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From around January 2007 to March 2007, fourth grade students in Edinger house at the Dalton School, studied forced immigration.  We read Ms. Edinger’s book about Sarah Margru Kinson and how she was brought into slavery and got out. We saw artifacts such as dolls, clothing, jewelry, and instruments that a boy in our class brought in from Mali.  Ms. Edinger presented on Sierra Leone and showed us an Olaudah Equiano slide show.
Also, poet Natasha Tretheway came in for workshops where we wrote a class poem from the point of view of the slaves that described how they might have felt. After each of us wrote our own poem about a slave, Natasha Tretheway came in again for a workshop and each of us read our poems to her in front of the class.
We study forced immigration because it is an important event in history that we should know about.  We have been studying immigration all year and it is part of our curriculum.  Forced Immigration is a very interesting subject to learn about. A boy said, “My favorite part was when a classmate of ours brought in artifacts from Mali.”  If you don’t know much about forced immigration, I suggest you read a little about it.