Talbot students step into history at new Frederick Douglass exhibition
Story reprinted from Star Democrat. View original article here: Talbot students step into history at new Frederick Douglass exhibition | Local | stardem.com
ST. MICHAELS — Talbot County eighth graders poured out of school buses and onto the grounds of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to explore the meaning of freedom.
The exhibit, “Bear Me Into Freedom: The Talbot County of Frederick Douglass,” opened March 5. The exhibition traces Douglass’ life from his birth and early years as an enslaved person in Talbot County, through his escape to freedom, and into his later returns to the region as a celebrated free man.
St. Michaels Middle School students got their sneak peek into the Douglass exhibit on Tuesday, and the larger Easton Middle School visit was spread out over the following three days.
“That is the power of the field trip,” said Jill Ferris, Vice President of Learning and Innovation at the Maritime Museum. “It is being able to take a story off the page and be in it.”
The field trip was made possible through an inclusive history grant from the Maryland 250 Commission. According to Ferris and Talbot County Public Schools Social Studies Teaching and Learning supervisor Jackie Valcik, Ferris wrote and received the grant, allowing every eighth grader to participate.
On Friday, the final group of students toured the exhibits and created their own art, showcasing what freedom means to them. Teachers walked groups around and spoke to an AI Frederick Douglass, discerned between the definitions of “slave” and “enslaved person,” and toured the Mitchell House — where Eliza Bailey Mitchell, Douglass’ closest sibling, lived.
The “Seeking Freedom” tour makes history tangible by employing primary sources, including a period-appropriate log canoe and Mitchell’s own house. It also includes an art activity dubbed the “freedom project,” where students reflect on what freedom means to them and express it on paper.
“The artwork is really raw, really personalized,” said Ferris. “They’re really expressing themselves. Providing them the avenue and the space to really express themselves freely and they are really bringing all of themselves, which I am loving.”
Both Valcik and Ferris said their favorite part of the past week has been the students’ art projects.
The newly opened exhibition features an AI version of Douglass, drawing from his extensive writings and speeches. Students were among the first to interact with it, asking questions and bringing primary sources to life through modern technology.
The field trip reinforces the Maryland social studies curriculum covering topics such as conditions of enslavement resistance, the Missouri Compromise and local history, according to Valcik. During the tour, students analyze primary sources, formulate their own ideas and engage in respectful, multi-perspective discussions, she said.
“In their classrooms, students are presented with primary sources based on our wonderful teachers who have taught them how to analyze primary sources,” said Valcik. “And then students are able to formulate their own thoughts about history.”
Valcik described the impact of stories from the field trip, like Henry Box Brown — an enslaved American who became an abolitionist speaker and performer after escaping slavery in 1849 — mailing himself to freedom in a crate. She said realizing what he endured in less than two days creates a palpable “wow” moment among the students.
Ferris emphasized the importance of field trips to be able to take stories off the page and make them immersive. Being in spaces like the Mitchell House or looking out over the Miles River creates a contemplative connection no classroom can replicate, she said.
“Everybody’s going to take something different from the experience, but my goal is that everybody finds something to connect to,” Ferris said.
The exhibit “Bear Me Into Freedom: The Talbot County of Frederick Douglass,” will run through the end of 2027 at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum.