The Great Dismal Swamp stretches from southern Virginia into northern North Carolina. In Virginia, it’s part of the 113,000-acre Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. In North Carolina, it’s set in the 14,000-acre Dismal Swamp State Park. Once covering more than one million acres (more than 1500 square miles), it was initially inhabited by Native peoples of the Chesapeake. The wetlands were later inhabited by men, women, and children escaping enslavement from approximately 1700 through the mid-19th century. Research suggests that these communities in the Dismal Swamp began to disperse around the time of the Civil War. While certainly noted as a place of African American anti-slavery resistance, there are some historians who also believe the Dismal Swamp communities were part of the larger Underground Railroad network.

When large groups of enslaved people escaped to geographically secluded regions to form communities, they were referred to as maroon communities. Despite the harsh conditions they lived in, they attempted to live as free people beyond the sight and control of enslavers or government officials. Historians generally agree that the largest maroon colony in the United States was in the Great Dismal Swamp, though maroon settlements formed in other colonies as well. Experts believe that anywhere slavery existed, there were people who escaped to live in the wilderness. 

This album provides resources for learning more about the geography and history of the Dismal Swamp.

Ideas for Instruction:

• Begin with the QFT using the image of the plaque at Lake Drummond in the Great Dismal Swamp as the Q-Focus.
• After students have generated and ranked questions regarding the short passage, have them complete a Gallery Walk using the Notice and Wonder strategy. 
  • Use the following works:
    • "The Lake of the Dismal Swamp" by John Gadsby Chapman, 1842
    • "Osman, a maroon in Great Dismal Swamp" by David Hunter Strother in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, 1856
    • ONE OF THESE: "Slave Hunt, Dismal Swamp, Virginia" by Thomas Moran, 1862 OR "Slave Hunt" by Thomas Moran, 1864
    • "In the Swamp" by Henry Louis Stephens, c. 1863
    • "Fugitive Slaves in the Dismal Swamp, Virginia" by David Edward Cronin, 1888
    • "George Washington at Lake Drummond, Dismal Swamp," by Thos. Addis Emmet 1896
  • At each piece, students will begin by writing only what they notice. After having an opportunity to view all the resources, students will then complete the wonder portion, revisiting each piece.
  • Debrief the pieces and make connections to the Q-Focus and questions generated.
  • Use these images to discuss primary and secondary sources. Which ones would students consider to be primary sources and why? 
• Conduct a Jigsaw Activity to learn more about the geography and history of the Dismal Swamp.
  • Use the following pieces:
    • Description of the Dismal Swamp and a proposal to drain the swamp by William Byrd, c. 1728-1737
    • Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy: Late a Slave in the United States of America, 1843
    • Slaves in The Dismal Swamp, The North Star. (Rochester, NY) 31 Mar. 1848
    • Report on the Dismal Swamp in The Daily Spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]), 10 July 1848
    • The Virginia Maroons by Edmund Jackson, National Anti-Slavery Standard, February 12, 1852
  • Provide students with a copy of the Primary Source Analysis Tool.
  • Use prompts from the Teacher's Guide for Analyzing Books & Other Printed Texts and Teacher's Guide Analyzing Newspapers.
  • Once back in their base groups, students will share the primary sources they explored and answer the following questions:
    • What are the common themes among these sources?
    • Do any of them answer the questions developed during the QFT?
    • What claims can you make about the Dismal Swamp? What evidence do you have for your claims? 
• Complete a comparative analysis of different maps of the area.
  • Use the following maps:
    • A map of the most inhabited part of Virginia containing the whole province of Maryland with part of Pensilvania, New Jersey and North Carolina, 1755 (Focus on the Tidewater and Piedmont regions.)
    • Map of the Great Dismal Swamp by Martin Sanders, 2016
  • Use Zoom-In to focus on small sections of each map before looking at them more broadly.
  • Provide students with a copy of the Primary Source Analysis Tool. 
  • Use prompts from the Teacher's Guide Analyzing Maps.
• Consider pairing your study of the history of the Dismal Swamp and the enslaved communities that lived there with a piece of historical fiction. In this album you will find links to Unbound by Ann E. Burg (2016) and Freewater by Amina Luqman Dawson (2022).
• For STEM connections, consider building a simple stereoscope to allow students to see sterograph images of the Dismal Swamp and Lake Drummond in 3D.
• Other resources in the ablum include poems and sheet music that provide additional perspectives on how the Dismal Swamp was viewed in popular culture.
• If you want to examine the development of the maroon community, the Digital Library on American Slavery has a series of runaway slave notices that all refer to the Dismal Swamp. These notices can be connected to the Advertisement by John Mayo in the Virginia Gazette, April 13, 1769.

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