This is designed for teachers, elementary through high school, to guide them in developing lessons that address issues of immigration (and subtopics of women, children, reform and regulation, racism, and 19th century change). The unit provides "big picture" questions, information about online and published resources, links to sites and more. Suggested lesson activities are also included.

1. Rochester Museum & Science Center
Thematic Topic: Slavery, Abolition & the Underground Railroad
Essential questions:
1. What were strategies employed by abolitionists to try to end enslavement of African
Americans?
2. In what ways was enslavement in the American South different from enslavement in the
American North?
3. How did the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 test the American legal and social systems?
4. What was the essential difference between enslavement and indentured servitude?
Lesson ideas:
1. Read Freedom Crossing in class and complete sheet with guided reading questions
2. Use template for 5th
grade lesson on Underground Railroad from
3. Use RMSC Underground Railroad Exhibit to identify ways in which enslavement differed from
indentured servitude – and ways they were similar
4. Have students explore possible reasons why the slave trade took hold in parts of North and
Latin America (US and Mexico) and not in others (Canada).
5. Have students explore how slavery and resistance to it impacted people in New York State in
different ways.
African American Research Resources
National
Federal Resources
http://www.free.ed.gov/subjects.cfm?subject_id=116
American Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Timeline (predates American history)
http://www.ushistory.org/more/timeline.htm
*Library of Congress – listing of African American collections
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?category=African%20American%20History

2. Library of Congress African American Mosaic
(migration, ex-slave narratives, colonization, abolition)
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam015.html
LOC - Murray Collection (African American history, pamphlets)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aap/aaphome.html
*Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture – African-American Migrations
http://www.inmotionaame.org/home.cfm
PBS (NY Slave Revolts of 1712, 1741)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p285.html
*PBS site: Slavery and the Making of America (lesson plans)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/lessons.html
*PBS African American Timeline
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aaworld/timeline.html
**Documenting the American South: Loguen’s and Steward’s narratives
The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman. A Narrative of Real Life (1859)
http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/loguen/loguen.html
Twenty Two Years a Slave and Forty Years a Freeman….
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/steward/menu.html
*US Census Data Browser
http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/about_exhibit.htm
African American Odyssey (Library of Congress online exhibit)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aointro.html
*African Americans, Women, and the Underground Railroad (National Park Service)
http://www.nps.gov/wori/historyculture/african-american-participation-in-the-underground-
railroad.htm
*University of Detroit Mercy – Black Abolitionist Archives
http://research.udmercy.edu/find/special_collections/digital/baa/
*Digital Archives on American Slavery
http://library.uncg.edu/slavery/index.aspx?s=3ess.html
War of 1812 sites documenting African Americans
http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/20-2/20-2-12.pdf
*National Archives – records relating to slavery
http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/

3. Blackpast.org
http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/list
Biography website (featuring Frederick Douglas)
http://www.biography.com/classroom/index.jsp
Report (and Testimony) of the Joint Select Committee to Inquire into the Condition of Affairs in the Late
Insurrectionary States (The “Klan” Hearings) 1972
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3Atexts%20AND%20collection%3AUSGovernme
ntDocuments%20AND%20subject%3A%22Ku-Klux%20Klan%20(1866-1869)%22
Freedmen’s Bureau
http://freedmensbureau.com/
Organizing Black America
http://www.bookrags.com/browse/tf0203801199/
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007
http://baic.house.gov/education/
*Mossell family biographies with links
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/aframer/gallery.html
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
http://www.archives.upenn.edu/faids/upt/upt50/alexander_stma.html
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander – Truman’s Committee on Human Rights, 1946- 1947 (use “Search” box
for STMA or the Committee)
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/index.php
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander – Kennedy’s Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, 1963 (Use “Search”
box)
http://www.jfklibrary.org/
Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights website - history
http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/about?id=0003
African American Resources on Digital Librarian
http://www.digital-librarian.com/africanamerican.html
NY State
**New York Heritage site – NY slave-related documents
http://www.newyorkheritage.org/
*“I Will Be Heard” online exhibit, Cornell University Collections on Slavery and Abolition
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/abolitionism/introduction.htm
*NYPL Digital Gallery – Abolition and slavery images and documents

4. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?word=Abolition%20documents&s=3&n
otword=&f=2
Exploring a Common Past: Researching & Interpreting the Underground Railroad (NPS)
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/ugrr/exugrr4.htm
**Slavery in New York – NY Historical Society
http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/
Mapping the African American Past (MAAP)
http://maap.columbia.edu/place/34.html
*Oswego County, NY Underground Railroad Page (Wellman’s Research Guide)
http://www.oswego.edu/ugrr/contents.html
Uncovering the Freedom Trail in Syracuse and Onondaga County
http://www.pacny.net/freedom_trail/
*NY History – People of the Underground Railroad
http://www.nyhistory.com/ugrr/people.htm
Origins of the Michigan Street Baptist Church in Buffalo, NY
http://www.nyhistory.com/mspa/
*Slavery in New York
http://www.slavenorth.com/newyork.htm
Researching Slavery and the Underground Railroad, New-York Historical Society Library
https://www.nyhistory.org/web/PDF/Slavery%20and%20Underground%20Railroad%20Resources%20Av
ailable%20at%20the%20New-York%20Historical%20Society%20Library.pdf
*Records relating to African Americans at the New York State Archives
http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/research/res_topics_pgc_afri_amer.shtml
HBCU Digital Collection (John Henry and Roseta Hill)
http://contentdm.auctr.edu/cdm4/browse.php?CISOROOT=/VSUD
Fugitive Slaves and the URR in Pennsylvania: primary documents (John Henry Hill)
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=854
Tioga County website (African American History in Tioga County)
http://www.nvhistory.org/tiogapast.shtml#top
Local
**RMSC Underground Railroad Educator’s Guide
http://www.rmsc.org/Data/Documents/teacher/ugrr/URR%20Curriculum%20Guide_v3.pdf

5. *RMSC Libraries-Archives-Objects Online Catalog
http://www.rmsc.org/ForTeachers/Information/CollectionsLibrary/
*University of Rochester, Frederick Douglass Project
http://www.iupui.edu/~douglass/resources.html
*University at Buffalo Archives: background on the URR
http://library.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/archives/exhibits/old/urr/
*The Fugitive Slave Act and the Underground Railroad in WNY
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/UndergroundRailRoad.html
*Slavery within the Holland Land Purchase
http://www.co.genesee.ny.us/dpt/historian/slavery.html#top
*Rochester Public Library – “Many Roads to Freedom”
http://www.libraryweb.org/rochimag/roads/home.htm
*African American Activists in Buffalo, NY (19th
century)
http://www.monroefordham.org/docs/Antebellum%20Biographies.pdf
African Americans in Buffalo: An Overview (with images)
http://www.buffaloah.com/h/af/index.html#Click
Essays about Joseph “Black Joe” Hodge(s)
http://www.buffaloah.com/h/hodge/hodgeJ.html
http://www.buffalonian.com/history/articles/%3C1800/blackjoe.htm
Bibliography for African American history in WNY*
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-references.html
*Buffalo History Index – History of African Americans in Buffalo, NY
http://www.buffaloah.com/h/af/index.html
Rev. J.E. Nash, Sr. bio (including “Uncrowned Kings” site)*
http://www.themichiganstreetbaptistchurch.org/jessenash.html
http://wings.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens/K/index.html
History of the Urban League of Buffalo
http://www.buffalourbanleague.org/History.html#history
Canadian Resources
*Buxton Museum (Elgin Settlement)
http://www.buxtonmuseum.com/index.html
Under a Northern Star (African-American Experiences in Canada)

6. http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/northern-star/index-e.html
Niagara Falls
http://www.niagarafallsmuseum.ca/blackhistory.html
Miscellaneous
*Niagara Movement – Declaration of Principles
http://www.africanamericanstudies.buffalo.edu/ANNOUNCE/niagaramovement/n
m_principles1.html
http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1152.htm
African American Registry (biographical data from various fields)
http://www.aaregistry.com/categories.php
Bibliography of books on race and gender (including titles on abolition)
http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/racegen.htm
African Americans.com (on colonization)
http://www.africanamericans.com/ConstitutionofAmericanSociety.htm
Stories of the Underground Railroad by Ana Curtis
http://www.shockfamily.net/underground/title.html
The Anti-slavery Literature Project
http://antislavery.eserver.org/
Howard University
http://www.huarchivesnet.howard.edu/9908huarnet/journal.htm
Benjamin Banneker and the Ellicott Brothers
http://library.thinkquest.org/3337/banneker.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p84.html
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/special/banneker-benjamin.html
New York State Historical Association – library pathfinder titles
http://pathfinder.nysha.org/search~S2/d?SEARCH=african+americans
Lesson Plans
*Criminal or Hero? (from PBS “Slavery and the Making of America series)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/teachers/lessons.html
Best of History websites (composite)
http://besthistorysites.net/USHistory_AfricanAmerican.shtml

7. Gilda Lehrman Institute for American History – Slavery module
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module.php?module_id=196
Lesson plans on African American history (great links to timelines)
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4607
Library of Congress lesson plan using Slave Narratives collection (story pyramid format)
http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=364
Lesson plans on 20th
c. African American migration from American South to North
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/tpl-sweethomechicago/
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/programs/tpl-anyplacebuthere/
Teaching a City About Its Civil Rights History” article,
http://www.historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2007/0704/0704tea1.cfm
and related lesson plans
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/teachers.htm
Lesson plan on Civil Rights – stories of individual’s struggles
http://urbandreams.ousd.k12.ca.us/lessonplans/mlk/index.htm
Underground Railroad
http://www.42explore2.com/undergrd.htm
Lesson plan for Colonization & Emigration (Schomburg)
http://www.inmotionaame.org/education/detail.cfm?migration=4&topic=9&type=educationmaterials