This curriculum piece can be used by middle school and high school students as an introduction to utilizing this web site for research purposes.

The goals of these exercises are:

1) to understand the course of events surrounding the Amistad,

2) to read selected primary documents, and

3) to research a topic of your choice.

1. Visiting “Exploring Amistad”. 
Launch your web browser.

Go to http://amistad.mysticseaport.org.

Go to the Discovery section.

Go to the Story section, read each of the one page pieces in the Story section.

Understanding the story.
Summarize, in your own words, the events surrounding the Amistad.

2. Primary documents: material written at the time of the Amistad incident.

Go back to the home page of "Exploring Amistad " by clicking on the very top of any page.

Go to the Library section.

Go to Personal Papers.

Go to the letters written by the Amistad Africans to John Quincy Adams.

Read “The Africans’ Letters” then,

Go to the letter written by Kale or Kinna.

Writing about the documents.

Go to the image of the letter.

What is your reaction to the image of the letter?

Again, summarize, in your own words, the content of the letter. Comment on the reasons you think this letter was written. Topics to consider might include the timeline of events and language barriers.

3. Research the primary documents.

Pick a topic based on your reading and writing excercises. It may be as broad as “Christianity,” or as narrow as one individual .

Go to the Search section.

Utilize the “Web Site Search” and the “Library Catalog Search” options.

Select one or two primary documents from your results.

Describe why you picked your topic and what you learned from reading the primary documents.

What suprised you about the attitudes described?