Introduction

“We are here to honor liberty and to denounce slavery. To assert the right of man to testify against oppression. To invigorate the love of freedom and deepen the detestation of Tyranny, to proclaim the dictates of eternal justice and to rebuke the wrongs done by man to man.”

These words belonged to Stephen C. Rush, who fled slavery in Maryland and joined the Northampton Association of Education and Industry (NAEI) in 1843. When Rush arrived here he could not read or write; a year later he published this letter in William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator. The Association was a utopian experiment closely aligned with Garrisonian principles: the immediate, unconditional abolition of slavery and equal rights of citizenship for African- Americans, including women.

The David Ruggles Center interprets the history of the NAEI and its significance both locally and nationally. This is local history with national significance. The Association attracted key players in the movement to end slavery, and it created a model society that drew world-wide attention.
Our museum is dedicated to bringing this history to young learners. We host visiting school groups with walking tours around the village of Florence followed by discussions of our exhibits. This curriculum represents a new approach to introducing students to what we offer.

The new curriculum is made up of eleven Source Packets. Each packet contains edited documents along with guiding questions. Students work collaboratively to draw the information out of the documents they need to create short biographies of key figures connected to the Association. Each biography is in turn connected to a theme, or strand in the larger story of the significance of the NAEI. Themes are found as questions at the top of each packet. Each biography is also connected to a physical location within walking distance of the museum. Students work in small groups to create short spoken presentations on their profiles and themes that are given at the sites where that history happened. This is active, “hands-on” learning: students use the same original documents we did to piece together this history, and they lead their own walking tour. This is also a giant “jigsaw” lesson: each group adds an important piece to the class’s collective understanding of the significance of what happened in Florence.

The curriculum is designed to make complex history and abstract concepts accessible to students. We use biographies of compelling figures who were clustered in this one place at one time to help make the abstract concrete. The original sources students use are edited and arranged to be more useful.

Students are immersed in primary sources and in the language of the nineteenth century. Sources include personal letters, newspaper accounts, memoirs, official records and images.

Perspectives in the eleven packets include blacks and whites, men and women, rich and poor, national figures and local heroes. All were people who valued one another equally, making them “radicals” in their day.

Students get a front row seat onto the greatest struggle in U.S. history. Not only to end slavery, but to grant African-Americans, indeed all Americans, full rights of citizenship under the Constitution. It opens onto the next great struggle between industrial workers and owners following the Civil War. Young people are often inspired by the example of these committed individuals who bonded together against all odds to make the world a better place.

This curriculum is free source, un-copyrighted material or for which we have received permission for this packet. Anyone is free to use it as they wish. It is designed to culminate in a school visit to Florence, but other arrangements are possible. Another option is for a Ruggles Center scholar to visit the classroom to help introduce students to this material. Please share your questions and ideas with us at info@davidrugglescenter.org.

Tom Goldscheider
Education Coordinator, David Ruggles Center
March, 2020