ESCAPE! An Underground Railroad Simulation

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What:	Escape! — An Underground Railroad simulation
Presented by:	Women In History in partnership with local schools and libraries
Where:	Your location
When:	Fall activity for seven weeks 1-½ hours once a week
Who's Invited:	Fifth through eighth grade
Purpose:	Students will be active role players immersing themselves in one of the most compelling eras in American history. Students will become acquainted with some of the heroes and heroines of the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad. They will use critical and creative thinking skills as they develop empathy and an understanding of the men and women who fought so hard and risked so much to gain freedom.
Setting:	A slave gathering in the year 1853, somewhere in Kentucky. These people have travel from different locations in the south. Each has traveled in the service of their masters who are attending the annual horse races. Their goal is to successfully escape to freedom by crossing the Ohio River and making their way north to Canada.
Ongoing Characters:	Hattie – The storyteller Polly – The conductor Luther Clemmons – Plantation Owner Louisa Mae Alcott - Abolitionist Elizabeth Keckley - Freed Slave Mary Fields – Kentucky Slave Elizabeth Van Lew – Abolitionist Station Masters: Laura Pees Humphrey - Abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe – Abolitionist Rev. John Rankin - Abolitionist John Malvin - Abolitionist
Agenda:	Session One – Introduction Activity – Finding Your Kinfolk – Participants will share slave memories to determine their groupings for the 6 weeks for activities. Session Two – Designing Freedom Quilts – Hidden in Plain View – Participants will learn the role of quilts in relaying escape information to runaway slaves. Each team will create a message to be incorporated into the Escape Freedom Quilt. Session Three – Decoding Songs – Singing Our Way to Freedom – Participants will learn the impact of slave songs as a means of sending messages of hope. Each team will create and perform their own coded song. Session Four – Designing Freedom Code – Drums of Freedom – Participants will design freedom drums and create codes to be used on their escape. Session Five – Recognizing Natural Resources – Nature on the UGR – Participants will discover what natural resources will support the Underground Railroad movement north to Canada through a library scavenger hunt and team challenges. Session Six – Outdoors Adventure – Escape to Freedom Land – Participants will encounter helping hands and hazards as they escape north to freedom. Participants will celebrate their freedom at a slave-tasting table and receive the Freedom Papers.
Activity Packet	There is an activity packet for each participant containing ten individual exercises surrounding the theme of the Underground Railroad. They include word searches, history challenges, logic and math activities.

"Am I not a man and a brother"

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