4.5 - In Search of Freedom and a Call for Change

From EngageNY

IN SEARCH OF FREEDOM AND A CALL FOR CHANGE: Different groups of people did not have equal rights and freedoms. People worked to bring about change. The struggle for rights and freedoms was one factor in the division of the United States that resulted in the Civil War.

4.5a
There were slaves in New York State. People worked to fight against slavery and for change.
  • Students will examine life as a slave in New York State.
  • Students will investigate people who took action to abolish slavery, including Samuel Cornish, Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Tubman.
4.5b Women have not always had the same rights as men in the United States and New York State. They sought to expand their rights and bring about change.
  • Students will examine the rights denied to women during the 1800s.
  • Students will investigate people who took action to bring about change such as Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Elizabeth Blackwell. Students will explore what happened at the convention of women in Seneca Falls.
4.5c The United States became divided over several issues including slavery resulting in the Civil War. New York State supported the Union and played an important role in this war.
  • Students will explore how New York State supported the Union during the Civil War providing soldiers, equipment, and food.
  • Students will research a local community's contribution to the Civil War effort using resources such as war memorials, a local library, reenactments, historical associations, and museum artifacts.

Supporting Materials

DVD

Abraham Lincoln: the Great Emancipator

In 1861, the Civil War was a conflict that threatened to permanently divide the United States. Without President Abraham Lincoln's leadership, courage and determination to maintain the Union, our country may have ceased to exist. From his childhood in Kentucky, to his election as President and...

ebook

American Archaeology Uncovers the Underground Railroad

American archaeologists uncover information about an "early underground railroad" which brought African-American slaves from the South to the North for safety and new freedom. Also includes persons who were part of this movement like Harriet Tubman, and Henry Ward Beecher, and members of...

DVD

Causes of the Civil War

This compelling program reveals how the interests of the industrial North and the agricultural South (the Cotton Belt) came to clash over critical issues such as plantation slavery, and how these issues eventually led to the secession of the southern states. It journeys along the Underground...

DVD

Follow the Drinking Gourd

Based on the traditional American folksong, this compelling tale recounts the daring adventures of one family's escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad. This touching story captures all the drama of a perilous flight to freedom.

Book

Freedom Summer: The 1964 Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi

In 1964, Mississippi civil rights groups banded together to fight Jim Crow laws in a state where only 6.4 percent of eligible black voters were registered. Testing a bold new strategy, they recruited students from across the United States. That summer these young volunteers defied segregation by...

DVD

Harriet Tubman and Her Escape to Freedom

Millions of enslaved African-American men, women and children lived in the United States less that 200 years ago. During that period of American history, many brave men and women attempted an escape to freedom. Harriet Tubman is perhaps the best known of these American heroes. Through...

Web Resource

Miss Susan B. Anthony Fined $100 and Costs for Illegal Voting

Full text of article is below:

Miss Susan B. Anthony Fined $100 and Costs for Illegal Voting
     CANANDAIGUA, N.Y., June 19—At 2 o'clock this afternoon Judge Selden made a motion in the case of Miss Anthony for a new trial, upon the ground of a misdirection of the...

DVD

One Woman, One Vote

How could America call itself the world's greatest democracy, but deny the right to vote to more than half its citizens? Why did so many men and women vehemently oppose giving women the vote, and how was this attitude overcome? One Woman, One Vote documents the seventy-year battle for...

DVD

Opposing Slavery: The Abolitionist Movement in America

This program begins by exploring the development of slavery in America and the conditions under which enslaved people lived and worked. Then, through reenactments, the video focuses on key members of the...

Book

The Girl from the Tar Paper School

Before the Little Rock Nine, before Rosa Parks, before Martin Luther King Jr. and his March on Washington, there was Barbara Rose Johns, a teenager who used nonviolent civil disobedience to draw attention to her cause. In 1951, witnessing the unfair conditions in her racially segregated high...

Learn more on Engage NY

EngageNY.org is developed and maintained by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to support the implementation of key aspects of the New York State Board of Regents Reform Agenda.

This is the official web site for current materials and resources related to the Regents Reform Agenda. The agenda includes the implementation of the New York State P-12 Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS), Teacher and Leader Effectiveness (TLE), and Data-Driven Instruction (DDI). EngageNY.org is dedicated to providing educators across New York State with real-time, professional learning tools and resources to support educators in reaching the State’s vision for a college and career ready education for all students.