Rankin House [OH]

Description

The Rankin House was an important stop on the Underground Railroad in southern Ohio through which many slaves escaped from the South to freedom. John Rankin was a Presbyterian minister and educator who devoted much of his life to the antislavery movement. In 1826 he published his antislavery book, Letters on American Slavery. In 1834 he founded the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in Zanesville. From 1825 to 1865, Rankin and his wife Jean, with their Brown County neighbors, sheltered more than 2,000 slaves escaping to freedom, with as many as 12 escapees being hidden in the Rankin home at one time. The house, a National Historic Landmark, is included in the National Underground Railroad to Freedom Network. Outside is a reconstruction of the stairway used by slaves to climb from the Ohio River to the Rankin House.

The house offers tours and educational programs.

Schoenbrunn Village [OH]

Description

The Moravian church founded Schoenbrunn ("beautiful spring") in 1772 as a mission to the Delaware Indians. The settlement grew to include sixty dwellings and more than 300 inhabitants who drew up Ohio's first civil code and built its first Christian church and schoolhouse. Problems associated with the American Revolution prompted Schoenbrunn's closing in 1777. Schoenbrunn's story features a rare meeting of Indian and European cultures and a fascinating perspective on the American Revolution. Today the reconstructed village includes 17 log buildings, gardens, the original mission cemetery, and a museum and visitor center.

The village offers a short film, exhibits, and tours.

Iliniwek Village State Historic Site [MO]

Description

On a high sand terrace above the Des Moines River floodplain in northeast Missouri sets Iliniwek Village State Historic Site, the largest and best preserved remnant known of any Illinois Indian village. This site was occupied from ca. A.D. 1640-1683, when Europeans were just contacting Native Americans in this region. During excavations in the 1990s, the locations of numerous houses, storage pits and even a ditch and palisade fortification were discovered. The Illinois Indians were the first Native Americans that Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette encountered in present-day Missouri in 1673. At that time, the village contained 300 lodges and perhaps 8,000 people. Evidence of early European contact appears in archaeological finds through glass beads, metal objects, and Jesuit trade rings. The historic site interprets the history and daily life of the Illinois Indians and the Jolliet and Marquette expedition of 1673. A short walking trail crosses the site, and the location of an excavated Illinois Indian longhouse is marked to show its size.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Quaker Meeting House [OH]

Description

This three-story brick building was erected in Mount Pleasant in 1814 and was the first yearly Quaker meeting house west of the Alleghenies. Capable of holding 2,000 persons, the building contains an auditorium with a balcony. The auditorium can be divided into two rooms by lowering a wooden partition; when the building was actively used by Quakers, men and women met separately. Jesse Thomas and Robert Carothers laid out Mount Pleasant in 1803. It soon became an important market for Quaker settlers. The Mount Pleasant meeting house was used regularly until 1909.

The house offers tours.

Working at Play

Description

From the BackStory website:

"Historian Cindy Aron discusses the origins of the modern American vacation. She explains why traveling to the beach didn't used to be appealing, and why Americans have often preferred 'self improvement' vacations to lazing around in a hammock."

Slavery and the Making of America

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Image, Graphic from Religion, Slavery and the Making of America
Annotation

This extensive companion to the PBS documentary of the same name provides interpretive and primary material on the history of African-Americans during slavery and Reconstruction, including essays, personal narratives, original documents, historical readings, and lesson plans. The "Time and Place" chronology of slavery and Reconstruction places the main events of U.S. history relating to African Americans between 1619 and 1881 in their historical context. "Slave Memories" allows visitors to hear the voices of African Americans recorded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on their experiences in slavery and Reconstruction. "Resources" includes 17 print resources, 23 books for children, and 30 websites related to slavery. "Slave Experience" allows users to explore slave life through the themes of legal rights and government; family; men, women, and gender; living conditions; education, arts, and culture; religion; responses to enslavement; and freedom and emancipation. Each features essays, historical overviews, original documents, and personal narratives.

A K-12 learning section features historical readings of narratives, slave stories and letters, student plays, links to 19 sites with primary sources, and six lesson plans for middle and high school. This website is a valuable resource for teachers as well as an excellent introduction and overview for those with an interest in the history of slavery and slave life in America.