Real Cool History Detectives – Part 9
Week 9: Harriet Beecher Stowe-
Author and Abolitionist
The Real Cool History for Kids team welcomes you to the next installment of the Real Cool History Detectives Exploring the American Civil War miniseries. The goal of this exploration is to bring your family an immersive learning experience that will walk with you through the years surrounding the American Civil War. Because this is a multi-part series, we recommend you start at the beginning.
Start at the beginning of the miniseries, go here.
If you haven’t already, please click on each of the links below to download and print the Miniseries Resources and the Parents’ Guide which contains the overview of the entire miniseries and the instructions for each of the recurring weekly activities.
Miniseries Resources and Parents’ Guide
Please download and print these FREE resources to be used throughout the Exploring the American Civil War unit.
Week 9 Episode, Resources, and Study Guide
Listen to this week’s brand new episode!
Week 9 Resources
- The 4th part of the Harriet Tubman Character Project. (Instructions)
- Activity Sheets
- Quote Clue Card (answer key)
- Free Printable Map to color*
- The American Battlefield Trust Civil War Animated Map Video* (please preview)
* These links will take you to other websites.
Discussion Questions for After Podcast Episode 118
- There was a specific experience which first opened Harriet’s eyes to the moral issue of slavery, what was it? (Losing her baby to illness and realizing slave mothers went through this pain over and over again.)
- What was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s contribution to the underground railroad? (She befriended a number of fugitives traveling the underground railroad and opened up her home to them.)
- How did Harriet use her pen to help the cause of slavery? (She wrote articles first in an abolition periodical which then were compiled into a book – Uncle Tom’s Cabin.)
- How famous was Uncle Tom’s Cabin? (number 2 best selling book of the 1800s – behind the Bible.)
- What was the response to the book and what was the punishment for selling it? (It was extremely powerful and popular, however it was banned in the south.The punishment for selling it was imprisonment or even death.)
- How was Uncle Tom described in the podcast? (a dignified, intelligent, God-fearing man.)
- Why do you think the book had such an impact on people? (No right or wrong answer here, but some possible choices would be 1) It opened reader’s eyes to the realities of slavery and the humanity of enslaved people and 2) It built empathy for the characters and, in turn, for enslaved individuals.
- Was the book written before, during, or after the Civil War? Can you name the year the book was released and the years of the Civil War? (The book was written before the civil war. The book was published in 1852 and the war was from 1861 to 1865.)
- How did Harriet respond to the accusations that she was exaggerating in her book? (She created a key to accompany the book. It was a complete bibliography of the real people behind her fictional characters and included her primary inspiration.)
- Someone very important was inspired by Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Who was it? (Abraham Lincoln said the book inspired him to write the Emancipation Proclamation.)
- Read Proverbs 31:1-9 and discuss how it relates to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s mission.
Don’t miss a thing…
America’s Story Connection
America’s Story 2 has several chapters about the time period surrounding the Civil War.
