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Teachers, history club coordinators, and scout troop leaders: Following
are several activities corresponding to the "Wisconsin Stories"
episodes on Wisconsin Public Television. Some of these activities refer
to publications available through the State Historical Society's Office
of School Services. In other activities, we've provided the activity
as a PDF file. To find out when the next program airs, check our program
listing.
The original author of this activity is Zachary Gajewski from the University
of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. A more complete version appeared in the Badger
History Bulletin, but this one has been adapted for elementary-level
groups to supplement "The Civil War at Home," the third program in the
Wisconsin Stories series.
This lesson is part of a unit focusing on the Underground Railroad and
the Civil War. You'll examine primary and secondary sources to get a better
understanding of the issues and events that occurred during this time
period. This lesson focuses on Wisconsin's role in the Underground Railroad,
as well as some of the important national historical figures of this era.
The primary sources used in this activity are:
- a letter written by Frederick Douglas to Harriet Tubman, thanking
her for her efforts in the abolitionist movement.
- a letter written by the escaped slave Spotswood Rice, to his former
master's wife explaining to her why she will "burn in hell."
- and a letter written by John Brown to his pastor four days before
he is to be executed for his role at Harper's Ferry.
- In addition to these letters, many secondary sources, all found in
the book Freedom Train North, describe the stories of fugitive
slaves who used the Wisconsin Underground to escape to freedom.
You'll learn to use primary and secondary sources to understand people's
motivations and emotions involved during the Civil War era. You'll understand
more about what the Underground Railroad was by examining individuals
who played a part in the movement. You'll also take a look at Wisconsin's
land and its people to determine why the state played such an important
role in the Underground Railroad.
For this activity, you'll need a copy of the following books: (1) Carroll,
Andrew, ed. Letters of a Nation. New York, NY: Kodansha International,
1997; (2) Pferdehirt, Julia. Freedom Train North: Stories of the Underground
Railroad in Wisconsin. Middleton, WI: Living History Press, 1998.
Download
"Hoofin' It to the Lake,"(PDF) an excerpt from Freedom
Train North.
1. Divide your class or club into four groups. Hand out the letters to
each of three groups. Provide one of the stories from Freedom Train
North or another secondary source, to the fourth group.
2. Ask the three "letter" groups to answer the following questions: who
wrote the letter, who received the letter, what is it about, and why was
it written?
3. For those who are reading the secondary source, try to answer the
following questions: who is the story about, where did it occur, what
is it about, and what role did Wisconsin play in this event?
4. Have each group present their answers, with the secondary source group
reporting last.
5. Get your whole group together and examine a map and explain why Wisconsin
could play a role in the Underground Railroad. Possible answers would
include Wisconsin's proximity to Canada and Lake Michigan, the state's
immigrant populations had no tradition of slavery, immigrant German 48ers
were revolutionaries who fought for freedom.
6. Using either Freedom Train North or another secondary source,
read another true story involving the Wisconsin Underground Railroad.
- Using library resources, research and write a brief biography on Frederick
Douglas, Harriet Tubman, or John Brown.
- Using libraries, local historical socieites, and the SHSW online archive,
find more primary documents dealing with the Underground Railroad.
- You and your class, club, or scout troop can visit Forest Hill Cemetery,
the oldest cemetery in the state, holding graves of hundreds of civil
war casualties.
- Scouts: this activity can count toward your "Local Lore"
badge!
- Visit Camp Randall.
- ROAD TRIP! Visit Wade, Villa Louis, or other reenactment sites.
- If you have a chance to see a Civil War reenactment, interview some
of the participants about their roles as soldiers, nurses, medics, messengers,
newspaper reporters, spies. . .anything that interests you!
- Search on the internet for descendants of Civil War vets in your town.
You can find your local Historical Society by visiting SHSW's online
Directory
of Wisconsin Local Historical Societies. Click on your region of
the state. You'll find links to real people in your city who can tell
you stories about local folks, their great-great-grandparents and their
connection to the war. See if you can find journals, letters, or photographs
from this period of time.
- Discover which regiment had the most soldiers from your town or area.
You can take a look at this list of
city regiments (PDF) and the cities from which they came. You can
also try searching the ArCat-Archives
Catalog. Choose the "guided keyword" option, using your town plus
the word "regiment."
- You can also examine the lists of soldiers at SHSW's online Roster
of Wisconsin Volunteers.
Select a particular soldier and track down some info on this soldier's
experience during the war. To do this, you may have to look through
the archives of your local newspaper or peek at Wisconsin Civil War
regimental histories at the Wisconsin
Veterans Museum Web site.
- Maps are a great way to conduct primary document research. "Cronk's
Letter" (PDF) is a great example of another primary document.
Based on the description in this letter, try to sketch a map of Camp
Randall. Then, examine this 1865 map of Camp
Randall (PDF). Compare the map you made with this map. Are there
any differences between Cronk's letter and this map? Then, take a look
at a present
day map (PDF) of the camp.
- Travel Agent activity: Pretend you're a travel agent and you want
tourists to visit historic Camp Randall! Write and produce a historical
walking tour brochure of the camp, with photos, a map, and brief descriptions.
Use these pictures
(PDF).
- Interviews with descendants of vets from other wasr. Seek out your
nearest D.A.R. Chapter. Scouts: This activity earns credit toward
three different badges: "Across Generations," "Girl Scouting,"
and "Now & Then."
- Find a newspaper article about a tough issue and discuss what happens
when family members fall on opposite sides of the issue. Examples:
- High School: gay marriage legislation
- Middle School: debates over "open campus" issues
- Elementary: school mascots bearing Indian names
- On all fronts during the Civil War, messages were delivered by hand.
Sentries on horseback would be responsible for getting a note from one
battalion to the next! Though there's no real way to know what this
is like, you could get a feeling for it by trying an in-school mail
project. See if you can find someone in your school willing to deliver
all the school mail for a day, avoiding e-mail or intercom announcements
the whole time. Doesn't that seem like a TON of work? How do you feel
about e-mail and the telephone knowing how hard it is to deliver even
a small amount of paper to one little school?
- Cite from Changing Workforce: "Introducing Documentary Evidence
to Students."
SHSW Office of School
Services
http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/oss/
Directory
of Wisconsin Local Historical Societies
http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/localhistory/directory/
ArCat-Archives
Catalog
http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/
Roster
of Wisconsin Volunteers
http://www.shsw.wisc.edu/roster/index.html
Wisconsin Veterans
Museum
http://museum.dva.state.wi.us/
(download free Acrobat
Reader)
"Hoofin'
It to the Lake"
guide
for using African Americans materials
African
Americans in Milwaukee
city
regiments
"Cronk's
Letter"
1865
Camp Randall map
1994
Camp Randall map
Camp
Randall photos
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