Target group: Grades K-4
Duration of visit: 2 Hours
Supplies: Provided by the museum
MAXIMUM CLASS SIZE OF 50

Illustrations, discussions, and museum artifacts will introduce students to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Information covered includes the slave ships, auctions, plantation life, and the cruel punishments enslaved people were subjected to.

Students will learn how people used the "Underground Railroad" to escape the cruelty of slavery. See a reproduction of the crate Henry "Box" Brown used to mail himself to freedom. Experience what it would be like to travel by box! After the discussion, students will know the codes, disguises, methods of travel, and the network of people involved in escapes.

Josiah Henson's life story aids students’ understanding of slavery and escape.  His accounts of slavery and his accomplishments as a free man in Canada demonstrate how personal faith. Henson's accounts of slavery and his accomplishments as a free man in Canada demonstrates how personal faith and courage can overcome cruelty and racism. In freedom, Henson became the spiritual leader of the Dawn settlement, a conductor for the Underground Railroad, the founder of the British American Institute (a vocational school for former enslaved people), and a source for Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Site Activities:

 1. Survival Secrets: Through the art of storytelling, an enslaved person’s quest for freedom is brought to life.  The journey begins in Africa and ends in Canada through vivid stories and demonstrations.  Students are given time to make a collage depicting a slave’s journey to freedom.

2. Free Spirit: This program is designed to stimulate the young imaginations of the students.  It consists of interactive storytelling, in which the students will become characters in the story.  Through movement and dance, the students will tell an exciting story that takes them from slavery to freedom.