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Summary and Objective
While Massachusetts citizens were leaders in the anti-slavery movement, opinions were certainly neither unanimous nor uniform. Students will explore documents that will help to to understand the myriad of opinions on an issue that divided the American revolutionaries and constitutional signers. Should "all men are created equal" be the law of the land? Students will view the collection and addition links and reflect on how the issue of Slavery affected citizens of Franklin County and how these events may have contributed to increasing tension over the issue of slavery.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Using the projector and whiteboard, students will review major events in the slavery time line from the PBS series, "Slavery and the Making of America".
Step 2.
A copy of the text of the 1837 letter to the Gazette and Mercury newspaper will be distributed. Students will examine the letter for grammar and explore whether it is intended to advance or make fun of the pro-slavery cause. Why is the letter unsigned?
Step 3.
The reaction to attacks in Kansas is expressed with outrage according to the "Mass Convention at Old Deerfield" poster announcing the death of David Starr Hoyt from Deerfield. Students will respond to prompts speculating:
1. What conditions might have prompted Hoyt to leave Deerfield for Kansas?
2. Analyze the language of the petition. What does it hint of?
3. Who signed the petition?
4. Who was Beecher?
5. How did the Kansas bloodshed affect growing tensions toward civil war?
Step 4.
Students will read the report of the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case. How did this decision effect the abolitionists in the North?
Step 5.
Look at the map of the Underground Railroad and the Slave-hunting petition. Students will imagine they lived in their hometowns in Franklin County in 1860 and reflect on what they would have done in response.
Step 6.
The article "Fugitive Slave" is a specific case of a slave trying to escape from US officials pursuing him through Massachusetts. Would you have opened your door to him? Would you have turned him in for reward? or helped him to freedom?
Step 7.
Reflecting back on these events, how would the election of Lincoln in 1860 be seen by farmers in Western Massachusetts? Was war inevitable?
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