A SOCIAL STUDIES LESSON
ANDREA SMITH
ED 629
HARRIET TUBMAN
RELATED TOPICS:
CIVAL WAR & SLAVERY
GRADE LEVEL: 4TH/5TH
Objectives
1. Students will be able to identify famous people and events of the Civil War era.
2. Students will be able to identify hardships Tubman encountered by giving an
explanation
of what they would do in a similar situation.
3. Students will be able to list as a group 2 positive and 2 negatives effects of
slavery.
4. Students will be able to create a time line with 10 historical events that occurred
during
Tubman's lifetime.
5. Students will explain in writing, 3 historical facts about Harriet Tubman.
Materials Needed:
•
Video - Follow the Drinking Gourd. (1994).
Reading Rainbow. Lincoln, NE: GPN Distributors.
•
Book- The Value of Helping
•
Map of the United States
•
Handouts for Jigsaw
Think-Pair-Share
•
Have students individually think of what they know about slavery, Harriet Tubman, the Civil War,
Underground Railroad, and any famous people during this time period in the 1800s. In pairs, have
students share what they remember and write it down. Then have the whole class create a class list
on the board of everything that was shared.
•
Share with students background information about Harriet Tubman.
•
http://americancivilwar.com/women/harriet_tubman.html
Harriet Tubman
The Life of Harriet Tubman
• Harriet Ross was born into slavery in 1819 or 1820, in
Dorchester County, Maryland. Given the names of her
two parents, both held in slavery, she was of purely
African ancestry. She was raised under harsh conditions,
and subjected to whippings even as a small child. At the
age of 12 she was seriously injured by a blow to the head,
inflicted by a white overseer for refusing to assist in tying
up a man who had attempted escape.
Harriet Tubman con’t
•
•
•
Tubman married a free black named John Tubman and took his last
name. (She was born Araminta Ross; she later changed her first
name to Harriet, after her mother.)
In 1849, in fear that she, along with the other slaves on the
plantation, was to be sold, Tubman decided to run away. She set out
one night on foot. With some assistance from a friendly white
woman, Tubman was on her way. She followed the North Star by
night, making her way to Pennsylvania and soon after to
Philadelphia, where she found work and saved her money.
The following year she returned to Maryland and escorted her sister
and her sister's two children to freedom. She made the dangerous
trip back to the South soon after to rescue her brother and two other
men.
Fugitive African Americans Fording the
Rappahannock River. Rappahannock, Virginia,
August 1862
Harriet Tubman with slaves she helped during Civil War
The Value of Helping
The story takes place in Maryland and other locations within the United States
•
At the conclusion of the story, write an
explanation answering: "If I were a slave, I
would...."
•
Explain how you would feel about being a slave,
explain what you would do, and explain why/how
you would carry out this plan.
Inside of a slave cabin
Interior of slave pen in Alexandria,
Virginia
Slave Auction Block
Video/Discussion.
•
The video "Follow the Drinking Gourd" gives an
explanation of why slavery existed and why others
opposed it.
•
Following the video, group students (4 to a group).
Each group must list 2 negative effects and 2
positive effects of slavery.
•
Each group share will share their results with the
class.
•
Ask: Was the issue of slavery alone a good enough
reason to start the "War Between the States."
Time Line of Harriet Tubman’s Life
•
1819 Birth
•
1844 1ST Marriage
•
1849 Escape -http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-ugrr.html (Underground Railroad)
•
1850 Conductor-http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-ugrr.html (Fugitive Slave Act)
•
1851 Canada
•
1857 Auburn
•
1861 Civil War
•
1869 2nd Marriage
•
1913 Death
Time Line
•
•
•
Using the following resources (story, video notes, history
text, and encyclopedia), create a time line.
Time line dates will begin at Tubman's birth (1820) and
end with her death (March 10, 1913).
Make your own time line and include at least 10 historical
dates. These dates may include events relating to famous
people and their accomplishments, political events,
battles, or other historical facts. Include dates from United
States history only.
Jigsaw
•
Place students in groups of 4.
•
Each student will get one of the four short biographies previously prepared by the teacher.
•
The biographies will be of William Still, Sojourner Truth, Frederick A. Douglass, and James Forten
•
Each student will read the assigned material of their famous person.
•
Each student then prepares a short presentation of their persons life and accomplishment. This is a verbal summary,
not a written paper.
•
Each student teaches other classmates about their person. (Students may take notes as each person shares their
