How Does Inquiry Engage Students in Social Studies?

What do you know about the Exodusters?

The Shores Family Near Westerville, Nebraska

African-American settlers had established farming communities in the Dakota territories and Nebraska by the end of the nineteenth century. One homesteader, I. B. Burton, encouraged other African Americans to follow him to Nebraska, arguing that blacks would never find respect as long as they lived in the South. Rather than remain in states dominated by Jim Crow, he wrote,

"it would be better to seek a healthy climate and one where peace, law and respectability reigned . . . where political murders would not occur, and where we could gain in intelligence and civility." People's Observer, Washington, D.C., January 19, 1884.

Source: Nebraska State Historical Society Photograph Collections [RG2608-PH-0-1231]

1. What are the stories of the Exodusters?
2. Why is it important to know the stories of the Exodusters?
3. How do the stories of the Exodusters help us understand the cultural heritage of our country?

A Museum Exhibit

You are a museum curator who has been tasked with developing an exhibit that tells the story of the Exodusters.  One of the members of your Board of Directors is a descendant of an Exoduster family that settled in Nicodemus, KS. 

The director of the museum has provided 10 sources for you to begin your research on the Exodusters.  Your first task is to review the sources about the Exodusters to determine who they were, why they left the South, where they went, and what life was like for them in their new settlements.

Here is the Exodusters Primary Source Set

Here is the Exodusters Handout

Next, you will need to plan the museum exhibit using not only the provided sources, but additional sources that you find on your own.

The museum exhibit can be either a "virtual" museum or on a project board.  Here is an example of a virtual museum on the Exodusters

Information on Virtual Museums

• Virtual museum templates and the “why” for having students create them http://christykeeler.com/EducationalVirtualMuseums.html
• “How to” create a virtual museum  https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/2016/lessons/virtual-museum
• Virtual Museums with Google Slides (video)
• Virtual Museum templates: https://davidleeedtech.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/virtual-museum-using-google-slides-presentation/

Information on how to create a museum exhibit 

Exoduster Inquiry Debrief:

1.  How is the Exoduster lesson an exemplar of inquiry learning?

2.  How does an inquiry such as this engage your students in the work of a historian?

Nicodemus, Kansas

Nicodemus, Kansas is the only remaining western community established by African Americans after the Civil War. Having an important role in American History, the town symbolizes the pioneering spirit of these ex-slaves who fled the war-torn South in search of “real” freedom and a chance to restart their lives. This “ghost town” has since gained recognition as a National Historic Site. Source: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ks-nicodemus/