DBQ Underground Railroad

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Step 1. Observation
Study the historical documents below for a few minutes. Form an overall impression of each historical document. Don't worry about words you don't understand.  Just skip them and try to get the general meaning each item.  When you click on a document it will appear in another window.  You can enlarge that window for a closer look, but don't close this window, or you will lose your answers.

  #1 Photograph
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 #2 Poster
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#3 Document
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Step 2. Inference
In this step, you look for facts you can infer from historical documents just by looking at them.

1.  Where and when was photograph #1 taken? (Not the web page citation) 
 

2.  Who arrested the men in  photograph #1 and why were they arrested?

3.  What is the date of  poster #2  and where was it made? (Not the web page citation)
 

4.  Who do you think made  poster #2  and why did they make it?

5.  What is the date of   document #3  and where was it made? (Not the web page ciatation)

6.  Who do you think made  document #3 and why did they make it?

Step 3. Questions for higher level thinking.
In this step, you use knowledge you already have and things you know from the historical documents to reach conclusions or ask questions.

Think about what you already know about the Underground Railroad from your class discussions and what you now know from these historical documents.  

7.  After looking at the three historical documents, do you think  all of the people who  lived in the northern United States between 1830 and 1866 were opposed to slavery?  Did people disagree on the issue of slavery in the northern states?  Why or why not?

8.  Describe the different sides that are in conflict in these historical documents.   Could this conflict have contributed to the outbreak of  the Civil War?  Why or why not?

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