Teachers' Guide

to

Heaven & Hell on Earth:
The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys

Website created by
Jennifer Pettit and Kori Street

Teachers' Guide created by
Ruth Sandwell

A Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project
Project Co-directors:
John Lutz
Ruth Sandwell
Peter Gossage

“The Massacre of the ‘Black’ Donnellys” Teachers' Guide

Table of Contents — 2
Teachers’ Support — 5
Site Organization — 6

THE UNIT — 7
Fitting This Unit into Your Provincial Curriculum — 7
The Story — 8
Unit Rationale — 9
Unit Overview — 9
Instructional Outcomes — 10
Instructional Strategies — 10
Culminating Activity — 10
Recommended Time Frame — 11
Preparatory Exercises — 11

Unit Overview — 12
The Lessons Summarized — 12
Lesson 1: Determining the Facts of the Case — 15
Lesson 2: Historical Contexts — 20
Lesson 3: Consolidating our Understanding — 26

Lesson 4: Writing the News — 28
Lesson 5: Did Vigilante “Justice” or the Rule of Law govern Biddulph Township? — 33
Lesson 6: Exploring Personal Experience in History — 37
Lesson 7: Learning to Read Historical Documents — 38
Lesson 8: Is this Event Significant? — 41
Lesson 9: Culminating Event: Trial by Historians — 42

SUPPORT MATERIAL – 44
Support Material 1, Briefing Sheet — The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys in Historical Context — 45
Support Material 2, Activity Sheet — Interrogating Your Document — 48
Support Material 3, Activity Sheet — 49
Support Material 4, Activity Sheet — 50
Support Material 5, Activity Sheet — 51
Support Material 6, Activity Sheet — 52
Support Material 7, Activity Sheet — 53
Support Material 8, Activity Sheet — 54
Support Material 9, Briefing Sheet — 55
Vigilantism — 55
Support Material 10, Briefing Sheet — 56
What is The Rule of Law in Canada? — 56
Support Material 11, Activity Sheet — 57
Support Material 12, Activity Sheet — 58
Support Material 13, Activity Sheet — 59
Support Material 14, Activity Sheet — 60
The Integrated Unit Option — 61
Some Suggested Grade Levels and Subject Areas — 61
Science Components — 61
Mathematical Components — 61
Geographical Components — 62
Language Arts Components — 62
Individual Lesson Plans — 62
Suggestions for College and University Classes — 63

Teachers’ Support
and
The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Websites

As the Teachers’ Support section of The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History websites outlines (http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/indexen.html), these sites provide five kinds of support for teachers:
— a summary of the Foundational Ideas of history teaching that informs the Mysteries Project;
— a detailed Teachers’ Guide for each of the sites;
— short MysteryQuest lesson plans;
— a series of scaffolding activities and briefing sheets to introduce students to Key Concepts in Historical Thinking;
— access to the password protected “Interpretations” portion of the website.

1. Foundational Ideas gives you a thumbnail sketch of the teaching philosophy behind the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History websites, as well as a more detailed examination of the four different levels at which these sites ‘work’ as ways to teach and learn about history.
See: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/en/foundationalIdeas.php

2. Teachers’ Guides contain detailed, graduated, multi-lesson, and age-appropriate unit plans as well as free-standing lessons for elementary and secondary students.
See: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/guides/indexen.php

3. Short, focused, age-specific, single-lesson MysteryQuests include detailed lesson plans and teacher support relating to one or more of the Mystery sites. Each of the MysteryQuest lessons employs the popular and student-friendly Webquest format to present a lesson that uses The Critical Thinking Consortium’s “Critical Challenge” approach and a small selection of primary documents from the sites to create short but powerful lessons involving students in thinking critically about history.
See: http://www.mysteryquests.ca

4. Concepts in Historical Thinking provides activities and briefing sheets to introduce students to key concepts in historical thinking that they will be using as they work with these Mysteries. This part of the site is in active development at this time and currently includes three exercises: “What are Primary Documents?”, “History vs. the Past”, and “Testimony vs. Evidence”.
See: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/keyconcepts/indexen.html

5. Teachers are also eligible to request access to the password-protected “Interpretations” part of each of the Mysteries Website allowing you to read historians’ interpretations of the documents on the site. This section is password protected in order to encourage students to develop their own interpretations of primary documents, rather than relying on other people’s interpretations.
See: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/login/indexen.php

Site Organization

First of all, rest assured that no one is expected to read the entire site, not even you. No one is expected to peruse every item in an archive before s/he starts to write a research paper and the same principle applies here. What you, as a teacher, needs is an understanding of the construction of the site in order to guide your students.

For a detailed overview of the site organization, and tips on how to use the site, see the “How to Use This Site” section found on the Home page of “Heaven & Hell on Earth”.
See: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/home/howtousesite/indexen.html

THE UNIT:

Heaven & Hell on Earth:
The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys
What Killed the Donnellys?

~ A unit of study designed to foster critical thinking
in the intermediate and junior secondary level Canadian history curriculum ~

Fitting This Unit into Your Provincial Curriculum

Our Teachers' Guide team has done some research into provincial curricula across Canada; “What Killed the ‘Black’ Donnellys?” can be used effectively in the following courses. Courses marked with an asterisk (*) are ones where the teacher may need to do a little improvising to ensure that the lessons – designed specifically here for intermediate and junior secondary students – are at the appropriate level.

Alberta
— Social Studies 7: People and their Culture
— Social Studies 8: History and Geography in the Western Hemisphere
— Social Studies 8: IOP
— Social Studies 9: Economic Growth: Differing Perspectives
— Social Studies 9: IOP

British Columbia
— Social Studies 10: Canada 1815- 1914
— Social Studies 11: Canadian Identity *

Manitoba
— Senior 1 Social Studies: Canada Today
— Senior 3 Social Studies: Canada: A Social and Political History*

New Brunswick
— Grade 8: Atlantic Canada in the Global Community
— Modern History 111, 112 *
— Canadian History 122 *

Newfoundland
— Grade 7: Living in North America
— Grade 9: Canada: Our Land and Heritage
— Canadian History 1201*
— Canadian Issues 1209 *

Nova Scotia
— Grade 8 Social Studies
— Canadian History 11*

Nunavut & NWT
— Grade 9 – The Growth of Canada

Ontario
— Grade 7: Compulsory History and Geography
— Grade 8: Compulsory History and Geography
— History 10: Canadian History in the 20th Century
— Civics 10
— Canada: History, Identity and Culture, Grade 12 *

Prince Edward Island
— Grade 8: History 200
— Canadian Studies 401 (Grade 10)

Québec
— Canadian Society to 1920: 3rd Cycle of Primary School
— History of Québec and Canada, Secondary 4
— History of Québec and Canada, New Curriculum, Secondary 3 and 4

Saskatchewan
— Social Studies 8: The Individual and Society
— History 10: Social Organizations
— History 30: Canadian Studies (Grade 12) *
— Social Studies 30: Grade 12 *

Yukon
(see British Columbia)

The Story

“Heaven & Hell on Earth:
The Massacre of the ‘Black’ Donnellys”

In the 1840s, the Donnelly family made their way from Tipperary, Ireland to Biddulph Township near Lucan, Ontario. Like thousands of other Irish immigrants to Canada in the nineteenth century, the Donnellys began the work of settling the rural lands in their new country, starting a farm and raising their eight children: James Jr. , William, John, Patrick, Michael, Robert, Thomas and Jenny. But something went terribly wrong. One night in February 1880, the Donnelly’s house was burned to the ground killing the parents, their son Tom and their niece Bridget. During that same evening, at a separate location, another member of the family was shot and killed. Rumours flew that a vigilante gang of neighbours had committed the murders. No one was ever convicted of the crimes.

How can we understand who murdered the family, and why? This unit invites students to explore a variety of motives that led to the events of that night. The importance of this lesson, however, is to get students thinking beyond personal feuds and encouraging them to question broader historical explanations such as racism, immigration and cultures of violence.

This unit is directed at intermediate and junior secondary students across Canada. It can be adapted either up or down for students at other levels. The focus in this unit is reading evidence closely to come to a conclusion about the question: What Killed the Donnellys? In the process, students will have to evaluate why the Donnellys were massacred.

Unit Rationale

This unit uses the Great Unsolved Mysteries of Canadian History Website, “Heaven & Hell on Earth: the Massacre of the ‘Black’ Donnellys”, to introduce students to historical issues of immigration, ethnic tensions and violence in Canada, which all help explain this horrible event. This unit is also designed to introduce students to the use of primary documents in history and social studies, aiming to facilitate students’ critical awareness of an author’s perspective in historical documents.