summary.
•
Students must include in their summary the movement or organization he/she was involved in, and at least one
major accomplishment towards their goal.
•
Conclude with a class discussion about what they found most interesting about these people.
Fredrick Douglas
•
(1818–1895), orator, journalist, editor, and
autobiographer. Frederick Douglass, author of
the most influential African American text of
his era, rose through the ranks of the
antislavery movement in the 1840s and 1850s
to become the most electrifying speaker and
commanding writer produced by black
America in the nineteenth century. From the
outbreak of the Civil War until his death,
Douglass was generally recognized as the
premier African American leader and
spokesman for his people. Douglass's writing
was devoted primarily to the creation of a
heroic image of himself that would inspire in
African Americans the belief that color need
not be a permanent bar to their achievement of
the American dream, while reminding whites
of their obligation as Americans to support
free and equal access to that dream for
Americans of all races.
Sojourner Truth
•
Sojourner Truth began life as a slave and
ended it as a celebrated anti-slavery
activist. She was born in New York and
was sold several times before escaping to
freedom with an infant daughter in 1827.
She worked as a housekeeper, lived in a
religious commune, and eventually
became a traveling speaker and preacher.
Although she could not read or write,
Truth was a captivating speaker: she
reportedly stood nearly six feet tall and
was a spirited evangelist who spoke out
for women's rights and against slavery.
Prompted by religious feelings, she
changed her name to Sojourner Truth in
1843.
William Still
•
(1821–1902), abolitionist and historian. Born
of free black parents in New Jersey, William
Still grew up on a farm, with little opportunity
for formal schooling. He moved to
Philadelphia in 1844, married in 1847, and in
the same year went to work for the
Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of
Slavery. In 1851 he became chairman of the
society. Later in the decade he campaigned to
end racial discrimination on Philadelphia
railroad cars. Until the end of the Civil War,
Still was involved in aiding fugitives from
slavery, an activity that allowed him to meet
and interview hundreds of runaways. The
records he kept of these interviews along with
numerous other documents, such as
biographical sketches of prominent activists
and letters from abolitionists and escaped
slaves, became the source material for his
book, The Underground Railroad.
James Forten
•
•
An African American abolitionist and
businessman.
Forten was born a free black in
Philadelphia and attended the African
School, run by abolitionist Anthony
Benezt ... which had been established by
Quakers for free black children, until
1773, when his father died of an
unknown illness. Needing to support his
mother and his sister, Abigail, James
worked as a chimney sweep and a
grocery-store clerk. (1) At the age of 7,
he worked hard to help himself and the
family who depended on him after his
father died. By age nine he left school to
work full time. Forten used the early
experience in the workforce as a
measuring stick for the rest of his career
and life.
Learning Journal
•
In a learning journal, each student will write an
entry telling 3 historical facts they have learned in
studying Harriet Tubman's life. Explain why these
facts are important.
Assessment

Contributions to Think-Pair-Share and class list will be assessed informally through
observation.

After story reading, students will write how they feel about being a slave, what they would
do in that situation, and why/how they would carry out their plan, and then assessed by the
teacher.

Observations of group discussion and a group list of 2 positive and 2 negative effects of
slavery will be assessed.

Assessment of time lines will be handed in and checked for 10 correct historical events.

Observation of student responsibility of taking part in learning and teaching.

Papers on three important ideas they have learned from the mini-unit will be assessed for
correctness.
Additional Resources
•
•
•
•
•
•
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/j1.html
http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/
http://www.cr.nps.gov/aahistory/ugrr/ugrr.htm
http://www.freedomcenter.org/learn/undergroundrailroad/timeline/timeline.html
http://www.freedomcenter.org/learn/undergroundrailroad/places/places.html
http://www.freedomcenter.org/learn/undergroundrailroad/people/people.html
•
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2961.html
•
http://www.worldbook.com/fun/aajourny/html/bh019.html
http://www.sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/
•