Finding Home - Displacement and Migration throughout the United States, 1830s-1960s

Forced and coerced displacement within the United States throughout the 19th and 20th centuries profoundly challenged the concept and reliability of “home” - psychological, concrete, and emotional. This pattern of human migration determined survival for some and near decimation for others, and a constantly reconstructed definition of “home” for the youngest travelers along the way. The children’s and young adult literature around which this map set is based tells their stories. Created by Bindy Fleischman, United States Board on Books for Young People (usbby.org).

Created by: mleblanc@leventhalmap.org

Introduction
- Displaced in the United States 1
The Trail of Tears
- FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) 2
- FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) 3
Orphan Trains
- FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) 4
- FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) 5
The Dust Bowl
- Featuring OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse (1997) 6
The Great Depression
- Featuring BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999) 7
The Great Migration
- Featuring THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH by Eliose Greenfield (2011) and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (2016) 8

Displaced in the United States Introduction

Forced and coerced displacement within the United States throughout the 19th and 20th centuries profoundly challenged the concept and reliability of “home” - psychological, concrete, and emotional. This pattern of human migration determined survival for some and near decimation for others, requiring a constantly reconstructed definition of “home” for the youngest travelers along the way.

The children’s and young adult literature around which this map set is based tells their stories.

Using award-winning novels in prose and verse, as well as informational texts, students will practice and develop literacy and map skills in order to assess and describe ways in which the text animates the story a map can tell, and how corresponding maps enrich understanding of a given text. Throughout this unit students have an opportunity to act upon all six of the competencies of the AASL Standards Framework for Learners - inquire, include, collaborate, curate, explore, and engage - as well as the following NCSS themes.

Time, Continuity, and Change
Middle grade students are increasingly able to use multiple sources to build interpretations of past events and eras.

People, Places, and Environments
The study of people, places and environments facilitates understanding the relationship between human populations and the physical world.The influence of physical systems, such as climate, weather and seasons, and natural resources, such as land and water, on human populations.

Causes, patterns and effects of human settlement and migration, learning of the roles of different kinds of population centers in a society, and investigating the impact of human activities on the environment.

How communications and transportation networks that link different population centers, the reasons for these networks, and their impact.

Using data and applying skills in analyzing human behavior in relation to its physical and cultural environment.

(Note - this unit and map set covers the Trail of Tears, Orphan Trains, the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and the Great Migration. The set and unit can certainly be expanded with maps and literature related to concurrent movements, such as the Gold Rush, Homesteading, the Underground Railroad, Exclusion Acts, etc.)

1

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) The Trail of Tears

PIVOTAL EVENT The Trail of Tears

DECADE 1830s

TEXT SELECTION
How I Became a Ghost (2013) (Historical Fiction; Fantasy)

MAPS

Map of the United States (1831
Map of the Western Territory &c (1834)
A map of North America, denoting the boundaries of the yearly meetings of Friends and the locations of the various Indian tribes (1844)
Indian Territory, with part of the adjoining state of Kansas, &c.
(1866) Endpapers of How I Became a Ghost

Literary Feature
Endpapers

Map Skills
Determining what information the map was designed to Convey; Reading and using a key or legend; Perspective

Key Vocabulary
Ceded

2

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) The Trail of Tears

Suggestions for Small Group Work

Prior to reading the book, study the endpapers of How I Became a Ghost, and complete the following.

1) Discuss and record what information this map offers about the time in which the story might be set. How do you know?
2) Discuss and record how does this map show various time periods, the passage of time, or an event that happens across time?
3) A legend or key is based on specific information the mapmaker wants the viewer to pay attention to. Based on this key, consider and record responses regarding what the mapmaker thinks is important for the viewer to notice.
4) The choice was made to start the book with this map. Based on the map, discuss and record predictions about the story you are about to read.
5) (Independently) Record further questions you have based on studying this map.

