• 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).
• Different economic, cultural, and social characteristics of slavery after 1800 (e.g., the influence of the Haitian Revolution and the ending of the Atlantic slave trade, how slaves forged their own culture in the face of oppression, the role of the plantation system in shaping slaveholders and the enslaved, the experiences of escaped slaves).
• The social and cultural influence of former slaves in cities of the North (e.g., their leadership of African-American communities, how they advanced the rights and interests of African Americans).

• The Northern Migration

1. Ask students to read the narrative, in particular the segments "Free Blacks in the South" and "Adjusting to Life in the North." (Or, they can read the narrative The Great Migration, in particular the segments "Leaving the South," "The Journey North," and "Networks and Media.")
2. Have students look for answers to the following questions as they read:

   1. What restrictions did African-American mariners or boatmen face?
   2. What types of information did they pass on?
   3. How did this information help free black individuals and families? How did it help fugitives who had already escaped? How did it help those who wished to escape slavery?

1. Ask students, individually or in teams, to research transportation and its impact on African-American migration. Students should select or sign up for a topic and present the information in a project-board display. Tell students they must evaluate the impact of the topic they are studying upon African-American migration. Topics may include:

   1. River trade routes of the first half of the nineteenth century in the United States.
   2. Ocean trade routes of the first half of the nineteenth century in the United States.
   3. Train routes of the first half of the nineteenth century in the United States.
   4. African-American merchant sailors' work.
   5. African-American river boaters' or canal boaters' work.
   6. African-American railway employees' work (non-porter).
   7. Pullman porters' work.
   8. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP), Asa Philip Randolph, the BSCP Ladies Auxiliary, or Halena Wilson.

2. Have students share their project boards in the classroom, providing a short one- or two-minute summation of their project and answering any questions about it.
3. If possible, you may wish to select some of the better projects for display in the school media center or other display areas in the school.

You can evaluate the project board on a 25-point scale (which may be multiplied by 4 to convert to a 100-point scale or to letter grades) using the following rubric:

• The Mariner's Museum at Newport News, Virginia, has an online exhibit, Waters of Despair, Waters of Hope – African-Americans and the Chesapeake Bay, at: http://www.mariner.org/exhibits/waters/index.html. For additional maritime resources, teachers may wish to check the Mystic Seaport Museum website or the South Street Seaport Museum website to see what online exhibits are available.
• Cobblestone Publishing's Footsteps Magazine includes an entire issue on "Blacks and the Railroads" from January/February 2002, Vol. 4, No. 1. Information can be found at http://www.footstepsmagazine.com.

• Social Studies: Many African-American inventors are associated with the railroad including Elijah McCoy ("the real McCoy"), Andrew J. Beard, Richard B. Spikes, and Granville T. Woods. Students should research these individuals, learn about their inventions, and recreate their patent application, being sure to include the following:
  
  Declaration of what they have invented;
  
  Summation of why it is new or different;
  
  Description in words of the invention;
  
  Drawing of the invention; and
  
  Signature and date for the application.
• Graphic Design/Photography: Students may wish to consider creating an exhibit of the African-American Mariner, images of African-American sailors on the seas, rivers, and canals. They may wish to conduct online research, checking well-known images (such as Mathew Brady's U.S. Navy images during the Civil War) for African-American sailors. They also may choose to create a computer slide-show presentation or to mount a display in a school showcase or hallway.