Freedom Is Coming: Songs of Freedom, Resistance, and the Underground Railroad

Young historians examine song lyrics and slave narratives to uncover the realities of life for enslaved people. The six-lesson unit looks at the way enslaved people used music to provide hope, as well as to fight against oppression. Scholars analyze the lyrics of spirituals and other songs for the coded messages and metaphors in them. The final lesson of the unit asks class members to conduct a WebQuest to investigate incidents of slavery today.