Unit Study: Slavery, The Underground Railroad, and the Civil War

 For the first 6ish weeks of our homeschool year, we spent some time studying slavery, the Underground Railroad, and the Civil War. That's a lot to cover in only six weeks, but at this age level, I wanted to just scratch the surface. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of pictures from this unit study, but we did read a lot of books! Throughout the six weeks, we read the entire Addy American Girl series, which gave us a good overview of all three topics, and brought history alive for the girls. Historical fiction is one of my favorite ways to teach history, and it's a great way to make historical events feel real, and it's a good jumping point for researching the actual history events. We also used A Child's Introduction to African American History, by Jabari Asim. These were are two "spines" but we supplemented with a lot of library books, including but not limited to:

Midnight Teacher: Lily Ann Granderson and Her Secret School, by Janet Halfman
Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave, by Laban Carrick Hill
Lift Your Light a Little Higher, by Heather Henson
Your Legacy: A Bold Reclaiming of Our Enslaved History, by Schele Williams
So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth's Long Walk Toward Freedom, by Gary D. Schmidt
Frederick Douglass: The Lion Who Wrote History, by Walter Dean Myers
Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad, by Ellen Levine
Show Way, by Jacqueline Woodson
If You Were a Kid During the Civil War, by Wil Mara
The Escape of Robert Smalls: A Daring Voyage out of Slavery, by Jehan Jones-Radgowski
Seeking Freedom: The Untold Story of Fortress Monroe and the Ending of Slavery in America, by Selene Castrovilla

We spent some time learning about ways that enslaved people resisted slavery, through education, art, self liberation, and more. We also learned what "abolition" means, and how abolitionists used many means to try to end slavery. We watched a lot of reenactment videos focusing on the lives of soldiers in the Civil War, and the civilian fashion of the era. We also took some time to record the dates of important events of people in our Book of Centuries. Here is Pumpkin's humorous interpretation of the war in her history notebook.

Some notable historical figures we studied included Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Abraham Lincoln. We watched reenactments of several speeches. We particularly enjoyed this reenactment of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman" speech.

At the end of our unit study, the girls each created a poster about a historical figure of their choice.

I did some of my own reading alongside the girls during this unit study, which made it feel extra exciting for me. I've always enjoyed history, and it seems I've been enjoying it more as I've gotten older. One of my favorite things our style of homeschooling is going on a learning journey with my girls, rather than simply imparting information to them.