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Chapter Two: Stand

Pre-Reading Discussion:

Black and brown hands controlling and restraining a white man’s body was a taboo in the mid 19th century. What are present day taboos in your life? (family, religious, political, or social)

Vocabulary:

• ogled (p.45)
• fugitive (p.46)
• taboo (p.49)
• restrain (p.49)
• diatribe (p.35)
• consumption (p.40)
• cholera (p.40)

Read:

Chapter Two

Post-Reading Discussion:

• How do you feel about the choice Ginnie made of losing her youngest child, leaving Jackson Pryor, and choosing freedom?
• What may have led Lorene Cary to name her book The Price of a Child?

Writing Activity:

Visualize Virginia Pryor, a fugitive slave in 1855. Describe what you see and feel as she sits on the dock of the ferry bound for New York. Include your ideas of how she looks and what her surroundings are like.

Group Activity:

• Research “The Fugitive Slave Bill of 1850” and Pennsylvania’s law on the freedom of slaves. What did they state?
• Find the role of a Vigilance Committee Member. Make a list of his/her responsibilities.