The Crosswhite Fugitive Slave Case
Summer Fellowship 2007
Todd Searing
To download this lesson in PDF format, click here.
Essential
Questions/Enduring Understandings:
n
What was the law regarding fugitive slaves before the
Civil War and the 13th Amendment?
n
What attitudes and actions did citizens in free states
take toward attempts to recapture fugitive slaves?
n
How can court and census documents allow historians to
learn about the past?
Assessment:
This lesson assesses student participation, effort, and
understanding through the following six activities, five of which involve
producing varieties of written response.
1. One interesting thing, one
surprising thing, one question based on
whole-class introduction
2. Two-column notes about the original case filing
3. Partner notes on assigned or selected deposition
4. Participation in circle
discussion
5. ÒQuestions still to answerÓ sheet and answers based on documents
6. Summary paragraph describing the laws regarding fugitive slaves as
they existed in the 1840Õs and northern reactions against them
Setting the Purpose:
The teacher introduces the lesson with a presentation of national and regional primary source materials
using a computer projection system or overhead transparencies. The wording outlawing slavery, but
providing for the return of fugitive slaves in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 begins the introduction. The teacher then tells students that a
national Fugitive Slave Act was passed six years later in 1793 under Article
IV, Section 2 of the United States Constitution. Setting the purpose for the case study then involves showing
the cover of a typical court document; the signature of the main defendant,
Charles Gorham; the mark of a witness unable to write; a complaint by the
defense attorneys; and the sign off of a marshall at the completion of the
census in a particular county. If
a teacher has read the accompanying synopsis
of events, these documents can be used
to introduce elements of the case study as completely or incompletely as a
teacher desires.
Duration: Suggested
to be 3 class periods (about 2 hours of class time).
Procedure:
Day 1
Index Card
Show the purpose-setting documents. Ask students to identify one
interesting fact in the introduction, one surprising thing, and one good
question to ask. It works well to
have students write these items on an index card during the introduction. The teacher might collect these or ask
for some students to share or go around the room to read some cards during the
next activity.
Two-column notes
Hand out the two-column notes
sheet to each student. As can be
seen on the attached example, the left column has topics which students should
think about while looking at the case filing. The right column has some stems to assist in note-taking and
some blank space to record thoughts about the document. Give individuals 5-10 minutes with the
notes on their own and allow them to share and collaborate with classmates for
the last 10 minutes.
Collect the two-column notes to assess studentsÕ analyses of
the filing.
Day 2
Partner notes
In this activity all students pair up (with one group of
three or the teacher also joining in a pair) and are given one of the ten transcribed depositions. Each student should have some
familiarity with the case from the case filing activity, but a summary based on
teacher review of the two-column notes could begin this class. Each pair takes a blank piece of paper,
writes both their names on it, and notes names, events, and other key
information found in their deposition.
The teacher should note the varying degrees of difficulty of the
selected depositions. Some of
these documents could be split into pieces, saved for whole-class discussion,
or used to model.
Circle discussion
After enough time (maybe about half of class time) have
students form two circles by arranging desks or just standing. An outer circle should face an inner
circle and each circle should have the same number of students. At some points students may face a
partner or someone that looked at the same document, and that is not a
problem. Tell students they have
one minute to share with the person they are facing. After one minute, one circle rotates, after the next minute
the other circle rotates the opposite direction. Once everyone has shared, use the remaining time to sum up
as a whole group.
Day 3
ÒQuestions Still To AnswerÓ
Have census information and depositions
ready to use as resources. One
easy way to do this is to have access to a projector and be able to show the
computer files. You also might
post some 11x17 copies in the room for the census info. To access the knowledge students have
built up about the Crosswhite case and the American history it illuminates,
have the class brainstorm some questions that have not been answered so
far. It could be effective to have
each student turn to their neighbor and come up with one or two things they
still want to know about the Crosswhites or the Giltners or the court
case. Some questions that can be
answered with the documents might be: how many slaves the Giltners owned, what
happened to the Crosswhites, how did the court case end. Depending on how you are displaying the
documents, students might be directed to different parts of the room or view
enlarged documents as a group to answer as many questions as possible and
discuss what cannot be answered from these sources and where else information
might be found.
Summary Paragraph
In the remaining time or as a homework assignment, each
student must write a summary statement (at least a paragraph) explaining what
the law was regarding fugitive slaves before the Civil War (the 1850 Fugitive
Slave Act may or may not be presented at this point) and how some northerners,
especially abolitionists, reacted to these laws. It is required that a student use facts from the Crosswhite
case study to detail their statement.
National Primary
Sources
1850 Compromise (including Fugitive
Slave Act – optional for this lesson)
Court depositions and other
documents from U.S. Circuit Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Detroit area,
case 1900, National Archives, Great Lakes Region
Census records and slave rolls for
the states of Kentucky and Michigan.
Carroll County, Kentucky U.S. Census
1840, 1850, 1860
Calhoun County, Michigan U.S. Census
1870