Landmarks of the Underground Railroad: From Christiana to Harpers Ferry

FAIN: BH-50186-07

Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA 17013-2896)
Matthew F. Pinsker (Project Director: March 2006 to September 2008)

Two one-week workshops for 100 school teachers to examine the Underground Railroad in antebellum America.

Dickinson will offer two weeklong workshps on the Underground Railroad that will challenge the way 100 K-12 teachers have been presenting this elusive subject. By integrating site vistis with documentary evidence, Workshop Director Matthew Pinsker and a team of highly acclaimed scholars and master teachers will push participants to broaden their understanding of what did - and did not - constitute an Underground Railroad escape. Participants will discover that there was an organized core to the effort to help runaways called "vigilance committees" and that these groups and those they protected were often as likely to fight as flee when congronted by slave catchers north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Participants will visit two historic sites that embody this insight: Christiana, PA and Harper's Ferry, WV. By the end of the workshop, teachers will draft new lesson plans thaty incorporate both episodes and be able to offer fresh approaches to the study of the Railroad.