The Underground Railroad  This lesson will integrate some of the famous writings about the Underground Railroad to encourage students to develop their questioning techniques for analysis of literature while furthering their knowledge of this era in American history.  As an extension of this study, students will create a class quilt to illustrate the depth of their research.

Never, Ever Give Up!  Students will discover that success comes through perseverance.  Students will also have the opportunity to research Abraham Lincoln on the Internet to document examples of perseverance.

Frontier Justice
Students will identify legal terms and explain their meaning, identify constitutional powers given to the governor relative to crimes committed, explain the meaning of "pardon and parole", explain the role of the Secretary of State in relation to pardons and paroles, and compare frontier punishment (branding, pillory, 39 lashes) with today.

Then and Now: Life in Early America, 1740 - 1840
Students will list similarities and differences between the lives of people 200 years ago and people today (e.g., ways of obtaining food, drink, and clothing; having fun; forming organizations; living by rules and laws), cite reasons for differences in the way people lived in earlier times and the way they live now, and  describe how changes in household tools, communication, transportation, recreation, and technology have changed the way people live and work.

Eve of the Civil War: Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
Students will list three differences and three similarities between life in the North and the South in the years before the Civil War and discuss how these differences contributed to serious disagreements between the North and South.

What Do Plantations Really Look Like?
Students will develop a vocabulary to discuss features of plantations, identify features of plantations, including mansions, cottages, and outbuildings, observe differences in cash crops, and clearly communicate a description of plantations.

Memories of Montpelier: Home of James and Dolly Madison
Students will complete three inquiry based activities about the Madison's lives, the impact of slavery, and the historical significance of Montpelier.

Comparing Plantation and Factory Rules
Students will compare and contrast life and work on an antebellum plantation versus in an antebellum factory by analyzing primary documents.

Eve of the Civil War: Factory vs. Plantation in the North and South
Students will be able to list three differences and three similarities between life in the North and the South in the years before the Civil War and discuss how these differences contributed to serious disagreements between the North and South.

Slavery and the Underground Railroad
Students will trace the route that the slaves followed on their journey north and identify characteristics of the Underground Railroad.

Attitudes Toward Emancipation
Students will evaluate the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation,  trace the stages that led to Lincoln's formulation of this policy, explore the range of contemporary public opinion on the issue of emancipation, and document the multifaceted significance of the Emancipation Proclamation within the context of the Civil War era.

Families in Bondage
Students will gain insight into the experience of African Americans during slave times, explore the effects of slavery on African American family life,  examine some ways that African Americans in slavery sought to cope with their condition, and gain experience in working with personal correspondence as a primary resource for historical study.

Perspective on the Slave Narrative
Students will learn about the slave narrative and its importance in the abolitionist movement, gain experience in working with the slave narrative as a resource for historical study, evaluate the slave narrative as a work of literature, examine the slave narrative in the context of political controversy as an argument for abolition, and explore themes of self-actualization and spiritual freedom within the slave narrative.

Slave Narratives: Constructing U.S. History Through Analyzing Primary Sources
Students will be able to interpret primary source oral history documents, summarize narratives of former slaves, compare and contrast life during slavery with life afterward, and evaluate oral history sources-their strengths and limitations.

The Underground Railroad
Students will use vocabulary related to the Underground Railroad, identify key facts related to the Underground Railroad, evaluate their personal responses to the Underground Railroad, and make a judgment about the morality of the Underground Railroad.

White Southerners' Defense of Slaveholding
Students will demonstrate understanding of how the North and South differed and how politics and ideologies led to the Civil War by identifying and explaining the economic, social, and cultural differences between North and South.

What Happened to Slaves When their Owners Died?
Students will demonstrate understanding of how the North and South differed and how politics and ideologies led to the Civil War by identifying and explaining the economic, social, and cultural differences between the North and the South.

Attitudes about Slavery
Students will analyze the causes and effects of major events of the Civil War.

The Anti-Slavery Movement
Students, as a class, will create and write a constitution for an anti-slavery society.

Quilting: The Story of the Underground Railroad
Students will use the Internet to research the dangers that escaping slaves faced along the Underground Railroad and the factors that helped the slaves make it to freedom. They will conclude by designing quilts describing what they have learned.

Catch a Falling Star
Students will describe the role the Big Dipper played in slaves' road to freedom.

Rabbit Tales  During this lesson students will be exposed to different types of writing.  Students will have the opportunity to create their own story based on the characteristics of the literature they have read.  Students will also learn the history of trickster tales and their significance.

English merchant-slaver Henrietta Marie: An online exhibition about this sunken ship.

A Day in the Life: A Colonial Williamsburg resource.

Alabama Slavery:  Provides a brief history and lists plantations by county.

The Center for Archaeological Studies' Old Mobile Archaeology Website: Mobile history information and links.

Alabama Department of Archives & History: Timelines, activity sheets, teacher resources.

American Slavery: The Southern Plantation Way of Life:  This program examines the “peculiar institution” of American slavery. It begins with how slaves were captured, transported, and sold. The program focuses on typical events in the day to day lives of slaves on the tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo, and sugar plantations of the southern states.  United Streaming.

The Southeast Region: People and Heritage:  Start in Tennessee and Georgia to learn about Sequoyah and his Cherokee brethren and follow the events of the Southeast region through European discovery, slavery, and the Civil War. Discover how the Civil Rights movement changed this region and how the people who inhabit these states live today.  United Streaming.

Discovering Alabama: Alabama Black Belt, Part 1:  Few parts of the world can boast of land as fertile as the rich, dark soils found in Alabama’s blackland prairie region, known as the Black Belt, but unfortunately, the region is often negatively associated with cotton plantations and slavery. This program examines the region’s natural history and how it has helped shape its human and cultural history.

Discovering Alabama: Alabama Black Belt, Part 2:  Continuation of Part 1.
 

Suggestions for English Language Learners:  (E/B=Entering/Beginning, D=Developing, E=Expanding) (E/B) Students reproduce historical highlights from timelines or visually supported newspaper headlines. (E/B) Students produce entries for historical journals from timelines or visually supported newspaper headlines. (E/B) Students gather research with a partner. (E/B) Students scan for information. (E/B) Students develop a pictorial timeline. (E/B) Students create a diorama. (D) Students maintain historical journals in chronological order based on timelines or newspaper headlines. (D) Students match visual with a description. (D) Students use well-illustrated resources. Complete a graphic organizer with student-researched information. (D) Write questions on researched information in groups. Then ask each other questions following a teacher model. (E) Students produce reports from historical journals (using technology). (E) Students respond to inferential questions. (E) Students write a short report.

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