If possible, visit historic Second Baptist Church in Detroit, which was a site on the Underground Railroad and is open to visitors. Sites in other localities may be substituted.

Anticipatory Set:
Ask students if they have ever heard of the "Big Dipper." Also ask students what the connection is between the Big Dipper and the North Star. Explain that, to some people, the Big Dipper was also known as the "Drinking Gourd." The folk song, Follow the Drinking Gourd, was actually a set of directions to help slaves escape to freedom.

• Distribute Follow the Drinking Gourd (see Attachment Three) to the students. Divide the students into groups of three to four to work on answers to the following questions:
  • How successful would slaves be by just waiting to move around at night?
  • How would they hide out during the day?
  • What effect would the weather or geographical land changes have on how quickly they would move from one location to another?
  • How would the escaping slaves eat?
    
    
• Once groups have had sufficient time to work on their answers, allow them to make group presentations.
  
  
• Tell students that the words used when talking about the escape routes formed a specialized secret vocabulary. Make sure students understand the meaning of these terms:
  • The "Underground Railroad" was neither underground nor a railroad. It was a series of routes (paths, roads, trails, waterways) that started in the South, moved through the North or West (and sometimes South) and ended in Canada, the western territories, Mexico or the Caribbean.
  • The "passengers" were those who had escaped their slaveholders and sought freedom.
  • The "conductors" were brave persons, from all ethnic groups, who risked their lives to escort runaways to freedom.
  • The "station masters" risked their own safety and their homes to provide shelter for the runaways.
    
    
• To make sure that students have sufficient background to continue, ask students to discuss the following questions briefly:
  • Why was the Civil War fought?
  • What were some of the effects of slavery on the country and on the people in the country?
  • Where did the funds come from to help the slaves? (volunteers, churches, Quakers, abolitionists)
  • How did the slaves gain access to safe houses? (code words)
    
    
• Read If You Traveled the Underground Railroad. Discuss the questions again allowing students to add information gained from reading the book.
  
  
• If you cannot obtain If You Traveled the Underground Railroad, you might prefer to use the information available on the National Parks Service's Web site related to Underground Railroad sites. Look at Attachments One and Two and answer the following questions:
  • Where was this site on the Underground Railroad?
  • Why did runaways still have to escape out of the North and into Canada once they managed to get out of the South?
  • What was the background of the people at the site you read about?
  • Was there any risk to the stationmasters at this site?
    
    
• Arrange the students into three groups. Explain that each group will reenact the escape to freedom. One group will have no information, and they will travel on their own without assistance while being chased by bounty hunters and their owners. The second group will have information about following the North Star and travelling at night while being chased by the bounty hunters and their owners. The third group will have the same information and problems of the second group, but will use code words at safe houses. Once this reenactment has been completed, ask the students to describe the differences. Ask students:
  • Which was more difficult and why?
  • What did the volunteers have to do with the Underground Railroad?
  • Would the Underground Railroad have worked without the volunteers?
  • Do you think they were paid?
  • Why did they do this?
    
    
• Students should develop the skill of having a general sense of time without actually knowing the dates of each event. Place these or other major events that led to or had an impact on the Civil War on the chalkboard. Include slavery, the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, the Underground Railroad, the abolition movement, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. Ask students to put these events in chronological order.

(Answer: Although there may be some flexibility in the pattern, the following order is acceptable: slavery, Underground Railroad, Abolition Movement, Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, election of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation.)

Although these events can also be placed on a timeline, it would be a difficult task since some dates would only be approximations and others occurred about the same time.

As an extension to this lesson, for geography, select the various safe house locations from the web site, then, divide students into groups of two to three to research where the various safe houses were located. Select 10 locations for the students to pinpoint on a map of the United States. After the locations are plotted on the map, instruct the students to determine the geographical characteristics (terrain) of the area. Were these locations the kinds of places where runaways could easily come? Why or why not?