This awareness will also teach students to look beyond the personal bias of testimony to evaluate evidence, to understand the utility of documents from a partial perspective, and to encourage students to adopt a broader and more critical perspective when reading historical evidence and narratives. Finally, this unit provides a variety of suggestions for integrating these lessons in other curricular subjects, like Social Studies.

Unit Overview:

Themes, Issues, Concepts

Extreme cases of violence leading to death and the destruction of property justly make headlines in Canadian newspapers. Over the years, such stories have prompted troubling questions about how violent criminals can remain at large within a community. Concerned citizens reflect back to simpler times when people lived in small rural villages, intimately aware of the lives of their fellow citizens, where issues of racism, of wanton violence and personal vendettas did not affect Canadian communities. Surely at that time, they ask, such violence would not have been unchecked?

This Website suggests that violence has a long history in Canada, and that communities have always had to struggle with ethnic and religious conflicts that have, from time to time, erupted into violence.

Concepts:

- Acquire an understanding of historical thinking through the experience of historical research and the exposure to historical explanations
— Acquire an understanding of the challenges and issues facing people living in rural nineteenth-century Ontario
— Develop a sensitivity to the differing points of view concerning immigrants and people of different ethnicities and religions
— Confront evidentiary challenges, including incompleteness and interpretative errors, differentiate the quality of evidence and observe inconsistencies in testimony
— Evaluate the quality and fairness of judicial process
— Acquire an understanding of the broader social and historical contexts of nineteenth-century Ontario

Instructional Outcomes

- Identify and clarify a problem, an issue, and an inquiry
— Develop a vocabulary for historical documents analysis
— Plan and conduct research using primary and secondary sources and electronic sources
— Generate and critique different interpretations of primary and secondary sources
— Assess and defend a variety of positions on controversial issues
— Construct a narrative from pieces of evidence that are non-sequential
— Plan, revise, and deliver formal presentations using a variety of media
— Demonstrate leadership by planning, implementing, and assessing a variety of strategies to address the problem, issue, or inquiry initially defined
— Refine abilities to construct and defend an argument

Instructional Strategies

Need for Computer Lab Time:
While this entire unit is fully integrated with the Black Donnellys Website, most tasks can be completed if the requisite documents are printed ahead of time and given to students. In this way, classes with limited access to computer lab time can still complete the unit.

Assessment & Evaluation:
Because assessment and evaluation standards vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, only generalized guidelines have been included here. Instructors may wish to assign process marks for completion of the various tasks, or not, if their students are sufficiently mature enough to recognize that the successful completion of the various tasks is crucial to successful completion of the culminating activity.

The characteristics of A/A+ in critical thinking for specific tasks:
(Look for evidence of appropriateness to grade level)
— documents and sources are read and interpreted in depth;
— issues are analyzed seriously and thoughtfully;
— presentations and talks are given carefully, with Material well- prepared and organized, and points well thought out;
— results are expressed cautiously and are supported with reference to appropriate evidence;
— opinions are reasoned

Culminating Activity

Students will participate in panel discussions and consider the following questions:

Who was directly responsible for the massacre?

Did racism, religious intolerance or a culture of violence kill the Donnellys?

In a panel discussion, students will take on the role of present-day historians. They will not only use evidence from the testimony provided, but they will also draw on their historians’ analysis of social, political and economic contexts to find a culprit within the broader social relations and issues of nineteenth-century Ontario.
Accurate, detailed notes from the completion of all tasks will prove invaluable to students as they complete the culminating activity.

Recommended Time Frame

If you intend to include all instructional strategies, allow 18 periods for this unit in a junior secondary level course. Adjust as appropriate to meet the needs of different learners and instructional time limitations. Many of the tasks also stand independently and can be pulled out and used as single lessons if required.

Preparatory Exercises

If students have not worked critically with primary source documents before, it is strongly recommended that students complete at least one of the exercises available in the “Key Concepts in Historical Thinking” page found in the Teachers’ Corner before undertaking this unit of study.
See http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/keyconcepts/indexen.html

Unit Overview:

The Lessons Summarized

Key Question
What Killed the Donnellys?

Lesson 1:
Determining the Facts of the Case
2- 3 classes
Students are first given an overview of the background of the conflicts within the community, and then a brief sketch of the events of February 4, 1880. After explaining the difference between primary and secondary sources, the teacher asks students to work as a group on a series of primary documents, completing detailed worksheets as they do so to explore what happened on the night of February 4. In a second class, students share the information from individual documents to compile a list of events common to all primary sources they have examined, to consolidate their understanding of the events that occurred. A third class might be necessary when dealing with younger students.

Lesson 2:
Historical Contexts: Learning More About the Donnellys’ World
3 classes
In this three-class lesson, students are first introduced to the idea that historical contexts in which events occurred, as well as the events themselves, can help us “solve” historical mysteries. The teacher provides students with the Master Chart, used throughout the unit, which lists two kinds of evidence in the case – Column A: evidence about the particular circumstances that fateful night (consolidated in the last lesson), and Column B: evidence about the social contexts in which the events occurred. Just as Lesson 1 focuses on Column A, Lesson 2 will concentrate on Column B, to explore some of the evidence relating to the social contexts in which the massacre occurred as a way of understanding not only what happened, but why. Students work in groups to explore one of five areas that provide a broader context for understanding the massacre from the Contexts and Prelude section of the Website, with particular focus on these five areas: Life in Tipperary; Immigration; Lucan/Farming Life, Religious/Ethnic strife; and Violence. They create a poster that represents their research and present it to the class.

Lesson 3:
Consolidating our Understanding: Reading Historical Contexts
1 class
In this one- class lesson, students are first introduced to the concept of inference. Students then visit all of the posters created in the last class, and use the information on it to complete Support Material 6: Lucan Society in the Nineteenth Century. They then work in groups and complete a worksheet to consolidate their understanding of the social contexts and to draw inferences about what aspects of Lucan society might have contributed to the massacre of the Donnellys. The lesson ends with the students brainstorming a list of the most important contributing factors and listing those in Column B of the Master List of Evidence.

Lesson 4:
Writing the News: Refining Students’ Thinking Strategies Through Newspaper Analysis
2 classes
Students are asked to come up with a list of criteria for “fair reporting” in the newspaper. They then apply these criteria to a variety of newspaper reports about the Donnelly massacre. In the second class, students use the criteria and the information they have found to write a fair-minded newspaper article about the incident.

Lesson 5:
Did Vigilante Justice Rule Biddulph Township?
2 classes
Students begin the class with a discussion of recent examples of vigilante justice from the news. They define “vigilantism” and go on to talk about expectations of the due process of justice and define “the rule of law. ” After coming to a consensus about definitions of vigilantism and the rule of law, students then explore a series of documents from the massacre of the Donnellys case to answer the question “Did vigilante ‘justice’ or the rule of law rule Biddulph Township in the nineteenth century?” The lesson concludes with a “horseshoe” debate on the topic.

Lesson 6:
Exploring Personal Experience in History: Writing a Fictional Biography of a Prisoner
2 classes
Over two classes, students will use documents, drawing, plans and maps from the site to write a 400- 500- word biography of a fictional, but historically realistic, prisoner in southwestern Ontario in the late nineteenth century. After agreeing what the qualities of a good fictional biography are, and reading some samples from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, (http://www.biographi.ca/EN/) students will read a selection of the suggested documents and write a short biographical sketch. Students will finish the biography in the second class. Students will use the rubric developed for a good fictional biography and work in pairs to evaluate one other person’s biography.

Lesson 7:
Learning to Read Historical Documents:
Moving from the Truth of Testimony to the Meaning of Evidence
2 classes
Students use the testimony of the only eyewitness to the massacre to learn to read beyond evaluating “the truth” of testimony, to the evaluation of evidence that it might contain. In the first class, they use criteria of historians to evaluate the credibility of the testimony. In a second lesson, they learn that historians do not only evaluate the reliability of eyewitnesses, but also search for evidence in the testimony itself that allows them to make inferences about the wider social world. As they search for evidence and learn to make inferences they provide evidence that might help to explain the massacre in terms of broader social, economic and political phenomena.