Suggestions for Independent Work

After completing the book, reflect on and respond to the following.
1) Find the dictionary definition for “ceded”.
2) Develop and record your own definition in the context of the story you’ve just read and based on what you’ve learned about the era of Trail of Tears.
3) Compare the maps from the 1830s and 1840s to the maps from 1866 and on the endpapers of the book.
4) Evaluate and record the purpose of each map, as would be explained by each mapmaker. How would their explanations and points of view differ?

Suggestions for Whole Group Work

Develop a skit around different voices describing these maps and their intent.

3

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) Orphan Trains

PIVOTAL EVENT Orphan Trains

DECADE 1880s

TEXT SELECTION
Rodzina (2003) (Historical fiction)

MAPS
Dinsmore's new railroad map of the United States and the Canadas, showing all the railroads completed and in progress, carefully compiled from official sources, for Dinsmore's railroad guide (1860)

Colton's new railroad & county map of the United States, the Canadas &c (1862)
The southwestern railroad system United States and Mexico (1882)

Native Land (2018): Interactive map

Literacy Skills
Close Reading, Text to text connections

Map Skills
Georeferencing; Transportation Routes; Human Migration Patterns

Key Vocabulary
Territory

4

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) Orphan Trains

Suggestions for Small Group Work

As you read, independently make note of each time the word “home” appears in the text. Once finished with the whole book, in small groups discuss and audio or video record responses to the following regarding each time “home” appears.
1) Who is talking about home?
2) What does that character have to say about it? What is happening in the story that leads up to that character reflecting on home?
3) Discuss and record thoughts on how each time is different, how each is the same, and how they change as the story progresses.

Suggestions for Independent Work

The majority of the story takes place while characters are on the move, specifically via train. After reading the book, consider the maps in the set and record responses to the following.
1) What other forms of transportation would have been available in this era?
2) Why was the train the chosen method of transportation?
3) What were the advantages and disadvantages to conducting this effort by train?
4) What is the dictionary definition of territory?
5) What is the political definition of territory?
6) Who inhabits them legally during the era of the book, and what part(s) of the United States will they become?

Suggestions for Whole Group Work

Consider Rodzina’s multiple encounters with Native peoples and the following passage from Rodzina for the subsequent questions and activities.

Suppertime and Cheyenne, the last stop for the orphan train, drew near. We stopped in the middle of nowhere for a few minutes. Out of the window I could read wooden grave markers lining the road: “Called Home August 12, 1880,” one said. And “Ma dyed 7 October, 1869.” And “Lillian Bruxton, mother of 12, grandmother of 32, greatly loved and greatly missed, dwelling now with God.” The ground was littered with iron stoves, sofas and chairs, tables, and wagon wheels. What awful thing had happened here?
I walked back to the lady doctor’s seat. She was smoothing her skirt and examining little holes made by the billowing sparks and cinders.
“Miss Doctor?” I asked. She picked up her book from the seat beside her, and I sat down. “Why is all this stuff out here?”
“The railroad appear to follow a wagon road,” she said. “I imagine that as the road gets harder, people lighten their loads. And the markers note the resting places of those too old or too sick or too tired to travel anymore.

1) What other pivotal events in U.S. history is Rodzina seeing evidence of? (forced removal of Native peoples from their lands; Homesteading)
2) Compare one of the railroad maps here with the Native Land interactive map for the following discussions.
a) By searching on Native Land, which Native people were on this land before you? Where your school or house is now?
b) How did railroad developers and the U.S. government determine routes for the railroads?
c) Who got displaced as a result of such development?
3) The class can divide into two groups - an orphan train group and a Choctaw group, to imagine and act out what it would be like, if these

two groups could talk to each other from their own time.
a. Determine what questions they would have for each other, what warnings, what wishes, etc.
b. What foreshadowing do you notice of an event that will take place along the same path that Rodzina has traveled in about 50 years time?

