• The political and religious factors that influenced English, Spanish, French, and Dutch colonization of the Americas.
• How slavery shaped social and economic life in the South after 1800 (e.g. the cotton gin and the opening of new lands in the South and West led to increased demands for slaves; differences in the lives of plantation owners, poor free black and white families and slaves; methods of passive and active resistance to slavery; escaped slaves and the Underground Railroad).
• The elements of slavery in both the North and South during the antebellum period (e.g. similarities and differences between African-American and white abolitionists, defense of chattel slavery by slaveholders, growing hostility toward free blacks in the North, how African-American leaders fought for rights).

• Runaway Journeys Images of the Black Seminoles 2-052 to 2-056

1. Ask students to locate on a map the places mentioned in the narrative:

   1. Harlem, NY;
   2. Fort Mose (near St. Augustine), FL;
   3. The Great Dismal Swamp (VA-NC border);
   4. Elliott's Cut (between the Ashepoo and Pon Pon Rivers), SC; and
   5. Abraham's Town (near Bushnell, Sumter County), FL.

   Discuss what types of areas seemed to support maroon communities, for instance physical features, position relative to large population centers, proximity to supportive Native Americans or foreign governments.
2. Explain to students that they will be investigating some of these maroon communities. Then, either assign or allow students to sign up to find out more about three types of maroon communities:

   1. Great Dismal Swamp "outlyers;"
   2. Fort Mose's Spanish-government-sanctioned community and militia; and
   3. Maroons in Florida and their relationship to the Seminole nation (often called Black Seminoles).

3. Once students have completed their research, ask them to share their findings in class.
4. Ask students what the advantages and disadvantages were to each type of community.
5. Direct students to respond to one of the following writing prompts:

   1. Why were there only about fifty active maroon communities in the United States between 1672 and 1864?
   2. What type of maroon community seemed most successful in the long run and why (i.e., were they independent, Spanish sanctioned, or Native American allied)?

After students complete writing their prompt, you may elect to ask students to share their ideas orally or to write up some of the best ideas into signs for the bulletin board. Evaluate their work on a five-point scale (which may be weighted) or five letter-grade rubric as follows:

• The Schomburg Center has numerous links to sites related to the experiences of fugitives at: http://www.pressroom.com/~afrimale/aahr.htm. The PBS Africans in America link mentioned includes a very good page on Maroons during the Revolutionary War at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p50.html.
• An early description of the Great Dismal Swamp was made by William Byrd in his History of the Dividing Line between Virginia and North Carolina, between pages 10 and 30. The full text, including these relevant pages, may be viewed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries' Documenting the American South web site at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/byrd/menu.html. At the same website, you can find Peter Randolph's 1855 Sketches of Slave Life that includes a description on page 28 of Benjamin who escaped to the swamps of Virginia: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/randol55/randol55.html.
• The history of Fort Mose and images from the Florida Natural History Museum illustrating its past may be found at: http://www.oldcity.com/sites/mose/
• The University of Florida's excavation of a Black Seminole village, called Abraham's Town or Peliklakaha, of central Florida is detailed at: http://www.napa.ufl.edu/2001news/slave.htm

• Language Arts: The experiences of maroons lend themselves to creative writing activities. Collaborate with the English teachers so students may use historical information to write narratives, poems, or illustrated children's stories about the experience of a particular maroon or maroon community.
• Archaeology: Ask students to examine some of the archaeology reports of artifacts found at Fort Mose or Peliklakaha. Ask students to make a list of five things they learned about the maroons from artifacts and five questions they have that remain unanswered. Discuss what archaeology adds to the understanding of maroons that may not be recorded in historical documents. Also, discuss the questions that artifacts alone cannot answer.