Introduction to the Moffatt-Ladd House and Great Hall:
The Moffatt-Ladd House currently has educational programs for elementary school students, high school students, homeschoolers and girl scouts. If you are interested in bringing a school group to the Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden, please email education@moffattladd.org.
We also a fabulous collection of primary sources that we are making available to teachers, educators, and students. We have numerous letters, documents, maps, and logbooks from the 18th and 19th centuries that we hope to make digital. We would love to collaborate with local teachers to incorporate our wealth of resources into classrooms both locally and nationwide. We have sample lesson plans available from our program, Reaching for Truth: Exploring the Issue of Slavery in the Era of the American Revolution, below. We also offer an annual teacher workshop based on this program, as well as a museum educator training. To learn more please call (603) 430-7968 or email education@moffattladd.org .
Educational Programs for Primary Students
Bring your students to the Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden! We have hands-on, interactive programming about the Transatlantic Trade, Slavery and the Women of the Moffatt-Ladd House. We also have done programming on historic preservation and are open to creating a unique experience for your students! We offer both school programming and girl scout overnights at the Junior Level. Local seacoast school groups are free, and groups from further away will only pay a small fee. One chaperone per five students is free, but additional chaperones pay a $6 admission fee. Girl Scout groups can learn more through the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. If you are interested in our educational programming please call us at (603) 430-7968 or email education@moffattladd.org.
Reaching for Truth: Exploring the Issue of Slavery in the Era of the American Revolution
In 1779 twenty “Natives of Africa now forcibly detained in slavery,” in Portsmouth, wrote and signed the Petition of Freedom and submitted it to the New Hampshire state legislature in the hope that they world gain their freedom. The Moffatt-Ladd House and Garden was the home of Prince Whipple, who is believed to have written the Petition, and Windsor Moffatt, who was one of the signers. Working with advisors from the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail and Keith Mascoll, we developed a pilot program based upon the Petition. In our high school program, students research the 1779 Petition of Freedom, spend and immersive day at the Moffatt-Ladd House and Gardenand write their own scripts, which imagine conversations which took place among enslaved and free. This program was funded by a Museums for America Grant for the Institute for Museum and Library Science. We also have and hope to continue training teaches and educators how to spark important conversations relating to the Petition through workshops that discuss our method of using reliable sources, place and imagination. We ask teachers to create lesson plans that speak to their own communities and historic sites. For more information about our high school program and educator training please call (603) 430-7968 or email info@moffattladd.org
