University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth
Writing a Historical Account (Narrative)
in First Person:
Slaves and New Bedford Whaling
Jo-Anne Charette
ID# 00324661
NEH Landmarks of American History & Culture Workshop:
New Bedford Underground Railroad
Timothy D. Walker
November 2013
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Taking the course “Sailing to Freedom” helped to open my eyes even more about
New Bedford’s rich history. Prior to the course, I did not know that much about
Frederick Douglass, but he is now one of my new heroes. Connecting the business of
whaling with runaway slaves and the Underground Railroad was also insightful and
fascinating. The topic is perfect for using primary sources, especially when teaching in
the New Bedford area. Starting this school-year, Massachusetts schools must administer
the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) test
where primary sources are integral to helping students achieve the Common Core State
Standards (CCSS). My English unit on the Underground Railroad will be used for high
school freshmen and would last for approximately six weeks, including the preliminary
activities. Prior to starting the research paper, students will have read The 1845
Autobiography of Frederick Douglass. I will use the study guide from the National
Endowment for the Humanities. Douglass came to New Bedford in 1838 and lived as a
free man. The higher standard of living by the laboring class and the racial tolerance
made New Bedford a welcome change from his past. New Bedford’s impact on the life
of Frederick Douglass was vital to his future work. His autobiography helps to set the
stage for the study of the city of New Bedford at this time in history. We also will
participate in the New Bedford Underground Railroad Walking Tour before beginning
the research paper which will help students with possible topics.
Research papers are essential for true learning, but I found that the traditional
research paper may not be the best alternative to truly engage freshman students. I
decided to go with a research paper similar to the Living History Project by Mike Larson
and written by Cindy Heckenlaible. Locating valid information and plagiarism are the
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two toughest areas that most freshmen have in research. The Living History Project
seemed to be a good alternative. Also, having read the Echo Project which also had “Isearch” activities, I realized that I should change my thinking and not require a traditional
research paper. The Living History Project combines research and history to create a
written description of a historical event where the students take some part in or witness
the event as it happened. The paper must be written in first person from the perspective
of the character, real or imagined, recalling the event in the past tense. I am allowing the
character to be a major one but the Living History Project did not recommend this. I tend
to be a traditional teacher but saw the benefits of students really digging in to this type of
assignment and understanding “voice” while incorporating the essential skills of a
researcher. These essential skills include choosing a topic; finding credible sources, both
print and online; locating facts related to the event and taking notes; organizing
information; analyzing and determining which data would be useable and which would
not; synthesizing the information in a written format; crediting information; and creating
a "works cited" page.
The first step of the research paper is to have students choose their narrowed
down topic and narrator. I came up with a few ideas to get them thinking of potential
narrators for their paper which will be the crux of their research. We will first
brainstorm as a class and start with a typical whaling voyage as the topic. Based on their
prior knowledge from the New Bedford Tour and the Douglass autobiography, students
should be able to come up with many of the jobs of crew members on a whale ship.
From there, I’d like to see what topics the students come up with to identify with the city
of New Bedford and the Underground Railroad.
They might come up with typical
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workers at the New Bedford Waterfront, the Quaker angle, famous abolitionists, the
Liberty Hall bell ringing to alert fugitive slaves, and many others. They will then come
up with possible narrators and various points of view for each topic. Each student will be
responsible for writing down the information presented. The table below gives a small
sampling of the ideas students may generate during these sessions.
Topic
Narrators
Typical Whaling
Voyage
Choose one from
archives
Captain
Boatsteerer
Blacksmith, Carpenter, Cook, Cooper (Caskmaker), Steward
Foremast Hand , etc.
Free Slave on the ship
Escaped Slave on the ship
Typical Worker
at the New
Bricklayer
Sail maker
Bedford
Waterfront
Rope maker
Cooper
Blacksmith
Lewis Temple
Baker
Whaling Boat Repairer/Builder
Other
Quaker
Quaker Man
Involvement in
Rescue of Slaves
Quaker Woman
Quaker child
Once the brainstorming is over, students will decide what topic and narrator they would
like to research. We should have generated enough narrators for topics that students may
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very well share the same topic, but everyone will have a different narrator. Students will
have to complete a worksheet (Narrator Worksheet) which will help the students select
the point of view from which to tell the story and determine how that choice would
ultimately influence the information that could and could not be included.
Taken from the article by Heckenlaible, the worksheet asks key questions: What is the
narrator's age? Why is the person telling the story? What was he or she doing just before
the event happened? How does the person feel about the event? And what has happened
to the narrator since the event took place?
Now that students are clear on the narrator’s point of view, students will begin to
research. I will group the class by topics for research so they can help each other. I will
have the list available on the class web site and printed out for them. At the end of each
day of independent research, they will gather together for the last five minutes in these
groups to discuss any new information they gathered.