Lesson 8:
Is this Event Significant? The Textbook Test
1 class
In this class, students examine their textbook to explore the kinds of issues covered by school history. Using the textbook and other kinds of historical writing, students then debate whether or not this is a historically significant event.
With older students, one might want to explore, as a community of enquiry, with their class what for them makes a historical event significant.

Lesson 9:
Culminating Event: Trial by Historians
3 classes
In this culminating activity, students participate in a mock trial – a trial with a difference. The goal here is not to imitate or reproduce a court of law, but instead a court of history. The emphasis will be on document- based evidence, not only testimony, as students seek to explore the broader issues involved in this case – was racism at the heart of this crime? Or perhaps a culture of violence? Support Material 5, Master Chart of Evidence, will provide a foundation for students as they create a dramatization of the court case that will settle the matter, assigning roles and writing scripts for a final performance in the last class. As an option or an extension activity, students can write and submit individually their finding on the case.

Lesson 1:
Determining the Facts of the Case

Days 1 and 2 of unit
(Two classes, assuming 75-minute periods)

Overview:

Students are first given an overview of the background of the conflicts within the community, and then a brief sketch of the events of February 4, 1880. After explaining the difference between primary and secondary sources, the teacher asks students to work as a group on a series of primary documents, completing detailed worksheets as they explore what happened on the night of February 4. In a second class, students consolidate their understanding of the events by sharing the information they uncovered from individual documents to compile a list of events common to all primary sources.

Support Material used in this Teachers’ Guide:

Support Material 1: “The Historical Context of the Massacre” (Briefing Sheet)
Support Material 2: “Interrogating your Document” (Activity Sheet)
Support Material 3: “What Happened that Night?” (Activity Sheet)
Support Material 4: “What Happened According to Whom?” (Activity Sheet)
(All Support Material can be found at the end of this Unit in the Teacher’s Guide. )

Suggested documents on the Website to use in this lesson:

Secondary Sources:
1. Introductory Essay found in “Home/Welcome”
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/home/indexen.html

2. Timeline
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/massacre/timeline/indexen.html

3. “Massacre of a Family” page
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/massacre/massacreofafamily/indexen.html

4. Introduction to Trial 1
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/massacre/trialone/indexen.html

Primary Documents:
1. Newspapers:
“The Biddulph Tragedy”, The Listowel Banner, February 13, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1774en.html

“The Biddulph Tragedy: Callousness of the Community over the Great Crime”, Globe, February 10, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1775en.html

“Lucan Horror: Magnitude of the Crime Beginning to be Felt”, London Advertiser, February 5, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1777en.html

“The Tragedy: Preparing for the Inquest”, London Advertiser, February 9, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1778en.html

“Horrible Affair at Lucan”, Glencoe Transcript, February 5, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1779en.html

“Horrible Tradedy at Lucan”, Globe, February 5, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1785en.html

“The Biddulph Difficulty”, London Free Press, February 23, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1796en.html

“The Tragedy: Diligent Search being made for Evidence”, London Advertiser, February 10, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1797en.html

“The Biddulph Tragedy: The Cold- Blooded Views of a Neighbor of the Donnellys”, Globe, February 20, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1798en.html

2. Court Documents
Testimony of Johnny O’Connor, Eyewitness, February 21, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/massacre/trialone/responseinquesthearing/1635en.html

Deposition of William Donnelly, February 21, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/massacre/trialone/responseinquesthearing/2068en.html

Deposition of Patrick Whalen, March 31, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/courtdocument/2652en.html

Letter from the County Attorney, to the Attorney General, Oliver Mowat, Charles Hutchinson Letter Book, October 25, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/massacre/trialtwo/trialpreparations/1569en.html

Lesson 1, Class 1

(Day 1 of unit)

Activities:

1. Tell students that what they are about to study, for the next 18 classes, is a horrific act of mass violence. The students will explore a society divided by ethnicity, immigration and by religion, where deep social and ethnic conflicts erupted into violence. They will need to understand this society in its own terms before trying to quickly judge individual behaviours. Review from the preparatory lesson the distinction between primary and secondary sources:

a. Secondary sources are those written or created some time after the event/issues you are studying occurred. Examples include history books, textbooks and movies depicting historical events. They are the attempt of a person or persons to interpret the events/issues etc. that are being studied, usually in the historical context established in part by other historians writing on the same and related topics.

b. Primary sources are the records that are created at or close to the time being studied. Examples include letters, diaries, census reports, newspaper reports, shopping lists, government reports. They may or may not have been created for the benefit of posterity, and they may or may not have been created to answer the questions you might find interesting or relevant (for example, a personal journal may have been written to help an individual clarify their thoughts about their upcoming marriage. As a historian, you might find and use evidence in this journal about dietary habits of young women, as well as finding evidence of what at least one person thought about marriage. Keeping a record of food was not the journal author’s intent, and neither was it their desire to create a record for historians about marriage, but you might read it for either or both kinds of evidence.)

2. Explain that in this unit, thanks to a special project called the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, you are going to explore the massacre of the “Black” Donnellys in February 1880. The project has gathered and digitized primary source material related to the case, including the transcripts of the trials, and the testimony of witnesses. The big question in this unit is “What Killed the Donnellys?” In order to answer this question, they will need to ask, What happened on that night? Who were the murderers? Why did they do it? What does the massacre tell us about ideas of justice, of racism, of violence, and the strains of immigrant life? What can we learn from this case about what daily life was like so many years ago? In working through this unit, they will also be learning the skills historians use to write history. Students will work with the Material historians work with, and will see for themselves the difficult choices historians have to make when they write their histories, including what gets chosen to appear in your textbooks.

3. Explain to students that our first step, as historians, is to “define the scope of our inquiry” – to figure out what we need to learn more about in order to understand this case, which they will do after they get an overview of the case. Paraphrase Support Material 1: “The Historical Context of the Massacre”, to students/set the stage. The students’ first task will be to discover what the events of that night were. Then, the next class will have them finding out why they occurred.

4. Ask students to read the short introductory essays and the Timeline of events listed under Secondary Sources above. Ask students what distinguishes these as secondary sources.

5. Divide students into groups of two, give each pair one document from the list above, noting that there are two document types: newspapers and court records. On an overhead, show the students the Master Chart that has two columns – Column A: Specific Events of the Massacre and Column B: Contexts and Explanations. Explain that for this lesson, students will be working on Column A only, trying to determine what happened the night of February 4. As a first step, students will work in pairs with one primary document, completing Support Material 2: “Interrogating Your Document” (Activity Sheet) to get a sense of what kinds of information the document contains, as well as to ascertain what happened on the night of February 4, 1880.

Ask the students: What do your documents tell you about what happened? What do you need to know more about? You can give examples of 5Ws and HOW and also emphasize broader social and historical contexts

6. Homework: Ask students to complete Support Material 2 before next class. Ask students to familiarize themselves with the project Website (http://www.canadianmysteries.ca) and/or to re-read the documents distributed in class.

Lesson 1, Class 2

(Day 2 of unit)

1. Explain that students are now going to work to create a detailed timeline of what happened the night of February 4, working first in pairs, and then in larger groups, to find some point of agreement and disagreement in the descriptions of events.

2. Working in their pairs from last class, students transfer the events (Question 5) from Support Material 2 to Support Material 3: What Happened that Night?. Model this step on an overhead.

3. When students have completed this transfer, they are ready to move into larger groups. Make sure students hold on to Support Material 2: Interrogating your Document as it will be used in a later lesson.

4. Jigsaw exercise – Move the students into groups of six – their home groups for the unit. They spend the next half hour teaching other students in their group what is in their own document, using Support Material 2, completed in the last class, as a guide. At the conclusion of each pair’s discussion, students work as a group to transpose the information in Question 5, Support Material 2, to complete Support Material 3: What Happened that Night? for each document.

5. Ask to generate one list from the three pairs Support Material 4: What Happened According to Whom? Try to get the three different type of documents (newspapers, inquest, trial) consolidated into this home group. The pairs will have some common questions and some original contributions (this should be quick – it’s even faster if they begin the class with the desks already organized into “home” groups of 6). (Part of the purpose of this exercise is to generate appreciation for varying perspectives different people bring to the same problem).

6. Share with class. Working as a class, the students and teacher compile a chart that identifies events upon which all the sources considered agree, and the points on which people differ. This should be transferred to Support Material 5: Master Chart of Evidence, at the beginning of the next class, and remain at the front of the class throughout the unit.)

