Teaching Connecticut History Through James Mars, Sarah Harris, and Amistad

When a class studies Connecticut’s past, the hardest stories can also offer the clearest questions: Who had the power to make a choice? Who was denied it? What does a historical source actually prove? Three connected histories—James Mars, Sarah Harris and the school in Canterbury, and the Amistad case—give third graders concrete people and events through which to investigate freedom, education, and legal change.

Begin with James Mars and the danger of regional assumptions

Students sometimes assume that slavery existed only in the southern states. Connecticut’s history disproves that simplification. James Mars, an African American man born into slavery in Connecticut, later wrote about his life. The Library of Congress digitization of his 1866 memoir allows readers to distinguish Mars’s own testimony from a later historian’s explanation. A personal account helps students recognize a named person’s experience rather than reduce slavery to a date or an abstract policy.

The point of the lesson is not to dramatize cruel conditions or invent words for Mars. Instead, students can compare the terms slavery, gradual emancipation, and freedom, and notice that a law promising future change did not make everyone free that day. The sequence is supported by the Connecticut lesson’s documented research and Teacher Guide.

Sarah Harris changes a school story from an idea into a person’s decision

In 1832 Sarah Harris asked Prudence Crandall to attend the Canterbury Female Boarding School. The official Prudence Crandall Museum explains how Harris’s request, conversations with Maria Davis, and Crandall’s response led to a major dispute over Black girls’ education. The museum emphasizes both opponents and supporters; it is inaccurate to say everyone in Canterbury held one opinion.

For a third-grade inquiry, write two claims: “Some local people resisted the school” and “Everyone opposed the school.” Ask which claim has support in the source. Students can learn that sweeping words such as everyone require sweeping evidence.

The Amistad case was about real people, not simply a ship

The National Park Service account of La Amistad begins with kidnapped Mende Africans in 1839 and documents how they ended up in custody in Connecticut. The National Park Service history of the Amistad Committee describes the legal advocacy organized on their behalf. Avoid reducing the case to a quick victory story; the people involved experienced captivity and a prolonged legal struggle.

Students can contrast the question “Who was on the ship?” with “What claim did a court have to decide?” This changes the lesson from retelling a dramatic episode to reading evidence about rights and legal decisions. For young students, factual age-appropriate explanation is more valuable than reenacting physical danger or captivity.

A respectful, low-prep classroom approach

  • Person: Name James Mars, Sarah Harris, and the Mende people involved in the Amistad case accurately.
  • Decision: Ask what opportunity or right was denied and what documented response followed.
  • Evidence: Compare a narrow supported claim with an exaggerated sentence, and revise the latter.

These topics need not be folded into one invented museum exhibition or dramatized trial. The historical decisions and genuine disagreements already supply the narrative tension.

Lessons that connect the three histories

Use Work, Trade & Unfreedom for James Mars and slavery in Connecticut, then School Doors & Freedom Claims for Sarah Harris, Prudence Crandall, and the Amistad case. Orders, Charters & Colonial Choices provides background on colonial government and constitutions. The free lesson: Land, Rivers & First Communities introduces the series for free, while the Connecticut Grade 3 complete bundle contains all ten lessons.

Sources to consult

More Connecticut history teaching ideas

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