If You Cross This Boundary, We All Die
Episode
William and Ellen Craft self-emancipated from slavery in Macon, Georgia. Their journey was harrowing and amazing. Their journey North is not only an inspiring story that exposes the anti-human institution of slavery, but it's also a window into the strange, fragile construction of race. This episode will delve into the Crafts' story as an example of the lengths enslaved people were willing to go to secure their freedom and their futures.
Curriculum Materials
Standards & Frameworks
These documents map the activites in this module to numerous national and state standards and frameworks.
Basic Lessons
These activities consist of viewing the episode and responding to the discussion prompts embedded in the episode.
The Conversation Continues
This activity consists of additional discussion prompts and resources that delve into the issues raised in the episode.
Timelining to Understand
These activities ask students to place the events discussed in the video in a larger historical context by working with a timeline of US history.
Opening Up the Textbook
These activities ask students to consider the implications of the dominant narrative by seeing how the story in the episode is (or isn’t) talked about in their textbooks.
Into the Archives
These activities ask students to (1) generate their own questions and plan larger inquiries into the historical record regarding the stories presented in the video, and then (2) find, evaluate, and interpret historical documents to develop a research claim.
Deep Dive Read
These activities ask students to closely read, annotate, and interpret complex primary texts mentioned in the episode.
Creative Responses
These activities ask students to practice perspective taking and use creative expression (poetry, music, visual arts, media production, etc.) to deeply process the stories presented in the episode.