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Product Details
Requirements:
Through this patch program, Brownies and Juniors will learn all about the history of the Underground Railroad. *This is an official badge that can be worn on the front of the uniform.
Do 1 of the following:
Learn the history of the Underground Railroad (UGRR.) What was it? When did it start? When did it stop? Who worked on it? How did it get its name? Think about how important the “regular” railroad was during that time period for our country. Find out how this ties in with the UGRR. Share what you learn with your troop, group, or family. If you need help locating materials, ask a librarian for assistance.
Visit a museum or site such as a safe house or station house related to the UGRR. Learn what role abolitionists, escaping slaves, conductors, Quakers, bounty hunters, and ordinary citizens played in a slave’s journey northward. What role did children play? What happened when a slave was caught escaping? Did capture only affect the slave? What impact did the Fugitive Slave Law have?
Of the Following, Brownies Do 3 and Juniors Do 5:
Many slave songs of the time period contain hidden messages that helped fugitive slaves escape and gave directions to freedom. Examine the words to a song such as “Follow the Drinking Gourd” or “Go Down, Moses.” Can you identify the clues in the songs?
Read an actual slave story. Share what you read with your troop, group, or family. If you like, write a skit including elements from the story.
Draw a map of known or suspected UGRR routes in the United States and Canada. Label the slave and free states. Discuss reasons why routes developed in the places they did. What impact did geography have on the routes? Why do you think there are no written records of the routes to freedom?
Learn about picture/map quilts and other slave patterns as they relate to the UGRR. What did certain colors and patterns signify? Were any constellations used? How was distance indicated? How were the quilt symbols and patterns used to communicate in secret?
Using either paper or fabric make a map quilt of your neighborhood or school. Use symbols you have learned about to show roads, hills, vegetation, buildings, and possible hiding places for a runaway slave. OR: Using quilt block pattern “code,” design a quilt which would have conveyed a message to escaping slaves.
Pretend you are an escaping slave. Using first person narrative, create three short journal entries describing your journey. These could include maps or drawings detailing your adventure. Think about including where you went, what time of year you traveled, what you wore, what you were able to take with you, what food you had to eat, how you got it, and who (if anyone) went on the journey with you.
Find the meaning of the following code words and phrases from the UGRR: Agent, Drinking Gourd, Freedom Train or Gospel Train, Heaven or Promised Land, Preachers, Shepherds, Station, Station Master, Stockholder. Also: “The wind blows from the south today,” “A friend with friends,” “The friend of a friend sent me,” and “A load of potatoes, parcel, or bundles of wood.” Were the meanings what you thought they would be?
Read about one of the following people from the UGRR. What role did they play in the development of the UGRR? Share what you learned with your troop, group, or family. John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Levi and Catharine Coffin, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Governor William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln, Dred Scott, Henry and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth.
Resource Ideas
Books for Juniors
All Night, All Day: A Child’s First Book of African-American Spirituals. Bryan, Ashley. New York: Atheneum, 1991
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. Hopkinson, Deborah. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1993
If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad. Levine, Ellen. New Your: Scholastic, Inc., 1988
Letters from a Slave Girl: The Story of Harriet Jacobs. Lyons, Mary. New York: Scribners, 1992
A Picture of Freedom: The Diary of Clotee, A Slave Girl. McKissack, Patricia. New York:
Scholastic, Inc., 1997
Secret Signs Along the Underground Railroad. Riggio, Anita. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mill Press, Inc., 1997
Follow the Drinking Gourd. Winter, Jeanette. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1988
Dear Austin: Letters from the Underground Railroad. Woodruff, Elvira. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1998
Get on Board: The Story of the Underground Railroad. Haskins, Jim. Scholastic Trade, 1997
North Star to Freedom: The Story of the Underground Railroad. Gorrell, Gina K. New York: Delacorte
Press, 1996
Internet Resource Ideas
A search using the engine www.google.com with the key words “Underground Railroad,” ‘Underground RR,” and “UGRR” will yield different but very comprehensive results for further information.
Additional Book
Hidden in Plain View. Tobin, Jacqueline L. & Dobard, Raymond G. New York: Random House, Inc., 2000
