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Zeal for Teaching: Reconstruction in Port Royal, South Carolina

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students discuss the story of Port Royal, South Carolina and the enthusiasm about the notion that African Americans be educated. They search a Reconstruction archive to find documents supporting the importance of education for freed slaves.
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Mapping the Many Underground Railroads

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers plot the migration route of one of the runaway slaves named in a narrative and add it to a map of the United States in 1850. This is an excellent lesson on the Underground Railroad!
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Runaway Journeys Migration

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use the Runaway Journeys site maps and image resources in rounding out their study of the slave migration. They access an excellent multi-media narrative imbedded in this plan.
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The Deadly Equilibrium

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars determine if the economic model of slavery in the United States could or could not survive without expansion of slavery to the western territories. They access an excellent multi-media narrative imbedded in this plan.
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Images of Slavery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students locate, examin, and compare visual depictions of slavery with written accounts. They compare artists' conceptions (prints, book illustrations, paintings, and newspaper depictions) with early photographic images of slavery.
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Slave Trading and Small Towns

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers examine maps to identify the small communities visited by slave traders in Mississippi and Alabama in the mid-1840s and to calculate the distance traveled by slave coffles.
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Whitewashing the History of the South

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students research online a variety of different plantation museums across the South to ascertain how realistically, if at all, slavery is portrayed. This is a very interesting way for students to see how history can be presented in many...
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Mapping the Domestic Slave Trade

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners develop their analytical skills when examining historical maps. They examine a map for data which supports textual information about the Constitution, Congressional legislation, and the historic U.S. economy.
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Seeking Liberty Lesson Plan: Runaways' Emigration Out of the United States

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers read the narrative, Runaway Journeys, and examine other countries' policies towards fugitive slaves from the U.S. They research the laws from various countries, and write a five-paragraph essay.
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Looking Back at Pre-Civil War Slavery

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders explain the nature of slavery, the impact of slavery on African-Americans, and how slavery intensified the conflict between the North and South that eventually led to a major cause of the Civil War.
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Counting the Miles To Freedom

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students research Harriet Tubman via an Underground Railroad website in cooperative groups. They identify Tubman's first route to freedom and organize information gleaned from the research in a visual display (created in KidPix.)
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Literacy & Art: The Story behind the Quilt

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students examine the many ways quilts were used to chronicle the history and experiences of African slaves and African-Americans in America. They analyze a story quilt using the elements of storytelling, then create a class quilt.
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Why Did Delawareans Use Slaves?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students read about an indentured servant, and complete a chart comparing slaves and indentured servants.
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Fugitive from Labor Cases:

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the cases of Henry Garnett and Moses Honner, both of the 1850s. Students analyze the political climate building up to the Civil War through the lens of these similar cases with different outcomes.
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Slavery

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students trace the routes of escaping slaves on their journey north by calculating the mileage each one walked and define and use accurately the term Underground Railroad. They read The Drinking Gourd by Jeanetter Winter.
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Harriet Tubman

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Pupils identify famous people and events of the Civil War era, identify hardships Tubman encountered by giving an explanation of what they would do in a similar situation, and explain in writing, 3 historical facts about Harriet Tubman.
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The African Slave Trade

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students share their feelings about the enslavement of Africans as they write journal entries discussing their role play activity.
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Reconstruction

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Students describe the period of Reconstruction. Then students describe the concept of sharecropping. They complete a vocabulary prediction confirmation activity for the vocabulary words from the passage.
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Learning About Slavery

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students locate on a map the places in Africa where the majority of slaves came from. They express their own personal thoughts and feelings about slavery.
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Slavery and the Underground Railroad

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders study slavery escape routes of the Underground Railroad on maps, read an account of an escape and then write narrative essays about a fictional slave's escape.
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Holding a Wolf by the Ears: Race, Economics, and the Complexity of Thomas Jefferson

For Teachers 11th
Eleventh graders explore the era of slavery when Jefferson was President. In this United States History lesson plan, 11th graders participate in a class discussion that is led by the teacher.  A PowerPoint presentation on the topic...
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Black Slave Owners in Charleston

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students explore the causes and effects of the Civil War.  In this U.S. History lesson, students research the Civil War and the events that happened around it, then share their findings in a paper.
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Slavery in America at the Time of the Civil War

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders create simple html pages as a vehicle for presenting the Inspiration web.  In this American History activity, 8th graders research slavery in the United States. 
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Abraham Lincoln

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students discuss key events of Abraham Lincoln's life. In this Civil War lesson, students discuss the major events of Abraham Lincoln's life and role during this time through a song.