5

Featuring OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse (1997) The Dust Bowl

PIVOTAL EVENT Dust Bowl

DECADE 1930s

TEXT SELECTION
Out of the Dust (1997) (Historical fiction; Novel in Verse)

Evaluating Landscape Degradation Along Climatic
Gradients During the 1930s Dust Bowl Drought From
Panchromatic Historical Aerial Photographs, U.
Great Plains(Frontiers in Earth Science, 2018)
Why Oklahoma Has a Panhandle (JSTOR, 2016)

MAPS
Premier series map of Oklahoma and Indian Territory (1905) (map to right)

Literacy Skills
Character development; Text to text connections; Informational text

Map Skills
Climatic and eco-regional maps; Political maps

Key Vocabulary
Panhandle; Isohyet

Suggestions for Small Group Work

In the previous two books, we looked at people who had to redefine “home” due to displacement. In this book, we see how “home” can be displaced from the land.
1. Prior to reading Out of the Dust, study the following poem from it, then discuss and record observations from, connections to, and questions about what is described.
2. Study the maps from the article. What changes over time do you see? Combining what you’ve gathered from the The Path of Our Sorrow and the maps from the article, make and record predictions about what will occur in Out of the Dust.

The Path of Our Sorrow

Miss Freeland said,

“During the Great War we fed the world.

We couldn’t grow enough wheat

to fill all the bellies.

The price the world paid for our wheat

was so high

it swelled our wallets

and our heads,

and we bought bigger tractors,

more acres,

until we had mortgages

and rent

and bills

beyond reason,

but we all felt to useful, we didn’t notice.

Then the war ended and before long,

Europe didn’t need our wheat anymore,

they could grow their own.

But we needed Europe’s money

to pay our mortgage,

our rent,

our bills.

We squeezed more cattle,

more sheep,

onto less land,

and they grazed down the stubble

till they reached root.

And the price of wheat kept dropping

so we had to grow more bushels

to make the same amount of money we made before,

to pay for all that equipment, all that land,

and the more sod we plowed up,

the drier things got,

because the water that used to collect there

under the grass,

biding its time,

keeping things alive through dry spells

wasn’t there anymore.

Without the sod, the water vanished,

the soil turned to dust.

Until the wind took it,

lifting it up and carrying it away.

Such a sorrow doesn’t come suddenly,

there are a thousand steps to take

before you get there.”

But now,

sorrow climbs up our front steps,

big as Texas, and we didn’t even see it coming,

Even though it’d been making its way straight for us

all along.

September 1934

Suggestions for Independent Work
1) As you read through Out of the Dust, mark where you find answers to the questions you came up with during the small group activity.
2) Create a timeline or chronological comic strip to show how the land and the changes to it affect Billie Jo and secondary characters in the book.
3) For those characters throughout the story who feel forced to migrate, show their supposed path from Oklahoma, as Billie Jo might imagine it.

Suggestions for Whole Group Work

Right from the start, the author lets you know that the story is taking place in the “panhandle” of Oklahoma.
1) Read Why Oklahoma Has a Panhandle and study the Map of Oklahoma and Indian Territory for the following activities.
2) According to the article, there were several varying and contentious plans for what is now considered the panhandle of Oklahoma. Prepare a mock debate that explores each iteration of what that land could have been and should not have been.
3) The Dust Bowl occurred over many years across several of the plains states. Discuss why you think Cushman chose to place this Dust Bowl story in the Oklahoma panhandle specifically.

6

Featuring BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999) The Great Depression

PIVOTAL EVENT The Great Depression

DECADE 1930s

TEXT SELECTION
Bud, Not Buddy (1999) (Historical Fiction)

Christopher Paul Cutis(2017)

MAPS
Railroad distance map of the United States, Mexico & Canada (ca. 1917-1919)

Literacy Skills
Close Reading; Text to text connection; Where do authors get their ideas?

Map Skills
Creating a legend

Key Vocabulary
Hooverville

Suggestions for Small Group Work

As you read through Bud, Not Buddy, you will discover many places that become important landmarks to Buddy, as well as many places that Buddy gets to travel with the band.
1) As you read, keep track of all of the places that Buddy goes by choice* - from the library to Hooverville to Mr. Calloway’s house to Mecosta, and so on - looking for a place and a people to call home.
2) In small groups, come up with a symbol for each place, then figure out a way to represent which landmarks Buddy discovers on his own versus which places he visits with the band.
3) Come up with a symbol for the stones that Buddy carries.
4) Create a key that describes the legend. Overlay (if working digitally) or apply (if working on paper) the legend, key, miles-inches ratio and symbols onto a map of Michigan.

