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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 10

Freedom & Rights

Abolition, women's rights and the Civil War

What your child practices

Slavery in New York and its end in 1827, abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth and Samuel Cornish, the Underground Railroad, the Seneca Falls Convention and the fight for women's right to vote, and New York's part in the Civil War.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 4.5; 4.5a; 4.5b; 4.5c · the fight against slavery in New York, the struggle for women's rights, and New York's support for the Union in the Civil War

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Slavery ended in New York in 1827, and the 13th Amendment ended it in the whole country in 1865.
  2. Abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth fought slavery.
  3. The Seneca Falls Convention (1848) began the fight for women’s rights, like voting.

Example: Which amendment ended slavery in the whole United States? It passed in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. It was the 13th. Answer: the 13th Amendment

Freedom & Rights in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 6 of 10 in 4th grade Social Studies, after Governing New York and before The Erie Canal.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in New York and became a famous speaker for…

    • building canals
    • the gold rush
    • the British king
    • ending slavery and women's rights

  2. Question 2

    Was there slavery in New York?

    • Yes, until 1965.
    • No, never.
    • Only after the Civil War.
    • Yes, until New York ended it in 1827.

  3. Question 3

    The Seneca Falls Convention called for women to have the right to…

    • use telephones
    • fly airplanes
    • vote
    • drive cars

  4. Question 4

    Which amendment, passed in 1865, ended slavery in the whole United States?

    • the 19th Amendment
    • the 10th Amendment
    • the 13th Amendment
    • the 1st Amendment

  5. Question 5

    Susan B. Anthony, of Rochester, worked for…

    • the fur trade
    • building railroads
    • the British army
    • women's right to vote

  6. Question 6

    Which famous abolitionist spoke in support of women's right to vote at Seneca Falls?

    • Peter Stuyvesant
    • Henry Hudson
    • DeWitt Clinton
    • Frederick Douglass

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