Description

This NEH Landmarks of American History teacher workshop will help K-12 teachers present the elusive subject of the Underground Railroad with more facts and better historical context. Christiana, Pennsylvania was the site of an 1851 “riot” that resulted in the death of a slaveholder who was seeking his runaway slaves. Harpers Ferry was the location of John Brown's 1859 “raid” against the federal arsenal in western Virginia. Neither incident typically enters most classroom discussions about the Underground Railroad, yet both had important connections to fugitive slaves and what was arguably the nation's most active and organized antebellum Underground Railroad network, the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. Located at Dickinson College which is situated about 90 minutes from each site and within a region that was dominated by this vigilance movement, our Landmarks workshop will help teachers see how Christiana and Harpers Ferry can begin unlocking a more sophisticated portrayal of how the Underground Railroad really operated in northern states such as Pennsylvania . Participants will combine intensive field work with careful study of online documents to help them develop a range of tools that will enable their students to more effectively understand the Underground Railroad and to situate the network within the larger story of the coming Civil War. (read more)

Faculty and Staff

Project Director Matthew Pinsker (author Lincoln's Sanctuary, 2003), the first holder of the Brian Pohanka Chair for Civil War History at Dickinson College, will lead workshop discussions that will be based in part on his forthcoming book, William Still and the History of the Underground Railroad. Still was the principal organizer of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. Professor Pinsker will be joined by several leading scholars on the subject of the Underground Railroad, including Yale University Professor David Blight, author of Race and Reunion (2001) and Passages to Freedom (2004); Fergus Bordewich, author of the highly praised Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America (2005); Spencer Crew, President of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; Jonathan Earle, Associate Professor of History, University of Kansas; Kate Clifford Larson, historian and author of Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero ( New York : Ballantine Books, 2004); and Dickinson College professor John Osborne, director of the Dickinson Electronic Initiative in the Liberal Arts (DEILA).

The lecturers will be supported by several master teachers who have special abilities in the use of digital media and can help workshop participants prepare engaging and fact-based lesson plans on the elusive topic of the Underground Railroad. Assistant Project Director Todd Mealy is a social studies teacher at Penn Manor High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the author of an upcoming monograph on the Underground Railroad in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Gerry Kohler is an elementary and middle school teacher from Wood County, West Virginia and the 2006 National Preserve America History Teacher of the Year. Jeffrey Mummert is the History Department Chair at Central York Middle School in York, Pennsylvania. James Percoco teaches U.S. and applied history at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Virginia. He was named Outstanding Social Studies Teacher of the Year in 1993 by the Walt Disney Company Teacher Awards competition. Jay Vasellas is an experienced social studies teacher at Red Lion Area Senior High School in York County, Pennsylvania.

Providing invaluable support are Staff Associate Elaine Mellen of the Dickinson College History Department and the student interns of the House Divided Project.

2008 Workshop Syllabus
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Workshop Dates

Workshop #1 July 13-18, 2008
Arrival: Sunday, July 13, check in 12pm-6pm Morgan Hall, Dickinson College;
Departure: Friday afternoon, July 18

Workshop #2 July 20-25, 2008
Arrival: Sunday, July 20, check in 12pm-6pm, Morgan Hall, Dickinson College; Departure: Friday afternoon, July 25

Please note that Saturday morning departures can be arranged but require prior approval

Reading Assignment

David Blight, ed., Passages to Freedom: The Underground Railroad in History and Memory ( New York : HarperCollins, 2004).

Fergus Bordewich, Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America ( New York : Amistad/HarperCollins, 2005).

Kate Clifford Larson, Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero ( New York : Ballantine Books, 2004).

Writing Assignment

2008 Schedule

Sunday, Arrival at Dickinson College

Monday, Day One: Dickinson College

Wednesday, Day Three: Dickinson College

Thursday, Day Four: Harpers Ferry

Friday, Day Five: Dickinson College