The Internet, "Exploring Amistad,"
and Primary Documents
The goal of this exercise is to encourage students to discern between primary and secondary documents utilizing the "Exploring Amistad " web site. This excercise was developed at Mystic Seaport for students enrolled in the State of Connecticut's Project LEARN.
Over 40 students ages 9-13 participated in this excercise in the Mystic Seaport Information Services Lab.
Exploring the primary documents:
1. Exploring Kale (one of the Amistad Africans)
- Go to the Discovery Section.
- Then go to People Section.
- Click on Kale’s name.
- Read Kale’s page.
- At the bottom of Kale’s page, go the the letter that he wrote.
- At the top of Kale’s letter, click on View Original Document.
- If you have time, return to the People Section and read about Kinna.
- Then read his letter to John Quincy Adams.
2. Exploring John Quincy Adams (the lawyer for the Amistad Africans)
- Return to the Home Page of "Exploring Amistad."
- Go to the Library Section.
- Then go to the Personal Papers Section
- Click on “The diaries kept by John Quincy Adams”
- Read the first paragraph of “The Diary of John Quincy Adams”
- Then go to Adams diary entry from December 12, 1840
- Read the last paragraph of this diary entry
- At the top of Adams’ diary entry, click on View Original Document
Discussion Topics:
1. Discussing Kale
- What do you learn about Kale from the Barber page?
- What is different about what you learn from Kale's letter?
- Who may have influenced the way Kale wrote his letter? Who helped him write it?
- What role did the abolitionists play in Kale's life?
- Who was this letter addressed to?
- Who might have read this letter aside from John Quincy Adams?
2. Discussing John Quincy Adams
- What do you learn from the diaries page?
- How is this page different from the diary itself?
- What were Adam’s feelings about the Amistad Africans?
- What was he worried about with regard to the pending trial?
