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4th graders at the Dalton school in New York City have been studying forced immigration or slavery. This topic is part of their immigration study. They read a book by their teacher, Ms. Edinger about Sarah Margru Kinson, one of the slaves captured on the Amistad. Now, you’re wondering what the Amistad is right? (If you already know skip this little bit) The Amistad is a ship that captured slaves illegally and brought them to America. But one of the captives escaped, and he and some of the other men killed almost all of the crew. They kept some alive to get them back to Africa, but those sailors tricked them. During daytime they sailed towards Africa but at night they sailed toward America. The American Coast Guard found the ship and charged them with murder. After some hard times the to-be slaves won their trial and were sent back to Africa. Go to blogs.dalton.org/edinger/ for more information.

Also, Edinger house did many more projects about forced immigration. They did a poem unit with poet Natasha Trethewey. She read them poems by her friend about the Amistad and they wrote their own poems about a certain person from the point of view of the on the Amistad. One of the students brought some stuff from Africa that he got when he was there. He brought a wood sculpture, jewelry and many clothes.

It is important to know about events in history that were significant and interesting to learn about Forced Immigration.
“I really liked reading the book about Sarah Margru Kinson so we could learn how hard it was for the slaves”, said by a student in Edinger house.