Y8: 4-11. From Slavery to Freedom

Year 8A & Year 8B

(Not for 2020-2021 Class.)

Today you are going to watch part of a film about the underground railroad…

Follow the order in which I give you instructions:

INTRODUCTION:

In the previous lesson you learnt about Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas and the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses used by enslaved African-Americans to escape into the free northern States, or even to Canada. Today you are going to watch part of a movie about the Underground Railroad. (I have decided to show you only the second half of the movie, because the second half is very relevant to your study.) The movie is about a slave called Samuel who escapes with his elderly mother, his wife and his son. The Underground Railway helps them to escape from the south to Canada. Unfortunately, the slave owner to whom Samuel and his family belong has hired someone to track them down and bring them back to his plantation… (The movie is set in the mid-1850’s – remember, slavery was abolished in 1865.) Also, every now and then you will see that there are flashback scenes to the mid-1750’s. These flashback scenes shows how Samuel’s great grandfather was brought to the Americas on the slave ship of John Newton… (It shows 100 years earlier, in 1748, when John Newton, the Captain of a slave trader, sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel’s great grandfather. The voyage changes Newton’s life forever…) Make sure that you pay close attention, as you will be given a quiz to complete in a next lesson.

Watch the following movie!