Help Improve the UGRR Digital Classroom

The most important factor in making distant events seem vibrant is the use of contemporary stories with significant detail. In McPherson’s discussion of the Northern states’ resistance efforts to the fugitive slave act, he impressively uses small anecdotes and attentive detail to embellish and define how the fugitive slave act was received in the North. For example his use of story telling and quotation (from Theodore Parker) in illustrating the daring escape and attempted capture of the Craft family really bring the events to life.
The material McPherson cites, however, is no where near as impressive as the wealth of contemporary accounts available in the underground railroad section of the house divided project. While browsing various newspaper articles, court cases and narratives I was shocked at just how much information actually still existed. I was not aware for example that full court transcripts like the one from the 1851 Christiana Trial still were available. For me it is these lively and real accounts that take a bleak and lifeless historical narrative and make it timeless and fascinating.

I would have to agree with pg when talking about making distant stories feel vibrant and real. This is obviously necessary in order to keep people interested in the past and capture new audiences as time goes on. The house divided page is so amazing because it makes the civil war come alive, however cliche that may sound. The only other book, website, whatever that has ever made me feel really connected to the material was Swanson’s Manhunt, which gave an hour by hour account of the chase of John Wilkes Booth. Anyhow this websites and texts like that need to be produced more in order to keep history relevant to younger audiences.

The classroom supplements McPherson’s book by giving students a way to apply the knowledge they have learned. Just because a student reads something in a book does not mean that he/she has internalized the information. Classrooms are places where students can have hands on experiences with the information in the reading. For example, I like Jeff Mummert’s lesson plan where he tells the story of Henry “Box” Brown and has the students build the box to see if they could fit and be comfortable. Even though this activity may be a little juvenile for an undergraduate setting, it is perfect for elementary or middle school. This activity engages students and portrays to them what it was like to be a runaway slave during this time. Students may not remember simply reading about runaway slaves, but Mr. Mummert’s activity affords a memorable opportunity.
The maps presented in this project also help to internalize the readings. One map on the House Divided depicts Underground Railroad locations in the city of Philadelphia. Unlike the textbook that does not give me a map, the map presented here allows me to draw a personal connection to the Underground Railroad. I am from Philadelphia, and I can recognize where some of these place are located.

House Divided project did a great job to make historical facts alive and such effort is useful to help student to get a more comprehensive view of the Underground Railroad. However, such reconstruction might overemphasize the importance of the Underground Railroad than it actually was. As Professor Pinsker said, “Not everybody, not even McPherson, sees the impact of the Underground Railroad as looming this large during the antebellum period, but most of us at the House Divided Project do.” It is certain that most of the House Divided members do, but it is difficult to persuade other people. By collecting numerous primary sources can only show the existence of such a Railroad, not its importance in the big context. In addition, the google map in the virtual trip looks fancy, but somehow I have the feeling that I won’t treat these contraptions as seriously as primary sources.

While McPherson’s narrative offers a satisfactory and well written overview of the major events related to the Underground Railroad and the Fugitive Slave Act, it only scratches the tip of the iceberg. In McPherson’s own narrative he stated that several hundred slaves ran away every year and each one of them had their own unique story filled with peril and significance. Personally I was surprised to discover that McPherson did not mention exploits of Harriet Tubman in this chapter while instead he focused more on William and Ellen Craft. To me, the greatest strength of the Underground Railroad Digital Classroom is that it goes into a lot more detail of the events involving the fugitive slaves and the abolitionists who helped to free them. Of the many resources I saw the one that stuck out to me the most was the Henry “Box” Brown exhibit. This escape was not mentioned in McPherson’s book so it was a new learning experience for me. It was very impressive that the site documents the escape down to the last detail and even has an image of a replica of the crate that was used in the escape. To me this site is excellent because it displays several incidents during this time period that McPherson’s book fails to mention.

I think one of the most significant element of the project is the very definition of the Underground Railroad. I think that there are a lot of different ideas that pop into young students heads regarding what the term means, especially at the younger ages, and the definition presented on the home page of the UGRR is very helpful to make it clear.
I liked many of the exhibits and resources, I think they made it easier to visualize what this operation meant and how it was carried out. For example, the information about Henry “Box” Brown did a good job of bringing the story to life. The information about the dimensions of the box, how it was built, and the resources he had with him for the trip, were really helpful.
My only complaint is that the Digital Classroom seems a bit limited. The library, for example, is interesting and interactive, but it only has three books to look into. I do like what is going on, but I think there could be more resources.

Books are the traditional way to teach history, like the Civil War. McPherson’s book provides important details about the war. However, the resources on the House Divided website go a step further than McPherson. These resources, such as the pictures of important historical figures, interactive models, and historical documents make the past interesting. These tools make history far more interesting because they help the user to visualize the past. The exhibit on Henry “Box” Brown was especially interesting because it showed the story in its different stages.