Learning from the “Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave”

• How does Grimes’s story help us understand Connecticut’s role in the system of slavery?
• How did federal and state laws, such as Connecticut’s Gradual Emancipation Act of 1784 and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, impact the lives of enslaved people like William Grimes?
• In what ways does Grimes’s autobiography challenge attitudes about slavery and freedom in northern and southern states?
• Why is it important for people such as William Grimes to tell their own story?

1. Introduce students to William Grimes, the author of Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave. Students will read the opening passage of Grimes’s narrative in which he introduces himself to the readers. After reading the opening, students will compose a list of questions they have about Grimes and his life.
2. To better understand the historical context of Grimes’s life, provide an overview of the history of slavery in Connecticut, showing them the Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut in America (1784). Have the class read the excerpt from the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and discuss the following questions:
   • What powers were given to slaveholders and their agents under this law?
   • How would laws like the Fugitive Slave Act affect someone like Grimes, who had escaped slavery and had built a life in Connecticut?
   • How would these laws impact free black residents of Connecticut?
3. Working in pairs or small groups, assign each group one quote from Grimes’s narrative. Have students first read their quote and then answer the questions provided. They will discuss their thoughts with their partner or small group before sharing them with the class. After all the groups have shared, facilitate a class-wide discussion that explores the tone, content, and impact of Grimes’s narrative.
4. Distribute reproductions of the letters between Abel Catlin and the Burrows so that each group has a copy of both letters. Encourage students to read what they can of the content, giving them time to carefully observe the documents and make notes of their physical characteristics, such as handwriting style.
5. After giving students time to examine the reproduction of the letters, provide students with the transcriptions and Letter Analysis Tool to guide their reading and study of the letters. Start with the letters from Abel Catlin to Joseph Burrows and then the reply from B.B. (possibly Benjamin Burrows, Joseph Burrows’s brother). Alternatively, groups can use the Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool as a guide.
6. Bring the class together to discuss what they learned from the letters, guided by the following questions:
   • What did it cost Grimes to purchase his freedom?
   • How did the language and tone of the letters compare?
   • What might that reveal about Catlin and Burrows’s perspectives?
   • What can we learn about William Grimes’s experience as a freedom seeker from these letters?

Assessment Option 1: Letter

After Grimes published the first edition of his autobiography in 1825, he sent a copy to then President John Quincy Adams with the inscription, “Relying on your Excellency’s generosity, the Author presents this pamphlet to the President of the United States, Stamford, CT; May 15, 1826, Wm. Grimes.” (Boston Atheneum) Have students choose a historical figure who was a contemporary of Grimes: a politician, such as President John Quincy Adams or Chief Justice John Marshall; a literary figure, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe or Frederick Douglass; or a reformer, such as Horace Mann or Prudence Crandall. Imagining themselves in that era, have students write a letter to that historical figure telling them about Life of William Grimes and its author, incorporating both their knowledge of Grimes’s life and that of the historical figure.

Assessment Option 2: Compare/Contrast

Grimes wrote his narrative in 1825, before the abolition movement reached mainstream audiences. Have students compare and contrast Grimes’s narrative with the writings of later freedom seekers, such as Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: an American Slave or Harriet Jacobs’s 1861 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Assessment Option 3: Questions

Grimes’s narrative is powerful because it was written down and preserved. However, countless other stories of freedom seekers were never recorded. Students will reflect on whose stories are remembered and whose experiences were never documented in the historical record. Have students create a list of questions about the lives of freedom seekers that were not recorded.

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