Lesson 2:

Historical Contexts
Learning More About the Donnelly’s World

(Three classes)
BOOK LIBRARY TIME FOR THIS CLASS

Overview:

In this three-class lesson, students are first introduced to the idea that historical contexts in which events occurred, as well as the events themselves, can help us “solve” historical mysteries. The teacher provides students with the Master Chart, used throughout the unit, which lists two kinds of evidence in the case – Column A: evidence about the particular circumstances that fateful night (consolidated in the last lesson), and Column B: evidence about the social contexts in which the events occurred. Just as Lesson 1 focuses on Column A, Lesson 2 will concentrate on Column B, to explore some of the evidence related to social contexts in which the massacre occurred as a way of understanding not only what happened, but why. Students work in groups to explore one of five areas that provide a broader context for understanding the massacre from the Contexts and Prelude section of the Website, with particular focus on these five areas: Life in Tipperary; Immigration; Lucan/Farming Life; Religious/Ethnic strife; and Violence. They create a poster that represents their research, and present it to the class.

Support Material:

Support Material 5: “The Master Chart of Evidence” (Activity Sheet)

Lesson 2, Class 1

(Day 3 of unit)

Activities:

1. Introduce Support Material 5: The Master Chart of Evidence. Explain that historians, like detectives, do not only look at the direct evidence about “what happened” as they investigate a crime, they also examine the contexts in which it occurred for important clues. Transfer the description of events from the chart used yesterday, to Column A of Support Material 5 (or have it completed for students on an overhead at the beginning of class).

2. Organize students into their home groups of six again. Each group will research and create a poster on one of the following topics, which will hang in the classroom until the completion of the unit. Primary documents can be found on the Website. As these are junior level secondary students, they will need some direction with respect to research strategies and finding their secondary sources. To expedite matters, the instructor/librarian can identify and/or set aside appropriate textbooks and reference works (the Canadian Historical Atlas is invaluable for demographic information).

a. Life in Tipperary: How would you characterize life in early nineteenth-century Tipperary? Culture? Society? Economy? Politics?

Suggested Documents:
Newspaper Article, “Outrages in Tipperary, Ireland”, Nenagh Gazette, April 30, 1842
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1400en.html

Parliamentary Papers, “Outrages in Tipperary”, Parliamentary Debates, Great Britain, May 20, 1842
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1490en.html

Painting "The Irish Distress, Market in the South of Ireland, 1880"
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/photographorpainting/indexen.html

b. Immigration: Why did people leave their homes, and what did they hope to find in Canada? In your evaluation, were people primarily driven out of Ireland, or were they drawn to Canada? Provide details from the site to support your argument.

Suggested Documents:
Pamphlet, author unknown, c. 1863 “For the Clergy of Ireland Only: The Evils of Wholesale and Improvident Emigration from Ireland”
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1067en.html

Newspaper Scrapbook “Emigration or no Emigration: To the People of Ireland”
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1095en.html

Letter from Robert and Mary Ritchie to James Ritchie, January 26, 1847.
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1062en.html

Emigrant Agent’s Book, Kingston, date unknown
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1482en.html

Chief Emigrant Agents Book, February 1, 1842
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1481en.html

Newspaper Article, “An Irish Immigrant: “The Loose Way in which Dominion Assisted Passages are Granted”, The Globe, June 27, 1881
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1486en.html

Newspaper Article, “Emigration: Canada a More Desirable Country than the United States”, London Free Press, September 23, 1881
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/1637en.html

Charts of Place of Birth, selected counties in Canada West, 1851, ‘61, ’71, ’81
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/photographorpainting/indexen.html

c. Lucan/Farming: What was daily life like for those living around Lucan in the nineteenth century? How did people make a living? What factors influenced daily life? What brought the community together, and what issues and events divided them?

Suggested Documents:
Introduction: Lucan and Farming Life (secondary source)
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/lucanandfarminglife/indexen.html

Excerpt from a 1912 History of Biddulph, The Township of Biddulph
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/lucanandfarminglife/1108en.html

Excerpt from Lucan Town, History of Middlesex, Canada,(1889)
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/lucanandfarminglife/1149en.html

Diary of William Johnson, excerpts, 1841-45
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/lucanandfarminglife/1066en.html

Report County of Huron by Mr. Thomas McQueen of Goderich (1858)
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/lucanandfarminglife/1134en.html

d. Religious and Ethnic Relations in Ontario, 1840-1900: Who were the main religious and ethnic groups in Ontario in these years, and how did they get along together? If there were problems and conflicts, what were these based on?

Suggested Documents:
Introduction (secondary source)
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/religionandethnicstrife/indexen.html

Newspaper Scrapbook, “A Rabid Orangeman” 1869
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/religionandethnicstrife/1132en.html

Newspaper Article, “ Local History”, The Catholic Record, November 22, 1878
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/religionandethnicstrife/1458en.html

Newspaper Article, “What Shall be Our Future?”, Irish Canadian, February 11, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/religionandethnicstrife/1506en.html

Newspaper Article, “Are Irish Catholics a Menace?”, Irish Canadian, December 17 1879
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/religionandethnicstrife/1511en.html

Newspaper Article, “ Voices of the People: An Answer to Biddulph”, London Advertiser, May 2, 1879
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/religionandethnicstrife/2094en.html

e. Violence: Was Lucan a violent place? Who participated in violent acts? What were they fighting about? What individuals, groups or institutions tried to contain and control them?

Suggested Documents:
Newspaper Article, “Riot in Biddulph”, London Free Press, January 9, 1858
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/2095en.html

Newspaper Article: “Juvenile Crime and Criminals”, London Free Press, March 10, 1856
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1602en.html

Letter to Sir John A. MacDonald re: Biddulph Murder, January 24, 1860
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/privateletter/1427en.html

Newspaper Article: “Murderous Attack: A Lucan Stage Driver ‘Clubbed’”, London Free Press, December 4, 1875
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/2153en.html

Newpaper Article, “Old Fashioned Fight in Lucan”, London Advertiser, March 8, 1877
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/2074en.html

Newspaper Article: “Another Outrage: The Lucan Ku-Klux-Klan on the Rampage”, London Advertiser, May 28, 1877
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1612en.html

Newspaper Article: “The Gang to Be Suppressed: A State of Affairs that has gone on long enough”, London Advertiser, September 19, 1877
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1613en.html

Newspaper Article: “Increase of Crime”, Listowel Banner, March 5, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1606en.html

Newspaper Article: “Biddulph in Days Gone By: a record of thirty- five years prepared by William Donnelly”, Globe, September 10, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1795en.html

3. Homework: Complete researching questions assigned to individuals by group members, if necessary.

Lesson 2, Class 2

(Day 4 of unit)

Overview:

Students return to their home groups and assemble their poster on Bristol board for the group. The posters should describe the context area they have researched. Students also need to attach one primary document – picture, chart or written document – that does the best job of explaining how their context area contributed to the massacre.

If available, you can have your students create a PowerPoint presentation instead of the poster. Students can then present their PowerPoint presentation to the rest of the class, as they would have done for the poster.

Lesson 2, Class 3

(Day 5 of unit)

Student presentations:

Presentations are short (eight-minute news flashes) and then the posters are affixed to the classroom walls for the duration of the unit (unless students have made PowerPoint presentations. If needed, they can print their slides and have them set as a poster for the rest of the class).

Optional assessment:

Posters can be assigned a group mark, group members can also evaluate their own and others’ contributions to the project.

Lesson 3:
Consolidating our Understanding,
Reading Historical Contexts

(One class)

Overview:

In this one-class lesson, students are first introduced to the concept of inference. Students then view all of the posters created in the last class, and use the information on it to complete Support Material 6: Lucan Society in the Nineteenth Century. They then work in groups to consolidate their understanding of the social contexts, and to draw inferences about what aspects of Lucan society might have contributed to the massacre of the Donnellys, as they complete a worksheet. The lesson ends with the students brainstorming a list of the most important contributing factors and listing those in Column B of the Master List of Evidence.

Support Material used in this lesson:

Support Material 6: “Lucan Society in the Nineteenth Century” (Activity Sheet)
Support Material 7: “Drawing Inferences from Social Contexts” (Activity Sheet)

Lesson 3, Class 1

(Day 6 of unit)

Activities:

1. Set the stage: Choose one student before the class begins to be a friendly victim. Tell him or her that s/he will just have to follow a few very simple directions. Using no words, gesture for the class to be silent, then crook your finger to the student you have selected, beckoning them to come to you. Gesture for them to stop, then gesture with your hand or hands for them to turn round in a circle, then gesture for them to return to their seat. Ask the students how the student knew what to do, even though you used no words. Point out that the student inferred what to do from the sign language you used. Conclude that a lot of historical knowledge is necessarily inferred from various kinds of evidence – the past is gone, so we cannot learn about it directly – but if there is enough culturally situated knowledge remaining, we can make inferences. Fortunately, many aspects of the past leave behind evidence that we can make inferences about.

