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#7.4 Historical Context
Daily Learning Target! (3 min)
Highlight the verbs that show what you will do to reach your DLT and how you will do it.
I can describe the historical context for my topic by evaluating a secondary
source.
What is Historical Context?
“Historical context is the political, social, cultural, geographic and
economic setting for a particular idea or event. In order to better
understand something in history, we must look at its context—those things
which surround it in time and place which give it its meaning.”
Source: https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1054/files/HistoricContext.pdf
Interrogate an Example (15 min): Watch the clip below and consider the discussion
question in the box.
How does this video
explain the historical
context of the civil rights
movement?
Link:https://vimeo.com/247040102
This video shows the racial tension and hatred of the time and sets the stage for later events. It
describes a race riot that took the lives of 24 black people after factories were integrated to show the
tension, and talked about the segregation in the city before integration, saying that 99% of black
workers at Ford worked in the foundry, the dirtiest, most dangerous place to work there. It also
describes how WWII led to the integration, and the role that the war had in events in Detroit,
especially pertaining to race.
Historical Context
Native Americans in Detroit: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/native-
Native american-history-in-detroit.htm
Americans Land cessions:
https://project.geo.msu.edu/geogmich/Indian_cessions.html and big
picture https://www.britannica.com/place/North-America/The-
dispossession-of-the-Indians
Pontiacs Rebellion: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-
history/road-to-revolution/the-american-revolution/a/pontiacs-uprising
Slavery Overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajn9g5Gsv98
Slavery in the North: https://www.pbs.org/video/finding-your-roots-
education-slavery-north/
Slavery in Michigan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Slavery v=olGW1NfSU3k
Underground Railroad in Detroit: https://www.c-span.org/video/?
461216-1/baptist-church-underground-railroad
Jim Crow Overview: https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-
us/jim-crow-laws
Jim Crow The Great Migration:
https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/3/1/14780034/black-belt-great-
migration-mapped (great quotes from Isabel Wilkerson) and
https://www.pbs.org/video/columbus-neighborhoods-great-migration/
Redlining in the North: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o-
yD0wGxAc or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWQfDbbQv9E
Redlining in Detroit: http://riseupnewark.com/suburbanization-
segregation-detroit/
Job Discrimination in Detroit:
http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Casestudy/R_Casestudy5.htm
and for additional figures on African American autoworkers
https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/african-american-workers-at-
ford-motor-company/
Making Connections
Directions: Choose the most relevant context for your topic from the tables
above. Watch the video and fill out the graphic organizer below.
Topic The Underground Railroad in Detroit
Copy and Paste an
Image of a Relevant
Map
Historical Context https://detroithistorical.org/learn/encyclopedia-of-
Source URL detroit/underground-railroad
Jot Down Notes from Detroit was often the last stop before freedom in
Your Source Canada.
(Quotes/Examples) Conductors provided shelter for runaway slaves on their way
to freedom.
“The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 ensured that even if “runaway” slaves arrived in
free states in the North, they could be captured and sent back to the slave holders.
However, Canada, which lay only one mile across the Detroit River, prohibited
slavery, offering full liberation and safety.”
People violating the Fugitive Slave Act could be fined or sent to jail, so conductors
on the Underground Railroad had to be very secretive and use codes.
The Second Baptist Church broke off from the First Baptist Church and became a
critical stop on the Underground Railroad.
Many people, including George DeBaptiste and Seymore Finney were important
conductors on the Underground Railroad in Detroit.
In the early-mid 1800s, many enslaved people in the
Write a rough draft South were seeking their freedom. They would escape
of the historical and use the Underground Railroad, a network of safe
context for your places (stations) and guides (conductors) to make it to
video script. freedom in Canada. It was dangerous to work in the
Underground Railroad because people could be fined or
How does this incarcerated for helping runaway slaves under the
information explain Fugitive Slave act (passed in 1850). Detroit was one of the
what happened? most important stops, as safety in Canada was just across
the river. There were many important conductors,
“Before we can including George DeBaptiste and Seymore Finney, and
understand why stations, including the Second Baptist Church, that were
(event happened), we influential in the Underground Railroad.
must understand
(describe the
relevant historical
factors)…..”
