My students recently finished a unit on the era of antebellum reform prompted by the Industrial Revolution, a cluster of social movements including abolitionism, women’s rights and education reform. This unit was a great opportunity to think through two of our essential questions: How do societies improve over time? Whose stories get told and whose get left out of the conventional narratives of American history? Asking why certain movements emerge when they do and how they are able to enact change also creates rich opportunities for understanding complex cause-and-effect relationships.
Whose stories get told and how?
The best social studies curricula allow students to not only understand change in the past but to begin imagining change in the future and, most important, their own roles in it. One student, who researched Sojourner Truth, noted that “we usually view history as big movements like the Industrial Revolution, and it helps to see that there are powerful people that aren't just white men.” My students also studied Sarah and Angelina Grimké (known as the Grimké sisters), two Southern white women who became prominent abolitionists. One student shared that the Grimkés inspired her because they “spoke out against of the interests of their social class.” Although wealthy white people are overrepresented in U.S. history curricula, that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from those who sought to address injustice. The key here is to present a nuanced story that reflects diverse voices and experiences.
Discovering the layers of inequality
When students discover that Frederick Douglass was an impassioned advocate for women’s rights, they come to see the ways that oppressions—and the activism that confronts them—are interconnected. At the same time, it can be instructive to acknowledge that being an advocate for reform, in the past or present, doesn’t automatically mean a person is bias or judgment free.
For example, Horace Mann was a proponent of oralism and actively opposed Thomas Gallaudet’s attempts to improve education for the deaf and hard of hearing while Catholics in New England opposed Mann’s Protestant-inspired education reforms. When students learn that Lucretia Mott’s and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s denied entry to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London inspired them to organize the Seneca Falls Convention, they get a glimpse into the muck in the gears of social change. And they also learn that the Convention itself—the attendees and its goal—was not representative of all women in 1848. Indeed, as much as injustices are interconnected, activism has been historically disconnected, which in itself is a valuable lesson for history students.
Exploring the role of activists
Knowing that someone is historically significant versus actually appreciating why someone “matters” is critical for effective history learning. My students need to think about what reformers actually did to effect change; they have to step back into the past and try to understand how change actually happens. In doing so, they reflect on a world in which women and people of color were barred from speaking in public and lacked political voices, as well as a world in which the dissemination of ideas was not nearly as fast as it is today. What can students conclude from the fact that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s contribution to the abolitionist movement was a lengthy novel, not a 140-character tweet? William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator for 35 years! Students can compare the activism of the past with that of the present to gain appreciation for the slowly turning gears of progress. And they can think more deeply about how to articulate cause-and-effect relationships.
Movements and opposition
Just as students can come to value the roles of activists, they can also come to see the impact of social movements and the opposition to those movements. After publishing his celebrated autobiography, Frederick Douglass fled to London to avoid recapture. The danger to activists was real: Elijah Lovejoy’s printing press was destroyed three times before anti-slavery opponents savagely murdered him for spreading free soil propaganda. It took Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton 10 years to put together the Seneca Falls Convention. Making change takes real time, effort and organization, and it often requires resisting and overcoming strong opposition.
Political insulation
Finally, teachers face a challenge navigating the careful balance between tolerating all views and proselytizing. Indeed, many teachers often find it hard to strike a balance between neutrality and subjectivity, especially when it comes to contemporary social, racial and gender inequalities. Turning our focus to the past can allow teachers to shed some of the hesitation that might limit conversations about oppression and inequality. If you’re teaching in a school where progressive ideas are not overtly welcome, looking back to the ills of yesteryear—and the individuals and resistance associated with social change—might open up opportunities to consider the profound questions of how to address injustice in the world.
Gold is a seventh- and eighth-grade history teacher at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island. You can reach him on Twitter @jonathansgold.
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