The American Studies Class Visits Florence, Massachusetts

Bill Sullivan’s American Studies class visited The David Ruggles Center in Florence, Massachusetts, to move closer toward its goal of finding documented evidence of the Underground Railroad traveling through Suffield. The class learned more about the complexities of the abolition era in the Northampton area as well as the assistance that many of its nineteenth century residents provided for fugitive slaves. The documented local history discoveries in Florence are a great replica for Suffield Academy students, and Steve Strimer, board member of The David Ruggles Center, proved to be a great model for their scholarship. Steve gave the class a personal walking tour of Florence, which included sites that individual students researched. Most importantly, Steve offered the backstory on how he and others researched and reached their conclusions.

The students learned about how Florence was the setting for so many complexities during the era of abolition, and many significant figures first began to work together in the utopian community of the Northampton Association of Education and Industry during the 1840s. And while members of the community disagreed philosophically about the paths towards reform, liberal sentiment remained in Florence and fueled activity for helping fugitive slaves. As the class is working in a project based learning dynamic where students will present what they learned to the Suffield community, students were impressed with Steve’s presentation skills at each site and how animated his narrative moments with great laminated displays. Along with learning more about Lydia Maria Child, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and William Lloyd Garrison, the class especially enjoyed visiting sites that illuminated more information about David Ruggles, so far the most intriguing figure in our quest to document the UGRR in West Suffield. The class now looks forward to exploring the many sites associated with the UGRR in Farmington, Ct, as well as Springfield, Ma.

To learn more about student discoveries in the future, visit Bill Sullivan’s classroom blog: https://digitalcrowsnest.wordpress.com

The David Ruggles Center: http://www.davidrugglescenter.org

The Sojourner Truth Memorial Statue and Scholarship: http://sojournertruthmemorial.org

More information about new historical markers that Steve Strimer installed in Florence and Northampton with the help of a Mass Humanities Grant: http://www.valleyadvocate.com/blogs/home.cfm?aid=17374

An interesting post script involves the actual historical marker. Regarding our goal to commemorate the colonial African Americans buried in our Old Center Cemetery’s northwest corner, such a quality marker as the one Steve Strimer installed would elevate that meaning of that space.