2. Explain that students will move from their study of what happened that night, covered in the last class, to begin to explore the question of “why?” They will revisit some documents from the previous class, and look at some new ones, seeking evidence of problems within the community that might help to infer why this massacre happened.

3. Working individually, students are given Support Material 6: “Lucan Society in the Nineteenth Century”, and are asked to use the posters created last class to complete the chart. Students spend 10-15 minutes viewing the posters and taking notes.

4. Move students into groups: students are put into expert groups (five expert groups are asked to complete Support Material 7: “Drawing Inferences from Social Contexts”.

5. As a class, students discuss the answer to the final question: what aspect or aspects of Lucan society and culture might help to explain why the Donnelly family was murdered? These answers are entered into the Master Chart under Column B.

Lesson 4:
Writing the News,
Refining Students’ Thinking Strategies Through Newspaper Analysis

Days 7 and 8 of unit
(Two classes)

Overview:

Students are asked to come up with a list of criteria for “fair reporting” in the newspaper. They then apply these criteria to a variety of newspaper reports about the Donnelly massacre. In the second class, students use the criteria and the information they have found to write a fair-minded newspaper article about the incident.

Support Material:

Support Material 8: “Is this fair reporting?” (Activity Sheet)

Lesson 4, Class 1

(Day 7 of unit)

Preparation:

Students are asked to bring in to class newspaper reports about the same leading story in the news, preferably one dealing with political acts of violence.

Activities:

1. In groups or pairs, students examine the newspaper reports, and are asked “How do you know which report is the most reliable?” Legitimate responses might include “must include more than one point of view,” or “must not use exaggerated or inflammatory language. ”

2. As a group, students develop criteria for fair reporting. This list is written on the board and should include the following:
— Is more than one point of view reported?
— Does the writer use exaggeration and inflammatory language?
— What is the information-to-opinion ratio (and how do you tell the difference)?

3. Students complete Support Material 8: “Is this fair reporting?” to evaluate their newspaper report.

4. Group discussion: The class discusses which contemporary newspaper reports are fair, and students are told that similar criteria can be applied to incidents in the past.

5. Students use Support Material 8 to describe and then evaluate two of the newspaper reports on the Donnelly massacre.

6. Working in small groups, students then share their evaluations of the historic reports with others in their group.

Lesson 4, Class 2

(Day 8 of unit)

Activities:

1. Using the “evidence” part of the chart, students then use these criteria to write a fair- minded newspaper account of the Massacre. These are written up in newspaper style. Students use Support Material 8 to provide a peer evaluation of the newspaper story by each group, which can be named the “editor’s test.” Once the newspaper articles have undergone the changes required by the editors, they are compiled into a book of newspaper clippings about the events.

Extension:

Here are some documents that complain about how newspapers reported incidents:
“Biddulph Mission: The Late Bazaar-False Impressions Corrected”, The Catholic Mission, October 24, 1879
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1457en.html

“Prison Regulations”, London Advertiser, June 4, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1789en.html

“The London Advertiser”, The Irish Canadian, June 6, 1877
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1510en.html

“The Voices of the People: Affairs in Biddulph”, London Advertiser, June 25, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1788en.html

“The Feeling in Lucan”, London Free Press, March 3, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1799en.html

“The Kennedy Family: To the Editor of the Free Press”, London Free Press, March 6, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1801en.html

“The Donnelly Inquest: Further about the Conduct of the Lucan Jury” letter to the Editor of the Free Press”, London Free Press, March 6, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1802en.html

“The Biddulph Affair: A Common Sense Letter from ‘Justitia’”, London Free Press, March 19, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1807en.html

“Letter from Elginfield: to the Editor of the Irish Canadian”, Irish Canadian, March 28, 1881
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1838en.html

“Letter from Biddulph: to the Editor of the Irish Canadian”, Irish Canadian, April 21, 1881
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1840en.html

Lesson 5:

Did Vigilante “Justice” or the Rule of Law
Govern Biddulph Township?
Learning to Read Historical Documents

Days 9 and 10 of unit
(Two classes)

Overview:

Students begin the class with a discussion of recent examples of vigilante justice from the news. They define “vigilantism” and go on to talk about expectations of the due process of justice, and define “the rule of law.” After coming to a consensus about definitions of vigilantism and the rule of law, students then explore a series of documents from the massacre of the Donnellys case to answer the question “Did vigilante ‘justice’ or the rule of law govern Biddulph Township in the nineteenth century?” The lesson concludes with a “horseshoe” debate on the topic.

Support Material:

Support Material 9: “Vigilantism” (Briefing Sheet)
Support Material 10: “What is the Rule of Law?” (Briefing Sheet)
Support Material 11: “Finding the Evidence for Law and Order” (Activity Sheet)
Support Material 12: “Drawing Conclusions about Biddulph Township” (Activity Sheet)

Lesson 5, Class 1

(Day 9 of unit)

Activities:

1. Begin by presenting students with a scenario from the Internet or newspaper about vigilante justice
see for example http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3710/is_199402/ai_n8724280

2. Discuss as a class some of the reasons why people are resorting to “taking the law into their own hands,” and some of the resulting problems.

3. Distribute and discuss Support Material 9: “Vigilantism” and discuss. Explain that vigilantism exists in opposition to one of the three fundamental principles of law in Canada. Discuss these, and The Rule of Law. Ask students what it is, and then write the definition, with criteria, on the board. Distribute or put on overhead Support Material 10: What is the Rule of Law?.

4. Divide students into groups of two: Assign one, two or three documents from the list below per group (depending on length). Each group should skim the document and get a sense of the overall testimony. Give students the background sheet as well (from the Cast of Characters Section of the Website). Each pair should analyze their document or documents, looking for evidence from which they can make inferences (as in Lesson 3 above) about the way that “the law” did or did not function in Biddulph Township. Students will use Support Material 11: “Finding the Evidence for Law and Order” to help them keep track of the evidence and their inferences.

Lesson 5, Class 2

(Day 10 of unit)

Activities:

1. Remind students that their task for today will be to come to a balanced judgment, based on the evidence from the documents, about whether Biddulph Township was governed by vigilante “justice” or by the rule of law.

2. Begin by moving from pairs to home groups: Each pair should then share their findings with their home group, so that students have a sense of the variety of documents and the evidence they contain. Students will complete Support Material 12: “Drawing Conclusions” about Biddulph Township. Students will discuss their findings as they come to a conclusion about the nature of justice in the Township.

3. Horseshoe debate: Students stand in a horseshoe-shaped semicircle. The teacher defines one end of the horseshoe as “Biddulph Township governed by vigilante justice” and the other end as “Biddulph Township governed by the rule of law,” and the students arrange themselves accordingly. The teacher asks each student to declare his or her position, with only two rules: no rude or abusive talk when disagreements occur; and every statement must have at least one piece of evidence from primary documents to support the conclusion. Let the debate begin!

Lesson 6:
Exploring Personal Experience in History:
Writing a Fictional Biography of a Prisoner in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Day 11 and 12 of the unit
(Two classes)

Overview

Over two classes, students will use documents, drawing, plans and maps from the site to write a 400- 500-word biography of a fictional, but historically realistic, prisoner in southwestern Ontario in the late nineteenth century. After agreeing what the qualities of a good fictional biography are, and reading some samples from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography,
(http://www.biographi.ca/EN/) students will read a selection of the suggested documents and write a short biographical sketch. Students will finish the biography in the second class. Students will use the rubric developed for a good fictional biography and work in pairs to evaluate one other person’s biography.

Support Material:

Support Material 13: “Evaluating Racism” (Activity Sheet)

Lesson 7:
Learning to Read Historical Documents:
Moving from the Truth of Testimony to the Meaning of Evidence

(Two classes)

Overview:

Students use the testimony of the only eyewitness to the massacre to learn to read beyond evaluating “the truth” of testimony, to the evaluation of evidence that it might contain. In the first class, they use criteria of historians to evaluate the credibility of the testimony. In a second lesson, they learn that historians do not only evaluate the reliability of eyewitnesses, but also search for evidence in the testimony itself that allows them to make inferences about the wider social world. As they search for evidence and learn to make inferences, they provide evidence that might help to explain the massacre in terms of broader social, economic and political phenomena.

