You Never Know What You Will Find . . .

Back on one of the shelves in the "Education Wing" of the Historical Society, where my work nook is nestled into the corner, I saw a book entitled Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in History by Kathleen W. Craver. Browsing through it, I discovered numerous little website gems that I did not know even existed. I found numerous sites that I could potentially use for college courses that I am teaching, but also found ones that I thought might be useful for K-12 grade teachers of History as well. The book included not only descriptions of the materials available on the website but also discussion questions based on the materials. While some of the questions might have to be adjusted depending on the age of the students, I thought the questions were, overall, very helpful.

The first website that struck my eye was entitled "Slavery Resources On-Line." It claimed to have numerous slave narratives excerpted and available, but the link was no longer active. Through a little online detective work, I found that the original website was the creation of Dr. Steven Mintz, when he was a Professor of History at the University of Houston (who originally hosted the site). Dr. Mintz is no longer at Houston, however, having moved to Columbia University since Using Internet was published in 1999. I could not find the original material at any website. I tried going to the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History's website as well, because Using Internet said that is where the material originated from, to no avail.

But that is where I did find something very interesting: an interactive game/simulation based on a slave trying to escape his plantation in South Carolina and make it to freedom in Canada. This game, entitled "The Trail to Freedom in the 1850s" led me to create a new menu and page under our Historical Websites section of the TAH site just for games and activities such as this one. Hopefully, I will be able to add to it over the next few months, and anyone who has a similar free online simulation or game is welcome to submit it for inclusion as well.

While I did not find that original site, there was another from Using Internet that I found interesting. It is entitled "Third Person, First Person: Slave Voices from the Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library," and is based on resources at Duke University. I have included the discussion questions here, but if you are interested in more activities like this, I encourage you to check out Craver's book.

Posted by Jason Mead - Friday, 04/22/2011, 10:38 AM - Comments -