This lesson has students investigate the dangers that escaping slaves and their helpers on the Underground Railroad faced and asks them to consider whether they would have helped if they’d been free people during the time of slavery. Students will pretend to be living back then and will write conversations to friends explaining whether they will help on the Underground Railroad and describing the challenges and risks they might face.

Geography, U.S. history

Standard 17: "How to apply geography to interpret the past"

Two to three hours

• Computer with Internet access
• Writing materials

Students will

• discuss the traits they might have expected to see in slaves who succeeded in making it to freedom and in free people who helped the escaping slaves;
• use the Web to find out about the specific dangers and challenges that escaping slaves and other participants on the Underground Railroad faced; and
• pretend they are free people living during the time of slavery, and write conversations to friends that explain whether they will help on the Underground Railroad and that describe the difficulties they expect to face.

Review the basics of the Underground Railroad with the class. Ask students to explain what the Underground Railroad was.

Ask students to describe the traits they think would have been required of a slave who was determined to escape. Then ask them to describe the traits that would have been required of a free person who was determined to help slaves along the Underground Railroad. What personal characteristics would have helped these people succeed?

Have students go to National Geographic's Underground Railroad site, and ask them to do the following things:

• Go through "The Journey" and list the places they go and the dangers they face each step of the way. For example, they should list the fact that the slave catchers were outside the house in Camden, Delaware.
• View the map at "Routes to Freedom" on the drop-down menu. Notice the locations of mountains and rivers. List the difficulties they think the escaping slaves would have faced, based on the physical features they see on this map. In addition to fearing the slave catchers, what elements of the natural environment would the escaping slaves have been concerned about?
• Select "For Kids" from the drop-down menu, and look at the pictures of the cupboard and Henry "Box" Brown. Explain in writing why these extreme measures for transporting and hiding slaves were necessary.
• Select "Faces of Freedom," and read about some of the people who helped out on the Underground Railroad. Write a short (five- to seven-sentence) paragraph describing a few of the things these people did and mentioning some of the difficulties and risks they faced.

Have students read about the Fugitive Slave Act and view posters related to the act. Ask them to describe in a short paragraph the effect this law had on the Underground Railroad.

Have students read the testimony of Canadian fugitives, personal accounts of former slaves' journeys to freedom. Have students list at least four specific things the former slaves said that were particularly difficult about their escape. For example, Edward Hicks describes how he had to hide in a creek, with water up to his head and water moccasin snakes all around him.

Ask students to look over their notes from the above steps they have taken and to think about the risks that escaping slaves and the Underground Railroad conductors took. Discuss whether they think they would have been brave enough to have taken these risks. What were the potential consequences? What were the consequences of not taking the risks?

Ask students to imagine that they are free people living in the eastern United States during the time of slavery. Ask them to consider the things they know about slave life and the people who helped the slaves to freedom. Then have the students write imaginary conversations with friends explaining whether they would have helped the slaves. Their conversations should discuss the pros and cons of helping, the dangers they would face, the specific things they might do to help, and the personal rewards they would receive if they chose to help.

Have students research the role of the Quakers in facilitating the Underground Railroad. Ask them to find out who the Quakers are, what their core values are, and how those values led many of them to actively assist escaping slaves. They can begin their research into Quaker values by reading the mission statement of the American Friends Service Committee (a nonprofit organization that takes its goals from traditional Quaker values).

National Geographic: Underground Railroad
Testimony of the Canadian Fugitives
The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850