Pupils taught perils of the Underground Railroad

The uncertainty and danger of the Underground Railroad were re-enacted Feb. 21 by second-grade pupils and teachers at Rollins Elementary School.

• Photos

Back | Next

Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff

Hallways are darkened at Rollins Elementary School, during an interactive program that taught pupils about the dangers slaves faced when they tried to flee to freedom on the Underground Railroad, a network of escape routes.

Back | Next

Rainier Ehrhardt/Staff

Olivia Hitchcock (left), 7, and Patricia Wright, 8, jump a "river" as volunteer parent Susan Baker looks on.

With the lights off, the school's hallways became the railroad, and classrooms became safe houses. Teachers wearing straw hats, shawls and bandannas became conductors. They directed pupils, who were runaway slaves from the plantation, to the school's media center, where they found freedom.

"Don't trust everyone you see. Be very, very careful," said the first conductor the students met.

Carrying sticks with bandannas tied on the end, the pupils went through the school gathering provisions: cups, which represented water; spoons, which represented food; Popsicle sticks, which represented shelter; and cloth squares, which represented new clothes.

The pupils had to avoid safe houses where slave catchers were waiting to take their provisions in return for allowing them to continue toward freedom.

"We have to be very quiet or else we're going to get caught," volunteer Susan Baker told a group of pupils she accompanied along the journey.

"Is this a safe house? Are there slave catchers in there?" one of the pupils asked as they approached a classroom.

The group sighed with relief as a teacher opened her door and gave each of them water.

They weren't as lucky with the next house, where they encountered one of several slave catchers.

The pupils participated in the re-enactment after learning about the Underground Railroad in class, said Mollie Silver, an organizer of the activity.

"The teachers read several books to them, they watched videos about the Underground Railroad and (went) through virtual Underground Railroads on the computer," she said. "We did this so that they were really involved in the learning process themselves rather than just watching something on TV or on the computer."

When many of the pupils reached freedom, they talked about how much fun they had, but they also understood the seriousness of the activity, Ms. Silver said.

"At one point, one of the boys said to me, 'You know, this was a lot of fun, but I know that this wasn't fun back then,' " she said. "That's one of the points we wanted to get across. While it was fun to participate in the activity, we wanted them to learn how dangerous it was for runaway slaves trying to reach freedom."

Another goal of the activity was to teach pupils about teamwork and respect for others, she said.

"If someone needs help, give them a helping hand. It doesn't take anything away from you; it adds to you," she said. "Like the safe houses, for example. Many of them helped the runaway slaves gain freedom by giving them food, water or shelter. A helping hand can go a long way."

This was the second year the school has held the Underground Railroad re-enactment.

Reach Nikasha Dicks at (706) 823-3336 or nikasha.dicks@augustachronicle.com.