Suggestions for Independent Work

In the previous book, Out of the Dust, a lot of Billie Jo’s psychological survival and growth depend upon the access and opportunities that music provides.
1) Write about the role that music plays in the journeys or stories of Billie Jo and Buddy; OR
Create a playlist for Buddy’s journey throughout the book, with special attention to music of the era and setting of the book; OR
Create a set of stones to mark where you’ve traveled.
2) Read the brief bio about Christopher Paul Curtis, native Michiganer, from blackpast.org.

a) Identify the points of the story that you think may be autobiographical.
b) Which parts do you think are fiction, and why?

c) What questions would you have for Mr. Curtis about Bud, Not Buddy?

Suggestions for Whole Group Work

Both Out of the Dust and Bud, Not Buddy are set during the Great Depression but vary widely in the trials that their characters experience.
1) Discuss how two stories taking place in the same country at the same time could be so vastly different.
2) Make a video mash-up that describes where and how these stories might intersect.
3) Buddy spends some time in Hooverville, and one of the “residents” tells him there are Hoovervilles all over the country. Research what other areas may have been referred to in this way.
4) Study the railroad map, and record why railyards might have been the site for these makeshift, transient communities.

*Author's note - Though the book has been in circulation for over 20 years, Christopher Paul Curtis notes that there is a typo that the publishers didn't catch before it went into publication. It states that the average human gait covers about 5 mi/hour, when it was actually supposed to read 3 mi/hour.

7

Featuring THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH by Eliose Greenfield (2011) and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (2016) The Great Migration

PIVOTAL EVENT The Great Migration

DECADES 1910s-1960s

TEXT SELECTION
The Great Migration: Journey to the North (2011) (Illustrated Book; Poetry)

Brown Girl Dreaming (2016) (Novel in Verse; Autobiography)

The Long-Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration (Smithsonian, 2016)
Let's Look for the Great Migration (Farther Afield, 2014)

MAPS
Atlas of Historical Geography (1932) (colored population 1930)
Railroad distance map of the United States, Mexico & Canada (ca. 1917-1919)

Literary Skills
Close reading; Text to text connection; Inference

Map Skills
Map as story; Representing distance and routes

Key Vocabulary
Migration; Bar scale

Suggestions for Small Group Work

Bud, Not Buddy is set in Michigan during the Great Depression and in parts alludes to racial tensions of that time and place. Consider the following excerpt from the article, The Long Lasting Legacy of the Great Migration, and the book, The Great Migration, then engage in the subsequent activities.

Most people, when they left the South, followed three main tributaries: the first was up the East Coast from Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston; the second, up the country’s central spine, from Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas to St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit and the entire Midwest; the third, from Louisiana and Texas to California and the Western states.

Discuss how the characters in Bud, Not Buddy might have arrived in Michigan. What were they escaping, what did they think they were escaping to, and what did they find? How does their journey relate to what is depicted in The Great Migration: Journey to the North? Study the railroad map from the previous lesson to get a sense for the distance these journeys entailed. Use the bar scale to calculate distances traveled.

Suggestions for Independent Work

The article makes a distinction between those who participated in the Great Migration between the 1910s and World War II era, and those who came between the post World War II era and the mid 1970’s.

1a) Identify the time period portrayed in The Great Migration; Journey to the North.
1b) Study the illustrations, the narrative they create, and how they relate to or extend Greenfield’s verse.
1c) Write down why you think the illustrator chose to use collage.

2a) As you read through Brown Girl Dreaming, use sticky tabs or make notes to mark each time Jacqueline makes a reference to places and what those places are. You should find between 50 and 100 references to places in Ohio, South Carolina, and New York.
2b) In which wave of migration would Jacqueline fall, according to the article you’ve read?

