SOJOURNER TRUTH TIMELINE

This lesson plan was developed to use with third grade students after they have acquired a basic knowledge of Sojourner Truth's biography.

The timeline of her life is adapted to grade level. In the Teacher Notebook, the entries on the timeline are printed as cards, four to a page. The teacher may cut out and mount each card to use for a variety of activities. One such activity -- creating a Sojourner Truth biographical book -- is outline in this lesson plan.

The strands, standards and objectives cited are from the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) guidelines for the third grade Social Studies curriculum.

Strand 1 -- Historical Perspective

Standard 1.1.5 -- Measure chronological time by decades and century

Standard 1.1.6 -- Place major events in the development of their local community and the state of Michigan in chronological order

Standard 1.1.7 -- Place major events in the early history of the United States in chronological order

Standard 1.2.5 -- Summarize the sequence of key events in stories describing life from the past in their local community, the state of Michigan and other parts of the United States

Standard 1.2.7 -- Recount the lives and characters of a variety of individuals from the past representing their local community, the state of Michigan and other parts of the United States

Standard 1.3.4 -- Use primary sources to reconstruct past events in their local community

Objectives

1. Students will construct a timeline of Sojourner Truth's life

2. Using the timeline, students will create a big book of Sojourner Truth's life

Materials needed

1. Timeline cards

2. Index cards

3. Markers, crayons, colored pencils, white paper

4. Examples of timelines

5. Pictures and reading material on Sojourner Truth

Pre-lesson preparation

1. Glue timeline cards onto index cards.

2. Make at least two copies of the timeline (more if you want smaller groups).

3. Mix up the cards so they are no longer in chronological order.

Lesson

1. Explain what a timeline is, show examples.

2. Divide the class into two or more groups.

3. Distribute a set of the timeline cards to each group.

4. Instruct each group to work together to reassemble the timeline in correct order. Tell the students they will be required to report on a portion of the timeline to the class.

5. After all the groups finish the timeline, have each group share a portion of the timeline.

6. Discuss the key events in Sojourner Truth's life, using the events in the timeline. Have the students complete the worksheet, using the timeline for reference.

7. Using a lottery system, have each student pick one timeline card.

8. Give the students paper to create a page for a Sojourner Truth book. The date and text from each timeline card should be copied on the bottom of the page. Above this caption, have each student draw a picture representing the event. Have resources available for the students to look at for ideas.

9. Collect all the pages and make them into a class book. The original book can be laminated to preserve it. The pages can be duplicated so that each student has an individual copy.

Assessments

1. Monitor the students as they are reassembling the timeline cards into chronological order, to see how well they understand how a timeline shows information.

2. During the discussion of Sojourner Truth's life, observe the level of comprehension the students have of her biography.

3. Evaluate the Timeline Worksheet for correctness.

Student Name____________________________________

Use the timeline to answer these questions.

1. When did Isabella change her name to Sojourner Truth?

_____________________________________________

2. How many years did Sojourner Truth live in New York?

_____________________________________________

3. When did Sojourner Truth move to Battle Creek?

_____________________________________________

4. How many years did Sojourner Truth live in Battle Creek?

_____________________________________________

5. Did Sojourner live longer in New York or in Battle Creek?

_____________________________________________

6. When did Isabella escape from slavery?

_____________________________________________

7. During what year did Sojourner Truth visit Abraham Lincoln?

_____________________________________________

8. How many times was Isabella sold into slavery?

_____________________________________________

9. Approximately when was Isabella born?

_____________________________________________

10. When did Sojourner Truth die?

_____________________________________________

11. Approximately how many years did Sojourner Truth live?

_____________________________________________

c. 1797 Isabella born into slavery on the Hardenbergh estate, Swartekill, Ulster County, New York

c. 1806 bought at auction for $100 by John Neely, near Kingston, NY

c. 1808 bought for $105 by Martinus Schryver of Kingston, NY, staying there about 18 months

1810 bought for 70 pounds (c.$175) by John Dumont, New Paltz, NY, --she bore five children, Diana, Peter, Elizabeth, Sophia and a child who died in infancy

late 1826 Isabella walks to freedom with infant daughter,Sophia -- she had to leave the other children behind because they were not legally freed in the emancipation order

July 4, 1827 New York state emancipates slaves born after 1799

1827-28 wins landmark law suit to recover son Peter who had been illegally sold into slavery in Alabama

1829 moves to New York City with her son Peter

1832-35 meets Robert Matthews, known as the Prophet Matthias, joins the Matthias Kingdom communal colony in New York City -- Kingdom dissolved after Prophet Matthias is arrested and tried for murder -- Isabella wins slander suit

1836-42 Isabella in New York City -- after son Peter ships out on whaling ship, Zone of Nantucket; she receives a total of five letters from him -- ship returns to port with no sign of Peter and Isabella never hears from him again

1843 at age 46, Isabella adopts the name Sojourner Truth, leaves New York and travels to Springfield, Mass. -- grandson James Caldwell born

1844-46 joins the utopian Northampton Association in Northampton, Mass., where she meets many anti-slavery reformers including William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass and Olive Gilbert, an abolitionist-feminist who later wrote the Narrative of Sojourner Truth

1850 Isabella Van Wagenen, "sometimes called Sojourner Truth," purchases home for $300 mortgage -- Narrative published by Olive Gilbert with preface by William Lloyd Garrison

1851 travels to Rochester, NY, where she stays with Underground Railroad leader, Amy Post -- in May, attends women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, where she delivers the speech later known as "Ain't I a Woman?"

1856 comes to Battle Creek, Michigan, to address Friends of Human Progress convention, at the invitation of Michigan Quaker, Henry Willis

1857 sells Northampton property and buys house and lot in Harmonia, six miles west of Battle Creek, Michigan

1863 ill for "many weeks," stays with the Merritt family in Battle Creek -- in November, takes Thanksgiving dinner supplies, donated by Battle Creek citizens, to the black soldiers stationed at Camp Ward in Detroit

1864 in June, Sojourner and thirteen-year-old grandson Sammy Banks, leave Battle Creek for New York and New Jersey -- arrive in Washington, DC in the fall

1864 in October, visits President Abraham Lincoln at the White House

1865 assigned to work at Freedman's Hospital in Washington -- rides the Washington, DC, streetcars to force their desegregation

1867 moves from Harmonia into Battle Creek, converting Merritt "barn" on College Street into her home

1871 Nanette Gardner of Detroit records in Truth's Book of Life that she was the first woman to vote in a Michigan state election -- in September, leaves for Kansas with grandson Sammy Banks to promote idea of free land there for ex-slaves

1875 following an operation, Sammy Banks dies and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery -- third edition of the Narrative, including the Book of Life, published by Frances Titus of Battle Creek

1876 improved in health after being treated by "Dr. Orville Guiteau, veterinarian," Truth leaves for Chicago, intending to visit Philadelphia Centennial with Frances Titus -- again forced to return home because of illness

1877 Frances Titus returns home after traveling with Sojourner around Michigan

1878-79 Sojourner and Titus travel through New York and other eastern states for six months during the fall and winter -- visit Kansas and Wisconsin during the summer, to campaign for free land for former slaves

1880-82 makes limited appearances around Michigan, speaking for temperance and against capital punishment

1883 in July, ill with ulcers on her legs, she is treated by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, who is said to have grafted some of his own skin onto Sojourner's leg

1883 November 26 -- Sojourner Truth dies at her College Street home in Battle Creek, Michigan -- funeral two days later, followed by burial in Oak Hill Cemetery next to her grandson, Sammy Banks.