Sharing Knowledge at the Abolitionist Mixer
After learning about the role of enslavement in U.S. history, 5th Grade Humanities students studied the abolitionist movement. Each student was assigned a real abolitionist from history (Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, David Ruggles, etc.) and spent time researching that person to become the class expert and prepare for an Abolitionist Mixer!
The “mixer” was an embodied experience where the students spent a class period pretending to be their abolitionists. With name tags on their shirts and some 19th century music playing in the background, they walked around the room and “met” each other’s historical abolitionists, sharing stories from their research to learn more about them and the work that they did.
Students learned about the range of opinions that existed within the movement and discussed the wide variety of methods used to work toward ending enslavement. These methods included publishing newspapers, making speeches, organizing anti-slavery societies and conferences, leading boycotts, aiding the Underground Railroad, fighting in the Civil War, and more.
