Digging For Roots

This half-day program gives students at the junior and intermediate levels a view of the Buxton National Historic Site, and of the early Buxton Settlement—a safe haven for fugitive slaves reaching freedom in Canada West in 1850’s-60’s.

Museum staff will board the bus and provide a guided tour of the Buxton National Historic Site, pointing out, and stopping to examine important landmarks.  Students will disembark from the bus at some stops to examine the landmarks more closely.  Stops will be made to complete activities in this program.

Students will learn more about the inhabitants of the settlement and of the community over the years as they tour the Buxton Museum, including the 1861 schoolhouse built by fugitive slaves, the 1866 church that is still in use in the community, and an 1850’s log cabin built by a fugitive who came to Buxton from slavery in Louisiana.  Activities during this site visit include cemetery mapping and tracing of family trees.  This is a half-day program.

Students must travel to Buxton by bus in order to participate in this program.

Cost is $6.00 per student.

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website created July 2008; updated November 2009; by Lori Gardner