Author Jacqueline Tobin reexamines the history of the Underground Railroad, looking at the extension of the Railroad into Canada and the escape of fugitive slaves into Canada. She also examines the life of ex-slaves as free people in Canada.
Video and audio versions are available.
Did Northerners all respond the same way to Brown's infamous raid? Southerners?
Textbooks present the response to John Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry as polarized according to geographic sections, with Southerners condemning Brown as a dangerous fanatic and many Northerners supporting his bold and violent strike against slavery. That portrayal reaffirms the deep and growing sectional divide and depicts a nation barreling towards secession and war.
As one of the most riveting events of the antebellum era, Brown’s raid precipitated passionate responses in newspapers, sermons, and political speeches. Those sources provide a compelling glimpse into a vast nation’s complicated responses to the captivating moment in time.
Historians detect more variation in the responses to Brown’s raid, and more nuance even among Northerners and Southerners. In particular, the raid provoked deep and complicated reactions in the North, ranging from celebration to political censure. Those responses reveal a country deeply divided over the institution of slavery, but far from uniform in thought.
Textbooks present John Brown’s abortive raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 as a polarizing event in the growing sectional rift between North and South, unifying opinion in both regions. In fact, the initial response to the raid was more nuanced than it is often portrayed—particularly in the North, where different reactions revealed a complex and multifaceted society struggling with the implications of Brown’s actions.
In this Cool Things podcast, curators at the Kansas Museum of History follow the story of a revolver owned by Albert Hazlett, one of John Brown's men during the raid at Harpers Ferry.
This free weekend will feature “field trip” tours of Antietam and Harpers Ferry, focusing on techniques teachers can use to make a battlefield visit a central part of their Civil War curriculum.
Teachers will attend their choice of workshops on Friday and Sunday, covering a range of military and civilian topics. Past presenters of these workshops have included leading historians and educators, and topics have ranged from tactical military history to strategies for teaching the Civil War to struggling readers. These workshops are designed not only to impart specific information about the era but also a variety of pedagogical strategies to help teachers bring the Civil War to life in their classrooms.
In June 2008, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the Harpers Ferry Historical Association will host a one-week workshop that will enable 4th–12th grade teachers to walk in the footsteps of John Brown, John Cook, Shields Green, Robert E. Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, Heyward Shepherd, Fountain Beckham, and many others as they learn about events of national significance that have occurred in Harpers Ferry. Educators will get to interact with historians, curators, museum educators, and other professionals in the field. This institute will prepare teachers to use historic documents, artifacts, and images to enhance their teaching and to inspire students with the stories that make history come alive in the classroom and beyond.
Foundations of U.S. History, Virginia History as U.S. History features 4th graders learning about John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry through analyzing the song "John Brown's Body." Video clips of classroom instruction accompany short videos of a scholar analyzing the song and the teacher reflecting on the lesson. The John Brown song is one of eight documents found on the Source Analysis feature of the Teaching American History grant website in Loudoun County, Virginia. In the classroom practice section for John Brown's Body we see students analyzing the song to understand how northerners viewed John Brown shortly after his raid on Harpers Ferry. This video provides examples of two promising practices:
The lesson starts with the teacher playing the song "John Brown's Body." In this warm-up activity, the teacher instructs students to draw a picture of "what you see in your mind." After students share their drawings, the teacher provides them with a worksheet to help students analyze the musical composition. Next, students analyze the lyrics to an adapted version of the song written in 1861. The teacher works with individual students to help them use prior knowledge to make sense of the song and generate questions about the song. This progression from open-ended student task to close historical analysis engages and challenges students.
Towards the end of the lesson, the teacher facilitates a whole-class review of the Guiding Question worksheet. After students share that they think the song portrayed John Brown as a hero, the teacher refers back to a prior lesson asking, "Do you think this song represents how everybody in the North feels?" Students respond that it does not. The teacher uses this conversation as an opportunity to review that many people in the North did not support John Brown's tactics. Students see that while primary documents are valuable evidence, they should not assume that an individual source speaks for all people. This lesson also draws on multiple classroom resources and incorporates a variety of historical thinking skills. Students use their textbook to help them make sense of the song: they consider the song's historical context and audience. Additionally, you can find a comprehensive lesson plan, complete with additional primary sources, background information, and classroom worksheets, on the site.
This massive, searchable archive compares two Shenandoah Valley counties during the Civil War period—Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA. These two counties were divided by 200 miles and the institution of slavery. Thousands of pages of maps, images, letters, diaries, and newspapers, in addition to church, agricultural, military, and public records provide data, experiences, and perspectives from the eve of the war until its aftermath. The site furnishes timelines, bibliographies, and other materials intended to foster research into the Civil War and the lives of those affected by it. The website includes a section on John Brown and one entitled "Memory of the War," presenting postwar writings on battles, the lives of soldiers, reunions, obituaries and tributes, and politics.