Support Material:

Support Material 14: “Evaluating the Credibility of Testimony” (Activity Sheet)
Support Material 5: “Master Chart of Evidence” (Activity Sheet)
(Optional Support Material 3: “What Happened that Night?”)

Lesson 7, Class 1

(Day 13 of the unit)

Activities:

1. Explain that as they try to understand what happened, and what it meant in the past and to the present, historians use a number of techniques and strategies for finding, evaluating and weighing their evidence. Part of what historians do in their investigations of evidence is to evaluate testimony. In the first part of this lesson, students will learn some good strategies for weighing and evaluating the testimony from the past. The focus of today’s lesson will be an in-depth analysis of the testimony of the only eyewitness to the murder of the Donnellys: the boy James O’Connor who hid under the bed during the massacre.

2. Display and go over the seven criteria in Support Material 14: Criteria for Evaluating the Credibility of Testimony:
— Is there any reason to suspect that the witness is lying? What reason(s)?
— Is there any reason to think that the evidence has been tampered with?
— Is there any reason to think that the witness is exaggerating unduly?
— Is the testimony internally consistent (or does the witness contradict himself?)
— Does the testimony contradict testimony of other witnesses (as explored in lesson 4)?
— Is the testimony consistent with what you know of the historical contexts (culture, economy, politics etc. from lessons 2 and 3)?
— Are there any other good reasons that this testimony should be rejected?

3. Explain that although the courts ultimately rejected James O’Connor’s testimony, many people feel that the courts were corrupt or simply made a mistake. Students will make up their own minds as they apply these criteria to the O’Connor testimony.

4. Assign students in pairs to analyze the document, using Support Material 14: “Criteria for Evaluating the Credibility of Testimony”. Students may also benefit from completing Support Material 3: “What Happened that Night?” (from Lesson 1) to organize their understanding of the testimony.

5. Give students ample time to read the document and organize their findings, and to complete Support Material 14.

6. Arrange seating in a U-shape formation. One by one, students will present the results of their findings, and then seat themselves on the continuum “Credible Evidence to Not Credible Evidence” according to what evaluation of the document they have arrived at.

Lesson 7, Class 2

(Day 14 of the unit)

Activities:

1. Hand out Support Material 5: “Master Chart of Events”, and ask students to transfer the significant portions of James O’Connor’s testimony to the left- hand column. When they have finished, ask them what might go in the right-hand 2 columns.

2. Explain that historians do not stop at evaluating the evidence or reliability of witnesses. They also use the testimony of “eyewitness” accounts to “see” beyond what the person giving the testimony – or even those listening to the testimony – was interested in. Provide an example from O’Connor’s testimony that might have already caused comment – like the fact that people slept in the same bed, even though they were not involved in any sexual activity, or any other detail. Explain that little pieces of information can be used to build up knowledge about life in another time.

3. Work in pairs to complete Support Material 5, observing details, and raising possible inferences from them. When they have listed at least three pieces of evidence about the time period, and possible inferences they might make from them, ask students to choose the most strange or interesting to tell the class.

4. Emphasize that much of what historians do when looking at a document is simply to notice and raise questions, questions that can perhaps be answered at a later date from primary sources, or perhaps from reading more secondary sources about that time and place.

5. As a culminating activity, ask students to write a one-paragraph essay describing any evidence, inferred from that testimony that might help to explain the massacre in terms of broader social, economic and political phenomena.

Lesson 8:
Is this Event Significant?
The Textbook Test

Day 15 of the unit
(One class)

Overview:

In this class, students examine their textbook to explore the kinds of issues covered by school history. Using the textbook and other kinds of historical writing, students then debate whether or not this is a historically significant event.

Activities:

1. In pairs, have students examine the coverage of nineteenth-century Ontario in their textbook. Note the presence (most likely absence) of the Donnelly story. What topics are given attention in the 1840-1880 period?

2. In groups, ask students: “Is the massacre of the Donnellys an important historical event?” Why/why not? Does your textbook cover it? Should your textbook cover it? Do you think any other history books cover issues like this?

3. From this discussion, students can generate criteria of what makes an event or an issue historically significant.

4. Students can debate the following question: should all historically significant issues and events be taught in school?

Lesson 9:
Culminating Event: Trial by Historians
(or What Killed the Donnellys?)

(Days 16-18 of unit)

Overview:

In this culminating activity, students participate in a mock trial – a trial with a difference. The goal here is not to imitate or reproduce a court of law, but instead a court of history. The emphasis will be on document- based evidence, not only testimony, as students seek to explore the broader issues involved in this case – was racism at the heart of this crime? Or perhaps a culture of violence? Support Material 5: “Master Chart of Evidence” will provide a foundation for students as they create a dramatization of the court case that will settle the matter, assigning roles and writing scripts for a final performance in the last class. As an option or an extension activity, students can write and submit individually their finding on the case.

Activities:

1. Ask the students in a whole-class discussion what they think killed the Donnellys, and why.

2. Divide the class into four groups and present each one with one of the nineteenth-century explanations provided by historians. (You may need to summarize these for students.)

3. Ask each group to evaluate the theory. Each group appoints a leader who summarizes the explanation for the class and gives the group’s assessment of it.

4. Introduce the idea of the mock trial to the class. Explain that as a class, they will take on the roles of the prosecution, the defence or witnesses. Ask staff, parents, or students from another class to take on the role of jury members during the actual trial. The trial will be held using the rules of evidence of the historian, and the accused will be “the Township of Biddulph in 1880. ”

5. Witnesses: Assign no more that 1/3 of the class to the witness pool. Their job will be to provide evidence about a particular historical trend, issue or event.

6. Prosecution: Assign 1/3 of the class to the Prosecution. The Prosecution will have only one class to decide what factors they are going to argue are the most significant. They must provide the witnesses with a list of what evidence they will use to prove their points by the end of the second preparation class. The prosecution team will need to prepare questions and assign lawyers to the case.

7. Defence: Assign 1/3 of the class to the defence. The defence team must be prepared to defend Biddulph Township from accusations of generalized historical phenomena at work, and must build an argument that has solely to do with individual or accidental causes, that have nothing to do with historical trends, issues, phenomena. They must provide the witnesses with a list of who they will call by the end of the second preparation class. The defence team will need to prepare questions and assign lawyers to the case.

8. On the day before the trial, review trial procedure with the class. The teacher or principal can play the historian presiding over the trial.

9. On the day of the trial, arrange to have gowns if possible. Limit speaking times to ensure a reasonable resolution. Your panel of jurors may present their findings the same or the following day.
As an optional end of unit, students could be asked to submit an individual argument as to who they feel killed the Donnellys, supported by the appropriate evidence.

SUPPORT MATERIAL

Support Material 1, Briefing Sheet

The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys in Historical Context

The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys in Historical Context:
The notorious Donnellys were an Irish family who emigrated from Tipperary, Ireland in the 1840s. Like thousands of other Irish immigrants fleeing the devastating potato famine, the extreme poverty and the social unrest in their home country, they settled in rural southern Ontario. The Donnellys took up land in Huron County, and chose to make their home along the Roman Line in Biddulph Township, so named by the Irish Roman Catholics who settled it. And the Donnellys, like most of their neighbours, were Roman Catholic immigrants from around Tipperary, Ireland. James and Johannah Donnelly became squatters (that is, people who took up their land without properly registering their ownership or paying for it).

The Donnelly Family in Biddulph Township:
By the 1850s, conflict, much of it violent, characterized life in Biddulph Township. The community was plagued by sheep killings, arson, numerous fights and brawls, and by murder. And by the 1850s, the Donnellys (and their children James Jr. , William, John, Patrick, Michael, Robert, Thomas and Jenny) had established a reputation for picking a fight over just about anything. And some of the residents of the Roman Line in Biddulph Township (all of whom were Catholics), came to blame the Donnellys (Catholics, but friends with Protestants in the area) for every ill that befell the community. An old adage stated: “If a stone fell from heaven, they’d blame it on the Donnellys.” Troubles escalated in 1857 when James Donnelly Sr. killed Patrick Farrell, who had purchased the land the Donnelly clan had illegally called their own. To avoid punishment, James hid from authorities for almost a year, sometimes disguised as a woman. He eventually grew tired of the charade and turned himself in to the police. James Donnelly served seven years for his crime. The death of Patrick Farrell served only to strengthen some members of the community’s hatred of the Donnellys. But, as court records confirm, the Donnellys were not alone in committing crimes; they lived in a community plagued by arson, assaults and a culture of violence.

