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The House of
Dies Drear Welcome!
This site is designed to accompany the novel
The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. It is a literary unit compiled
of information from a variety of sites for use by the
students and staff of |
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About
the Novel In The House of Dies Drear, Thomas Small learns that his new home in Ohio played a part in African American history. Its original owner, Dies Drear, was an abolitionist--a person who worked to end and the enslavement of African Americans in the United States. His new home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Click here to read a selected quotes from the novel.
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Virginia Hamilton Virginia Hamilton has won many awards and honors as a writer of fiction and nonfiction and a re-teller of folktales. She is the first author to receive the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award for the same book--her 1974 novel for young people M.C. Higgins, the Great. Click here to learn more about this author at the official Virginia Hamilton web site. |
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Expert Groups Divide students into "Expert Groups" to research any of the following topics for oral presentations. Expert groups share their knowledge on a designated day. Slavery Underground Railroad Famous Abolitionists "Jim Crow" Laws Frederick Douglass Emancipation Proclamation African American Spirituals The Civil War John Brown Harriet Beecher Stowe Superstitions |
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The
Underground Railroad Although a real underground railroad never existed, the term is used to describe the secret and often dangerous system that helped enslaved people escape to the North. Fugitives, or enslaved people who had run away, were known as passengers. People who helped them were called conductors. Conductors included both whites, like Dies Drear, and free blacks. Safe homes along the escape routes were called stations or depots. Some enslaved people, after escaping, returned to the South to help their families and other saves to escape along the Underground Railroad. Click to experience the Underground Railroad with Harriet Tubman courtesy of National Geographic . |
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Harriet Tubman One of the most famous figures of the Underground Railroad was Harriet Tubman, known as the Moses of her people. Moses was a Biblical figure who freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Tubman was an energetic and dedicated conductor on the Underground Railroad. Between 1850 and 1857, she made nineteen trips to the South and led more than 300 African Americans away from slavery. Click here to view major routes of the Underground Railroad. Organize your classmates to participate in this creative online adventure, "The Underground Railroad: The Quest for Freedom". |
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Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Click here to visit the National Archives and view the original Emancipation Proclamation document. |
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Active Reading Setting is the time, place and atmosphere or mood of a story. In some stories, setting plays a very important role. The House of Dies Drear is one of those stories. The house establishes mood and gives a reader the feeling that danger is lurking. Open "Inspiration" on your desktop and create a graphic organizer to list important details and phrases that describe the house of Dies Drear and the area that surrounds it. Save it in My Documents. Click here to view a sample of how to graphically organize your thinking using Inspiration. |
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Treasure Hunt Imagine you live in the Ohio community described in the book. What do you believe should become of the treasures? Do you think they should stay in the cavern, go to a museum or be sold? Write a persuasive memo in which you take a position and defend it with solid facts and ideas. Try to convince people to see things your way. For tips, ideas and a format for persuading people to think like you, visit the Writer's Workshop by Scholastic. |
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Foreshadowing Foreshadowing is a literary technique that a writer uses to hint at events to come. Review the first scene of the first chapter, in which Thomas' dream is described. How does the dream foreshadow events that occur in Chapter 2? Chapter 4? How does foreshadowing contribute to the story's mood? |
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Jim
Crow Laws Jim Crow Laws were illegal laws implemented to keep African Americans separate. |
