolitionists worked to educate children in the 1800's with the use of an alphabet primer filled with poetry on how they could contribute to the abolition of slavery by boycotting things grown with slave labor, things such as sweets and clothing. At another station they were given identities of different fugitive slaves and rolled dice to make their way to freedom discovering real hardships along the way.
Not only did the students learn quite a bit but the experience allowed them to share their knowledge with the staff about the different topics and individuals they are presently researching. We made one more stop while we were downtown to the PA National Park where a ranger shared his knowledge about the URR and the area with everyone.
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