Following Heckenlaible’s process, I require that students include a minimum
number (20) of facts in their stories. This will help students to distinguish between fact
and fiction. Although students may write original stories, the information they use is not
their own. They must include endnotes crediting the sources of their facts for
documentation and to help me to monitor the number of facts they include.
Students will have five days for their own research. They will then have five days to
write their narrative. Students should adhere to the following seven guidelines for
writing a narrative essay according to the Purdue Online Writing Lab. First, if written as
a story, the essay should include all the parts of a story (must include an introduction,
plot, characters, setting, climax, and conclusion). The essay should have a purpose
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(the thesis of the story). The essay should be written from a clear point of view. Use
clear and concise language throughout the essay. Use specific language to evoke
specific emotions and senses in the reader. The use of the first person pronoun ‘I’ is
welcomed. Do not abuse this guideline! Though it is welcomed it is not necessary—nor
should it be overused for lack of clearer diction. As always, be organized! Have a clear
introduction that sets the tone for the remainder of the essay. Do not leave the reader
guessing about the purpose of the narrative. Students will have a lesson on use of quotes
in general and in writing a narrative with changing speakers.
The combination of researching and creating an original story hopefully will fully
engage the students as it did for Heckenlaible’s classes. Knowing this age group and the
topics, I fully feel the students will be interested and engaged.
As part of the overall projects, students will be required to find a photograph
relating to their topic and complete the Photo Analysis Worksheet. Students will use
these photos as class openers each day where they will analyze Frederick
Douglass (1847-52), Harriet Tubman (1887) and Gordon (1863) Gordon (all taken from
Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain). Think of the phrases “a picture is worth a
thousand words” and “photographs never lie.” Today’s Photoshop might make for a
different argument, but we’re talking about a photo that is untouched. Adapted from the
Jewish Women's Archive site, the photo analysis worksheet requires that the student
really think about the photo from all perspectives. The photo works to activate a
student’s background knowledge on a particular person, place or event and spark an
interest to learn more. The pictures I have chosen do not have any background. They are
one-person images and require the students to focus on the person. Another strength with
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this lesson is that the skills of visual literacy -- "reading" pictures to find data, making
inferences, and locating meaning -- do not require good reading skills.
Students will also look at original slave advertisements as another mini lesson.
Students will read two articles in preparation: Running from Bondage: An Analysis of the
Newspaper Advertisements of Runaway Slaves in Colonial Maryland and Georgia and
The Struggle for Freedom (ways that a slave in colonial Massachusetts could gain his or
her freedom). Class work and discussions will follow. Students then will be paired up to
evaluate two ads on their own, answering questions on a worksheet.
After students have evaluated their ads and written down their findings, the class will
share their information in a group discussion. I will encourage responses to questions
like: What surprised you? How does this ad compare to a modern ad? What kinds of
details does it include? What can we tell about the lives of slaves based on this ad?
What can we tell about slave holders? What else did you want to know about the
individual people mentioned? Some common threads should be apparent such as
similarities in the ways that slave holders describe runaway slaves, assumptions that slave
holders make about the reasons why people might have run away or the destinations that
they were trying to reach.
A final mini lesson that will be given for this unit will again utilize primary
sources with the 1936 New Bedford Town Register which names the inhabitants,
occupations, places of businesses, and dwelling houses. Students will work to create a
table of the what jobs were held by African Americans at that time, what section of the
city they lived in, and how many lived in New Bedford. This should be good background
to tie in with their narrative.
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Primary sources can enhance student learning throughout all content areas and for
students of all ages. Choosing a subject that fits the area where you live is the key. For
the New Bedford area, choosing whaling and the Underground Railroad as topics to
explore are the best choices for this area. The topics also have national and international
importance which is even better. With the increasing digital accessibility of sources, the
opportunities for teachers are endless.
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Works Cited
Cairn, Rich. "Primary Sources: At the Heart of the Common Core State Standards." TPS
Journal (n.d.): n. pag. Library of Congress. Web. 25 Aug. 2013.
<http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/journal/common_core/article.html>.
Heckenlaible, Cindy. "National Writing Project." The Research Paper: Engaging
Students in Academic Writing -. N.p., Mar. 2008. Web. 27 Aug. 2013.
<http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/2512>.
"Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women's Archive)." Jewish
Women and the Feminist Revolution (Jewish Women's Archive). N.p., n.d. Web.
27 Aug. 2013. <http://jwa.org/feminism>.
Kashatus, William C. "4: Writing the Railroad-Local History Research Papers." In
Pursuit of Freedom: Teaching the Underground Railroad. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann, 2005. 78-85. Print.
"Massachusetts Historical Society | On View." The Massachusetts Historical Society |
On View. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
<https://www.masshist.org/endofslavery/index.cfm?queryID=55>.
PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) MODEL
CONTENT FRAMEWORKS ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS/LITERACY GRADES
3–11. Aug. 2012. English Language Arts/Literacy Model Content Frameworks.
Massachusetts.