The community was not satisfied at the way justice was administered through legal channels in Biddulph Township. A group of disgruntled townspeople established a vigilante committee as a substitute for a legal trial, conviction and sentencing. Their purpose was to punish the wayward Donnellys whose crimes had escalated in the 1870s. Finally, on February 4, 1880 the Donnelly farm was burned to the ground. The bodies of James, his beloved Johannah, son Tom and niece Bridget were in the ashes. Another son, John, lay dead in a separate murder the same night. Evidence suggested that a cruel and vicious mob, a breakaway group of a society called, ironically, “The Peace Society,” was to blame. Despite a great deal of evidence (including at least one eyewitness) and two trials, no one was ever found guilty of the crimes.

Conflict in Biddulph Township: Background to the Massacre
Historians do not agree about the root causes of the conflicts that existed between neighbours in Biddulph Township between 1840 and 1880, but no one disagrees that the township was plagued by crimes, violence and hatred. There are three different, but related, explanations for the conflict that ended in the horrific massacre of the Donnellys. Some historians explain the massacre by arguing that the conflicts that escalated into mass murder were the result of ethnic and religious differences brought from Ireland, where centuries of religious conflict, poverty and oppression had pitted Catholics against Protestants. Other historians argue that the cause was less about religious differences than it was about a tradition of lawless violence that religious differences had created. Still others argue that the root of the problem related to land ownership. Let’s look at these in greater detail.

i. The Ethnic Conflict Explanation: Background
Religious conflict in Ireland had originated with Oliver Cromwell’s conquest of that country in 1695. His decision to settle wealthy English Protestants in Ireland created a class of powerful Protestant landlords who extracted huge rents from the poor Irish Catholics who farmed their land. Many of the English landlords did not even live in Ireland, and thereby did not maintain their lands, or care for their tenants in times of hardship as had been the custom. The Irish Catholics were even denied the right to own land. Eventually they lost even their customary right to farm “common” lands (lands that were used by everyone in common to raise livestock or crops). Without customary forms of economic support, and with ever higher rents, Irish Catholics were driven into ever greater poverty. Many were forced to rely on potatoes as their only source of food.

In the mid-eighteen century (around 1750) a secret society called “The Whiteboys” was created by poor Catholics to exact revenge on the wealthy Protestant landlord class for the suffering the Catholics endured. The Whiteboys insisted that members swear an oath that they would have no contact with Protestants; they were not to trade with them, work with them willingly, or even talk with them. As time went by, the Whiteboys not only terrorized Protestants, but any Catholics who associated with Protestants, killing their livestock, burning their houses and barns, and even resorting to murder. Those Catholics who associated with Protestants, or who objected to the reign of terror and violence of the Whiteboys, were called in Biddulph Township “Blackfeet” (for more detail on this term and its origins, see http://www.donnellys.com/Questions.htm). In the 1850s, Biddulph Township held an almost perfect balance of Whiteboys and Blackfeet. As you might suppose from the term “Black” Donnelly, James Donnelly patronized both Catholic and Protestant businesses, and he even made a financial donation to the building of the local St. James’s Anglican Church.

ii. The Culture of Lawless Violence Explanation: Background
Other historians have examined the history of religious violence in Ireland – violence that was particularly intense around Tipperary – and do not deny that violence was originally sparked by the terrible injustices that Protestants inflicted on Catholics from the time of Cromwell’s conquest of 1695 until Irish Catholics were “emancipated” in 1829. They argue, however, that by the time Irish Catholics, including the Donnellys, moved from Tipperary to Biddulph Township, Ontario in the 1840s, differences between Catholics and Protestants were less important than the culture of violence that defined Irish Catholic society. Religious differences and religious tolerance were simply excuses, these historians argue, for secret societies like the Whiteboys to impose their own “laws” on their neighbours. The culture of violence was based on the decision of secret societies to take the law into their own hands, convicting and sentencing those who disobeyed them. They were, in other words, vigilantes (for more background on vigilantes, see Lesson 5 in the unit included in this Teacher’s Guide, and http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/300/300lect10.htm)

iii. The Land Conflict Explanation: Background
Still other historians argue that issues related to land ownership were to blame for the numerous acts of violence to people and property within the community. In Biddulph Township, like other areas of Canada in the nineteenth century, it was in part the promise of land ownership that had encouraged thousands of families to leave their native country. For many peoples arriving in Canada in the nineteenth century, it was no longer possible in their native countries to own land, due to a variety of economic and political factors. Canada, however, had an abundance of land that was cheap by any standard. Canadian laws regulated how land was to be purchased, and often it dictated what settlers had to do to their lands in order to buy it at cheap prices. But sometimes these laws were not followed, and some settlers, like the Donnellys, did not legally purchase their land before living on it. And laws were not always applied equally to all purchasers. Some historians argue the feuds in Biddulph Township were related to questionable practices relating to land.

Support Material 2, Activity Sheet

Interrogating Your Document

Your Name: ______________________________________________________________
Document Heading and No. : _____________________________________________________

1. Do you know what type of document this is? How do you know?
Newspaper_______ Diary_______ Letter_______ Trial Record _______ Other_______

2. Do you know the date this document was created? How do you know?

3. Do you know who wrote this document? (name, heading, job, ethnic group). How do you know?

4. Who do you think is the intended audience of this document?
Friends and/or family ________
Legal/justice system officials and/or jurors ________
Government officials ________
Religious officials ________
The general public ________

5. What events are described in this document?
(Use point form, chronological order, and the back of this sheet if necessary.)

6. How did the author of this document know about the events he is describing? (e. g. , Did he see them himself? Hear about them from others?)

7. What other facts or information do you need to know about the events described here before understanding who and what killed the Donnellys?

Support Material 9, Briefing Sheet

Vigilantism

Definition:
The word vigilante is of Spanish origin and means “watchman” or “guard,” but its Latin root is vigil, which means “awake” or “observant. ” When it is said that someone is taking the law into their own hands, this usually means that they are engaging in vigilante activity, or vigilantism, although sometimes the phrase “taking the law into your own hands” is used to describe what some people call a “secret police” force.

History of Vigilantism
American vigilantism arose in the Deep South and Old West during the 1700s when, in the absence of a formal criminal justice system, certain volunteer associations (called vigilance committees) got together to blacklist, harass, banish, “tar and feather,” flog, mutilate, torture, or kill people who were perceived as threats to their communities, families, or privileges (Karmen 1968). By the late 1700s, these committees became known as lynch mobs because almost all the time, the punishment handed out was a summary execution by hanging. In some states, like South Carolina, these mobs had exotic names like the Regulators. During the 1800s, most American towns with seaports had vigilante groups that worked to identify and punish suspected thieves, alcoholics, and gamblers among recently arrived immigrants. The state of Montana, however, holds the record for the bloodiest vigilante movement from 1863 to 1865 when hundreds of suspected horse thieves were rounded up and killed in massive mob action. Texas, Montana, California, and the Deep South, especially the city of New Orleans, were hotbeds of vigilante activity in American history.
http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/300/300lect10.htm

Support Material 10, Briefing Sheet

What is The Rule of Law in Canada?

