Winter - Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum

Education
Lighthouse Overnight Adventures
Reserve now for Spring 2011
Through fun, interactive activities, your group can
“travel back in time” to experience the rustic life
of a lighthouse keeper. The program is available
Fridays & Saturdays throughout spring and fall for
children ages 8-12. Maximum 12 children/3 adults.
To make a reservation or for more information,
call Assistant Director of Education Kate Livie
at 410-745-4974, or email klivie@cbmm.org
(left) Participants in the Lighthouse Overnight Adventure
program try on the clothes of a traditional lighthouse
keeper and swear the “oath of lighthouse allegiance” to
become an official Hooper Strait Light Keeper.
(above) Third-graders from Easton Elementary School
participate in the Crab Cakes program and “sort through
the daily catch” with Assistant Director of Education Kate
Livie. The program uses hands-on activities to teach
students about the Chesapeake blue crab and its journey
from the Bay to the table, focusing on the people who
earn their livelihood from the crabbing industry.
Students have a chance to walk in their shoes, crewing
on a crab dredge boat, operating a trotline, picking
stuffed crabs at a packing house, and various other
hands-on activities.
Art work by a fourth grade student from White Marsh
Elementary, as part of CBMM’s Oystering Student Program.
It has been an incredibly rewarding experience
offering the Frederick Douglass essay contest.
The essays we recieved were, as a whole, insightful,
moving, and intensely creative. It was my pleasure
to read each Talbot County student’s illuminating
perspective on a historical figure of such local and
national importance. Over 150 essays were sent in,
and as I read through each one, I found a renewed
appreciation for Douglass’s legacy of freedom
through education.
-Kate Livie, Assistant Director of Education
If I had dinner with Frederick
Douglass, we would discuss…
By Juliette Neil, Country School Student
I am writing from the point of view of a reporter in the
1800s, imagining what questions a journalist would have
asked Frederick Douglass and why. I explain this all to my
sweet but critical Aunt Jane, who is fictional, as is the reporter
from whose point of view I am writing.
Dearest Aunt Jane,
As you know, I have been chosen to interview the
esteemed Mr. Frederick Douglass! I wanted you to read the
questions I have prepared, and for you to offer your views.
Mr. Douglass, what did the visits with your mother
consist of ?
You see, Aunt Jane, I am well aware of the fact that his
mother escaped at night to come stay with her son until he
fell asleep, but I do not know what they did during that time.
Did she sing young Frederick to sleep, or did they talk? I
think that a mother-son reunion would have been more than
just him falling asleep, and I do wish to know more on the
subject.
Mr. Douglass, what made you decide to fight Covey?
Obviously, he would have been angry at the man who played
cruel tricks on slaves, but perhaps there was more to that.
Rebellion, or maybe frustration, toward this mean man who
treated the slaves as little more than dirt, caused this spite.
Mr. Douglass, what was your reaction to your failed
escape?
When he successfully escaped, he must have been triumphant,
happy, but when he failed and was sent to jail, the
emotions passing through him must have been terrible. I
wonder, Aunt Jane, was he disappointed, angry, nervous?
What was going on in his head and heart at that time?
Mr. Douglass, how did you react to the beating those
white sailors gave you? And what was your feeling about
the fact that the witnesses did not lift a finger?
At the beginning, he did try to fight back, Aunt Jane, but
the white men depleted him physically, and the
onlookers didn’t
do anything to
help him. Imagine
that! You’re
being abused with
people watching
you, and no one
helps you, no
one cries in your
defense! All they
do is watch you
get hurt. How
horrible is that?
Changing your
name from
Bailey to
Essay Winner
Essay winner Juliette Neil, from
The Country School, reads her essay
aloud during Frederick Douglass Day.
Douglass was a precaution, but did it mark something
else for you?
You see, I think that shedding his name meant starting a
new life, and leaving behind the slave. I don’t know how Mr.
Douglass felt about it, but I believe it was pretty significant.
Were you proud of your sons when they joined the
army, or were you scared for their lives?
Both of Douglass’s sons joined the fight against slavery, but
I wonder how Mr. Douglass felt about that. Surely he was
worried for his sons’ lives, but did he support them in their
decision? After all, he was a slave, and he did play an active
role in the war.
How did your family react when you remarried to a
white woman? How did you respond?
Don’t you wonder, Aunt Jane, how this marriage would have
disturbed their family peace? I know that I would have been
angry towards this woman whose race had caused so much
pain, and I do not know whether I would have been able to
accept her into the family. Furthermore, I wonder how Mr.
Douglass would have responded. Would he have matched
their feelings with anger, or answered tranquilly yet firmly?
Mr. Douglass, if you could relive your life, is there
anything you would have done differently?
I find this final question an interesting one because he
lived such a fulfilling life, and it seems odd that he would
have done anything differently. But I believe people who
have done great things see themselves in a different light
from the shining one we see them in, and Frederick
Douglass may have seen a mistake where the rest of the
world did not.
I would deeply appreciate your comments on these
questions, things that Mr. Frederick Douglass and I shall
discuss over dinner.
-J C MacNeill
10 11