Suggestions for Whole Group Work
1) Read the blog post, Let's Look for the Great Migration and engage with the animation feature. What does this demonstrate about representing movement over time on a map?
2)If possible, project the railroad or animated map onto the floor or large wall, and create an overlay that helps to track movement between all of the places mentioned in Brown Girl Dreaming.
a. How can you represent movement over time on the same map?
b. Create a bar scale to help a viewer calculate the cumulative miles traveled throughout the course of the book.
c.Discuss where you think Jacqueline considers home at which points throughout the book and why?

8

Object Citations

Paullin, Charles Oscar, and John Kirtland Wright. "Density of population, 1920." Map. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1932. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:q524n235m (accessed April 25, 2024).

Bowden, James. "A map of North America, denoting the boundaries of the yearly meetings of Friends and the locations of the various Indian tribes." Map. London: E. Marsh, [1844]. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:0r96fp66r (accessed April 25, 2024).

Hood, Washington. "Map of the Western Territory &c." Map. Washington, D.C: Committee on Indian Affairs, [1834]. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:7h14b2177 (accessed April 25, 2024).

Ayers, Warren. "Railroad distance map of the United States, Mexico & Canada." Map. Kansas City, Mo: Warren Ayers, [ca. 1917–1919]. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:4m90fd92r (accessed April 25, 2024).

"The southwestern railroad system United States and Mexico." Map. San Francisco: H.S. Crocker & Co., 1882. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:cj82kp21d (accessed April 25, 2024).

"Dinsmore's new railroad map of the United States and the Canadas, showing all the railroads completed and in progress, carefully compiled from official sources, for Dinsmore's railroad guide." Map. New York: Dinsmore & Co., [1860]. Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center, https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:cj82kn79m (accessed April 25, 2024).

Finding Home - Displacement and Migration throughout the United States, 1830s-1960s

Displaced in the United States

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013)

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013)

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003)

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003)

Featuring OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse (1997)

Featuring BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999)

Featuring THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH by Eliose Greenfield (2011) and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (2016)

Finding Home - Displacement and Migration throughout the United States, 1830s-1960s

Table of Contents

Displaced in the United States Introduction

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) The Trail of Tears

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) The Trail of Tears

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) Orphan Trains

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) Orphan Trains

Featuring OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse (1997) The Dust Bowl

Featuring BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999) The Great Depression

Featuring THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH by Eliose Greenfield (2011) and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (2016) The Great Migration

Object Citations

1. Density of population, 1920

2. A map of North America, denoting the boundaries of the yearly meetings of Friends and the locations of the various Indian tribes

3. Map of the Western Territory &c

4. Railroad distance map of the United States, Mexico & Canada

5. The southwestern railroad system United States and Mexico

6. Dinsmore's new railroad map of the United States and the Canadas, showing all the railroads completed and in progress,...

Displaced in the United States

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013)

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013)

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003)

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003)

Featuring OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse (1997)

Featuring BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999)

Featuring THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH by Eliose Greenfield (2011) and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (2016)

Finding Home - Displacement and Migration throughout the United States, 1830s-1960s

Table of Contents

Displaced in the United States Introduction

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) The Trail of Tears

FEATURING HOW I BECAME A GHOST BY TIM TINGLE (2013) The Trail of Tears

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) Orphan Trains

FEATURING RODZINA BY KAREN CUSHMAN (2003) Orphan Trains

Featuring OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse (1997) The Dust Bowl

Featuring BUD, NOT BUDDY by Christopher Paul Curtis (1999) The Great Depression

Featuring THE GREAT MIGRATION: JOURNEY TO THE NORTH by Eliose Greenfield (2011) and BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson (2016) The Great Migration

Object Citations

1. Density of population, 1920

2. A map of North America, denoting the boundaries of the yearly meetings of Friends and the locations of the various Indian tribes

3. Map of the Western Territory &c

4. Railroad distance map of the United States, Mexico & Canada

5. The southwestern railroad system United States and Mexico

6. Dinsmore's new railroad map of the United States and the Canadas, showing all the railroads completed and in progress,...

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