The Pearl Lesson

Common Core Standards: 

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6
Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9
Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

C3: The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History

D3.3.9-12. Identify evidence that draws information directly and substantively from multiple sources to detect inconsistencies in evidence in order to revise or strengthen claims. 

D3.4.9-12. Refine claims and counterclaims attending to precision, significance, and knowledge conveyed through the claim while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both.

D3.1.9-12. Gather relevant information from multiple sources representing a wide range of views while using the origin, authority, structure, context, and corroborative value of the sources to guide the selection.

D3.2.9-12. Evaluate the credibility of a source by examining how experts value the source.

Materials

• Means of Projecting PowerPoint

• Highlighters and post-its for students to read documents (if necessary)

• The Pearl Instructional Slides

• The Pearl Lesson Handout 1.pdf (108.76 KB) 

• The Pearl Lesson Handout 2.pdf

  • Document A: Daniel Drayton’s "Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton", 1855

  • Document B: Port Tobacco Times, 1848

  • Document C: John H. Paynter's "The Fugitives of The Pearl", 1916

  • Document D: Eastern Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society's "Captains Drayton and Sayres: Or the way in which Americans are treated, for aiding the cause of Liberty at Home", 1848

  • Document E: Mary Kay Ricks' "Escape on The Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on the Underground Railroad", 2007

  • Document F: Winifred Conkling's "Passenger on The Pearl: The True Story of Emily Edmonson's Flight from Slavery", 2015

  • Includes primary and secondary source documents with questions, Source Note-Taking Sheet, Ranking Credibility Note-Taking Sheet, and Timeline) *Note: Teachers may use discretion to remove one of the scaffolding note-taking sheets and/or reduce the number of sources.
• Pearl Lesson Handout 3.pdf Assessment

Lesson Procedures

1. Warm-Up: Engage Students in the Topic

      (independently and whole class-PPT included) Time: 8 minutes

• Students will analyze a cartoon representing the parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant as a hook. Students should write down responses to guiding questions silently and independently.
  • What is happening in this picture?
  • What is this image saying about perspective?
  • How does this message connect to the study of history?
• Invite students to share responses for a whole-class analysis of the image.
• The teacher will want to connect the image to the idea that multiple perspectives/interpretations can be present at one event.

2. Pose the Focus Question

      (whole class) Time: 2 Minutes

• Read the historical question aloud with students:  How and why was The Pearl betrayed?
• Describe briefly that students will be corroborating evidence and multiple points of view to learn about a ship upon which nearly 70 men and women were hidden in order to escape enslavement in Washington, DC.

3. Historical Thinking Skills Refresher/Introduction

      (whole class-PPT included)  Time: 10 minutes  *Note: Optional depending on the students' comfort level with the skills.

• Discuss the concepts of credibility and sourcing.
• The disciplinary thinking skills in focus are Sourcing and Corroborating.

4. Making Predictions: Activity Preview

      (pairs/small groups and whole class) Time: 10 minutes

• Break students up into teacher assigned groups of 2-4 students.
• Give each pair or group Document A, a single document from the The Pearl documents packet.
• Invite them to make predictions about what they believe The Pearl incident was; instruct students to focus on the language used in the excerpt. Questions should invite them to consider the author and title of the excerpt, and unpack predictions about source credibility.
• All students should write down their responses in their packets.
• Afterward, have a few students share out discussions from their small groups. 

5. Mini-Lecture Burst

      (whole class- PPT included) Time: 10 Minutes

• Provide students with the background of The Pearl. This is an opportunity to also share the background of the authors of the documents in the packet they will be receiving. Students should take notes; remind them that these notes will be key to the instructional activity. 
• Summary of key points:
  • Largest recorded non-violent escape attempt made by enslaved Africans
  • On April 15, 1848, 77 enslaved Africans attempted escape of Washington, DC by sailing on a schooner called The Pearl.
  • The Pearl was supposed to sail to the free state of New Jersey. 
  • Two days into the journey, the boat was seized by an armed “posse.”
  • When the ship was brought back to Washington, DC, a pro-slavery riot broke out.
  • Daniel Drayton & Edward Sayres were the captains of the ship.
  • Drayton wrote a memoir about his involvement in The Pearl in 1855.
  • Edmonson sisters, Mary and Emily, were freed after the event and became abolitionist activists.
  • One of their descendants, John Paynter, wrote about the incident in his 1916 “The Fugitives of the Pearl”. 

6. Inquiry Activity

      (small groups) Time: 30 Minutes

• Return to teacher assigned student groups (2-4 students).
• Model whole class (teacher-led) how to read Document A (review-used for making predictions) and B (new). 8 minutes 
• Make clear that the activity will have four sequential parts: Students must complete Documents C-F (22 minutes). 
   
  • Answer the questions following each document in the packet,
  • Rank the credibility of sources in the packet,
  • Explain in a paragraph the answer to the central question: How and why was The Pearl betrayed?.
  • Optional Scaffolding: Develop a timeline using the worksheet provided.

7. Debriefing

      (whole class) Time: 10 minutes

• Conduct a whole class discussion. Some questions for guiding the debriefing can be: 
  1. How do your predictions about The Pearl incident compare with your understanding of it now? What role did sourcing play in any changes in your understanding? 
  2. Why is it that there is no account from Judson Diggs? How does this hinder our ability to understand who betrayed the mission of The Pearl?
  3. What if all the sources based their account on ONE person’s account?
  4. What additional information about the sources would have helped you to determine author credibility? 
  5. How does this historical episode relate to the study of the history of slavery in the United States?

8. Closing Activity/Exit Card

      Handout 3 (independently) Time: 10minutes

• Have students write a response, no longer than two paragraphs, answering the inquiry question: How and why was The Pearl betrayed? 

Assessments

• Formative:

  • Packet of Worksheets: Document-Based Questions, Timeline Activity, Ranking Credibility of Sources Activity

• Summative:

  • Who Betrayed the Pearl? Writing Response