What is your freedom color? An Underground Railroad lesson

Bear with me for a lesson on the Underground Railroad

So…….  I’ve discovered something that’s a side effect of the books we’ve been reading for our history lessons.  My kids have decided because in all of the books with black people they’re always slaves or not allowed to do things, so they’ve decided it’s a bad thing because of that.  Here I thought I was showing how they’ve overcome so much and this is so great.

Instead, they think this is still their lot in life, and if you have dark skin you are still not allowed to check out library books like happened to Ron, in “Ron’s Big Mission.”  So, I’m trying to figure out how to fix this.  They don’t seem to of noticed that our neighbor next door who they talk to on a regular basis has dark skin.  Or that several of the kids in their Sunday School class do as well.  All they remember is the books I read and how in those they are slaves or discriminated against, which is all part of US history.

Food for thought for me.

All that because, it’s another book about the Underground Railroad.  I rather like this one.

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A quick synopsis of Night Boat to Freedom, a great picture book on the Underground Railroad

The main character in Night Boat to Freedom, Christmas John, rows slaves across the river to freedom each night.  When he gets back his grandmother asks “what was their freedom color?” and she adds that color cloth to her quilt she is making.

Supplies used for our Underground Railroad lesson

Night Boat to Freedom (naturally), Kentucky printable (in the subscriber section, subscribe to get the password), markers

This is part of our Kentucky unit, don’t miss the rest of the study.

Our Underground Railroad lesson

After reading that we had to make our own outfits for what we wore to freedom.  Princess wore red to freedom, and the boys both chose blue.

What really cracked me up about the boys’ outfits, was the competition all of the boys there that day got into about their boats.  By the end of that activity, those boys had the best-armed row boats you’ve ever heard of.  Stealth missiles, the ability to use the rockets to go faster, heat seekers.  Many countries would be jealous of the arsenal on these boats.

A quick word on the Underground Railroad

I think we are all in love with the romance of the Underground Railroad. I know I certainly was growing up, and I distinctly remember one of those Disney Sunday night movies being about the Underground Railroad and the adventures of two men who would go “down South” and free the slaves.

In my head, they were going into the deep South, South Carolina, Virginia, way south of the Mason-Dixon line.

In reality, they were mainly freeing slaves from the border states. Maryland and Kentucky being the primary two states who had slaves freed routinely.

The story in this book is much closer to what was happening when we talk about the Underground Railroad.

More early American history ideas

• Underground Railroad Simulation
• Lewis and Clark lesson
• Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello