Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Throughout her life, Harriet Tubman demonstrated a deep capacity for love. How did Tubman’s capacity for love motivate her to undertake her journeys on the Underground Railroad and contribute to her success along the way?

• What factors contributed to her deep love of her family, and how did this love end up inspiring several of her journeys?
• How did she develop a love for nature, and how did this help her on her journeys north and south?
• How did her career on the Underground Railroad demonstrate a deep love for other people outside of her family? What role did her religious faith play in this love for other people?

Teaching Suggestion: This prompt asks students to synthesize the book’s key thematic threads—The Bond of Family, Nature as Refuge and Resource, and Religious Faith and Biblical Allegory—and connect them to Tubman’s characterization. If your students are ready for a challenge, you might extend this conversation by introducing the term paradox, and then asking students how love presents a paradox in circumstances like Tubman’s. That is, love can increase both fear and courage in the same situation. What examples of this can they think of from Tubman’s life and from life more generally—from history, other texts they have encountered, or their own lives?

Differentiation Suggestion: Because an effective answer to this prompt requires the review of a large portion of Petry’s text, students with organization, attention, or reading fluency issues may benefit from gathering evidence with a partner or in a small group. Literal thinkers may be able to answer the bulleted sub-questions separately, but might have trouble with synthesizing their various ideas into a broader statement that answers the main prompt question. You might model this process for them when you introduce the task. If your students are responding in writing, students who struggle with written expression might be allowed to simply answer the main question and the bulleted sub-questions with a few sentences each rather than attempting an essay-style response.

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Explain an Allegorical Song”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of enslaved people’s use of allegorical songs by creating a presentation explaining the hidden meaning of one of these songs.

Petry’s story explains how enslaved people used songs to communicate coded information that they were forbidden to speak about. One way these songs could do this is through allegory.

1. Do some research into the songs that those enslaved in the American South would sing to communicate secret ideas. Choose one that uses allegory to communicate its hidden ideas.

2. Create a presentation that displays the lyrics to the song and uses a series of pop-up animations to explain the lyrics’ hidden meaning:

• You do not have to have a pop-up animation for each line of the song—instead, focus on explaining each idea in the song, whether it is expressed in half a line or in a group of lines.
• Identify where the lyrics use allegory and explain the allegory.
• Be sure to cite the source(s) of your information.

3. Share your work and review the work of your peers. Choose a presentation that explains a different song from the one your presentation focused on and use this as the basis for answering the following questions:

• What is the allegorical meaning of this song?
• Do you think that this song is easier or harder to understand than the one you chose? Why might this make it both more and less effective as a coded message?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity can be completed individually or with a partner or small group. Students will need access to computers to complete the activity; if this is not practical for your classroom, you might instead print out several songs and information about their meanings and then ask students to choose a song and create an annotated version of the song lyrics directly on the page. The directions for how to share work are deliberately vague so that you can give directions tailored to your classroom—students might be sharing in groups or individually via a class website or in person, etc.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with visual limitations may not be able to complete this assignment as written. You might offer these students the alternative of writing one or two paragraphs that explain the allegorical meaning of their chosen song. Literal thinkers may still be struggling with the concept of allegory and may need to work with a partner or small group on this activity.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Harriet Tubman had both the knowledge and the personal qualities needed to be a great conductor on the Underground Railroad.

• What are three important personal characteristics that make Tubman a successful conductor? (topic sentence)
• Give an example of indirect characterization from the text to support each of the three characteristics you have chosen.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how these personal characteristics contribute to Tubman’s success.

1.  Moses is used allegorically in the songs of enslaved people—but Moses is also used as a figure of speech to refer to Tubman.

• Is nicknaming Harriet Tubman “Moses” an example of metaphor, symbolism, or both? (topic sentence)
• Use at least three details from the text to support your answer.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, comment on how this figure of speech relates to the text’s thematic interest in Religious Faith and Biblical Allegory.

3. Many people besides Harriet Tubman risked their lives to help people escape slavery via the Underground Railroad.

• What are some factors that might have contributed to Tubman’s becoming the most famous of the Underground Railroad’s conductors? (topic sentence)
• Support your analysis with at least three textual details.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, offer your opinion about whether it is fair that Tubman is the most well-known of the Underground Railroad conductors.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by textual details, and a conclusion.

1.  When Harriet Tubman is young, her mother discourages talk about running away and hopes that Tubman will somehow learn to live with her enslavement. Both of Tubman’s parents hope that she will be able to learn skills that will let her work indoors. Why are these hopes for Tubman ironic? Do you think that Tubman’s parents did not know her very well, or do you think that they simply thought they knew better than her what would lead to her happiness? Write an essay analyzing what Tubman’s parents’ hopes for her demonstrate about parent-child relationships. Comment on what the relationship between Tubman and her parents demonstrates about The Bond of Family—its strengths and its limitations. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

2. The enslavers in the American South severely limited what enslaved people could say and do. What limitations does Petry mention in her book? What is the enslavers’ purpose in creating these limitations? What are some of the ways that enslaved people reacted to having their speech and actions curtailed in these ways? Write an essay that explains these limitations, their purposes, and the reactions of the enslaved. Comment on how these limitations are related to the importance of The Bond of Family, Nature as Refuge and Resource, and Religious Faith and Biblical Allegory in this story. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

3. When Tubman conducts people to the North, she relies on nature in several ways. What are the different ways nature assists the freedom seekers on their journey? How has nature been a refuge and resource for Tubman for most of her life, even before she began her work as a conductor? In what ways might nature function this way for many enslaved people? Write an essay analyzing the many roles that nature plays in Petry’s narrative. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text, making sure to cite any quoted material.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What do Nat Turner and Denmark Vesey have in common?

A) Both were enslavers living in the South.

B) Both were anti-slavery activists living in the North.

C) Both were executed for leading revolts against slavery.

D) Both were enslaved people living on the Brodas farm.

2. How do Tubman’s husband’s and mother’s attitudes about escaping slavery differ from hers?

A) They think it is impossible; Tubman believes it can be done.

B) They think it is a kind of stealing; Tubman thinks it is the right thing to do.

C) They think it is not worth the risk; Tubman thinks no risk is too great.

D) They think it is going against God’s plan; Tubman thinks it is God’s will.

3. What kind of people work to keep the Underground Railroad going?

A) Mostly poor German farmers

B) All kinds of people, Black and white

C) Mostly freed Black people

D) A mixture of Quakers and Methodists

4. What is similar about the methods used by enslaved people to communicate about escape and the methods used by Underground Railroad workers to communicate about helping them escape?

A) Both used the clergy to pass messages.

B) Both used music to communicate.

C) Both used secret written messages.

D) Both used code to communicate.

5. Which Biblical figure’s story is used as an allegory among enslaved people in the American South and becomes a way of referring to Harriet Tubman as well?

A) Moses

B) Noah

C) Job

D) Abraham

6. Which talent does Tubman use frequently on her journeys?

A) archery

B) storytelling

C) playing the harmonica

D) canoeing

7. Which of the abolitionists Tubman meets proposes using violent methods to resist slavery?

A) John Brown

B) Frederick Douglass

C) Thomas Garrett

D) Franklin Sanborn

8. What idea do the details of Tubman’s illness as a child and her understanding of the natural world both support?

A) Tubman is much smarter than most of the people around her.

B) Tubman’s religious faith helps her survive terrible events.

C) Tubman is often reckless with her safety as a young child.

D) Tubman’s parents’ knowledge is a key factor in her survival.

9. How did the threat of family members being sold South influence Tubman’s thinking?

A) It increased her anger and made her consider violent resistance.

B) It made her feel defeated and as if trying to escape might be too risky.

C) It motivated her own escape and her journey back to help her brothers.

D) It caused her to take jobs she did not want in order to earn more money.

10. Which incident best demonstrates both Tubman’s compassion and her determination?

A) When the enslaved man escapes during the cornhusking.

B) When Tubman helps with Mrs. Cook’s weaving work.

C) When Tubman runs away from Susan’s house and hides in the pig pen.

D) When Tubman confesses her dreams of escape to John.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating textual details to support your response.

1. How does the Fugitive Slave Act change Tubman’s approach to helping others escape from slavery?

2. How do dreams and visions serve as a guide for Tubman several times?