“The rule of law means that everyone is subject to the ordinary law of the land. This is so, regardless of public prominence or governmental status. It requires the law to be applied equally to all, without fear or favour and in an even- handed manner between government and citizen. It ensures that all are equal before the law. The rule of law is not the law of the ruler. There is no exemption from the ordinary law of the state for agents of government. No one, no matter how important or powerful , is above the law. ”
Donald J. Sorochan Q. C. , “The Apec Protest, the Rule of Law, and Civilian Oversight of Canada's National Police Force,” Pepper in Our Eyes, the Apec Affair ,Wesley Pue, editor, UBC Press 2000, Vancouver, Toronto ISBN O-7748-0780-6 paperback, p. 57 Cited in Globalisation: The Destruction of the Rule of Law by Connie Fogal, Defense of Canadian Liberty Committee, Centre for Research on Globalisation http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/FOG111A.html

The “rule of law” is mentioned in the preamble to the Constitution Act, 1982. It refers to no one single idea, but to a cluster of ideas. It is a term often associated with the English legal scholar Albert Venn Dicey who described the “rule of law” as a paramount characteristic of the English Constitution. It was comprised of three “kindred conceptions:” 1) that government must follow the law that it makes; 2) that no one is exempt from the operation of the law — that it applies equally to all 3) that general rights emerge out of particular cases decided by the courts. Submitted to “Constitutional Keywords” by: David Schneiderman http://www.law.ualberta.ca/ccskeywords/rule_law.html

Responsible government and federalism are two cornerstones of our system of government. There is a third, without which neither of the first two would be safe: the rule of law. What does the rule of law mean? It means that everyone is subject to the law; that no one, no matter how important or powerful, is above the law – not the government; not the Prime Minister, or any other Minister; not the Queen or the Governor General or any Lieutenant- Governor; not the most powerful bureaucrat; not the armed forces; not Parliament itself, or any provincial legislature. None of these has any powers except those given to it by law: by the Constitution Act, 1867, or its amendments; by a law passed by Parliament or a provincial legislature; or by the common law of England, which we inherited, and which, though enormously modified by our own Parliament or provincial legislatures, remains the basis of our constitutional law and our criminal law, and the civil law (property and civil rights) of the whole country except Quebec (which has its own civil code). If anyone were above the law, none of our liberties would be safe. What keeps the various authorities from getting above the law, doing things the law forbids, exercising powers the law has not given them? The courts. If they try anything of the sort, they will be brought up short by the courts.
The Parliament of Canada Website:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/rule_of_law_01-e. asp

The Integrated Unit Option

This unit has been designed to be flexible in its application. The suggested social sciences lesson plans have been designed to stand alone, in connection with each other, and readily lend themselves to an expanded unit at the individual teacher's discretion. The integrated components are presented as suggestions only, and will depend upon the availability of time, space, and educational resources. While students are sometimes invited to imagine themselves living in the Canadian past, rarely are they presented with the opportunity to experience elements of this life. Audio visual Material and field trips to sites to witness historical re-enactments can facilitate students’ development of historical empathy, but these resources are not always accessible or relevant to the issue at hand. Adopting an integrated approach facilitates students’ experiences of the various realities of a historical existence.

Any truly integrated unit will develop each component so that it contributes toward the overarching unit goals. In this case, the goal is to exercise critical and informed judgment as to why this event was both neglected and misinterpreted by historians and how it has been re- appropriated in an attempt to improve knowledge about immigrants’ experiences in Canada. Was the event significant at the time, and what is its significance now? Additionally, students will be invited to develop a critically informed awareness of the constructed nature of historical narratives. In pursuing these goals, students will simultaneously broaden their knowledge of the Canadian past, be introduced to the use of historical primary documents, and learn to exercise skills of critical analysis, evaluation, and thinking. This unit offered in the Teacher’s Guide is only partially integrated in that not every suggestion offered here directly engages students in resolving the issue. Students at the senior elementary and junior secondary stages of their education cannot be expected to have the time and academic resources to re-examine every proffered piece of evidence from interdisciplinary perspectives. Nevertheless, each exercise and lesson suggested here draws students further into the case itself, encourages a personal engagement with history, and generates an opportunity to examine history and the social sciences in a more critical and informed manner.

Some Suggested Grade Levels and Subject Areas:

The integrated approach to this unit incorporates a range of subject areas. However, the complete lesson plans offered here have been geared to a narrower student body:

Science Components:

Forensic sciences and criminology are educational fields that are becoming increasingly popular. While the forensic aspects of modern arson investigations were not available in 1880, this unit nevertheless does provide an excellent opportunity to draw students into scientific learning, using forensics as a “hook. ”

Mathematical Components:

Statistics: Introduction to the PRDH Website, to look at demography in Ontario. Uses elementary statistics skills, practices manipulation of numerical data and graphing skills. Students can examine and investigate some of the statistical data available on the Donnelly Website. Uses negative and positive equations to chart numerical data in chronological order. Practice conversion of word data into numerical data for an exercise in applied mathematics.

Geographical Components:

This case could be used to explore the physical, urban or human/cultural geography of southwestern Ontario. Online (and on-site) Material can be used to create or analyze charts, maps and graphs concerning population demography, religious, ethnic, and class composition of Biddulph Township, or Ontario as a whole.

Language Arts Components:

All of the lessons in the unit included here strongly emphasize literacy and reading skills. Some of the lesson plans even culminate in an evidence-based creative writing exercise that could easily be expanded. Additionally, examining how this case has been presented in a film, a book or in a play offers an arena to expand into the dramatic and literary arts. Students could perhaps be required to view a documentary on the Irish in Ontario, and then write a critical film review, incorporating their own knowledge of the case derived from the primary sources.

Both through the education system, and through popular culture, most students will have been exposed to a range of literature and audio visual media genres which depict the life of immigrants to nineteenth-century Canada and the United States.

Individual Lesson Plans

1. Suggestions: students research several documents on the site and take on the persona of a Tipperary immigrant to Lucan in the 1870s. Using the documents on the Immigration portion of the site
(http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/context/immigration/indexen.html) their task is to either persuade or dissuade their relative from immigrating.

2. Students take the persona of a cub reporter who is asked to write a 250-word newspaper article on life in Biddulph Township. Unfortunately, as they arrived late at the hearing, they only have access to O’Connor’s testimony. The task is to infer as much information as possible using a single text, or group of texts about one person’s testimony

Court Documents, Johnny O’Connor, Witness, Testimony, 21st February, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/courtdocument/1635en.html

Charles Hutchinson’s Letterbook, April 19, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/privateletter/1571en.html

Charles’ Hutchinson’s Letterbook, March 6, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/privateletter/1591en.html

Charles Hutchinson’s Letterbook, April 21, 1880
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/privateletter/1593en.html

Newspaper Article: “Biddulph Horrow: O’Connor Gives Some Valuable Evidence. Amuses Crowd Greatly” January 28, 1881
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1825en.html

Newspaper Article: “Johnny O’Connor Gives a Description of the Terrible Scene: He maintains his former story”, London Advertiser, January 27, 1881
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/donnellys/archives/newspaperormagazinearticle/1826en.html

3. Using different documents on violence in Biddulph Township, analyze the reaction of the population to the many fights that happened at that time. How did the inhabitants of Biddulph Township see this situation?

Suggestions for College and University Classes

- Compare primary records from your own province, or other areas of Canada, regarding nineteenth-century violence, to ascertain whether Lucan was unique in terms of the violence within this community.

- Ask students to explore a selection of documents from a specific part of the site to draw some inferences about life in nineteenth-century Ontario. Students present a brief report to their fellow students, who have used documents from a different part of the site. Similarities and differences are described, and then explained.

- In a unit on immigration, have students compare the immigrating population of Southern Ontario with immigrants from other provinces. What were the reasons that induced people into moving? This can also be compared with situations found today and with the concept of multiculturalism. Students can write an essay or present a PowerPoint of their findings.

- Have students infer how Canada’s legal system worked by using the documents concerned by the trial for the murder of the Donnellys. Here students will have to compare and contrast the information from the primary documents with secondary sources.

Teachers' Guide

to

Heaven & Hell on Earth: The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys

“The Massacre of the ‘Black’ Donnellys” Teachers' Guide

Table of Contents

Teachers’ Support and The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Websites

Site Organization

THE UNIT:

Heaven & Hell on Earth: The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys What Killed the Donnellys?

Fitting This Unit into Your Provincial Curriculum

The Story

“Heaven & Hell on Earth: The Massacre of the ‘Black’ Donnellys”

Unit Rationale

Unit Overview:

Themes, Issues, Concepts

Concepts:

Instructional Outcomes

Instructional Strategies

Culminating Activity

Who was directly responsible for the massacre?

Did racism, religious intolerance or a culture of violence kill the Donnellys?

Recommended Time Frame

Preparatory Exercises

Unit Overview:

The Lessons Summarized

Key Question What Killed the Donnellys?

Lesson 1: Determining the Facts of the Case

Lesson 1, Class 1

Lesson 1, Class 2

Lesson 2:

Historical Contexts Learning More About the Donnelly’s World

Lesson 2, Class 1

Lesson 2, Class 2

Lesson 2, Class 3

Lesson 3: Consolidating our Understanding, Reading Historical Contexts

Lesson 3, Class 1

Lesson 4: Writing the News, Refining Students’ Thinking Strategies Through Newspaper Analysis

Lesson 4, Class 1

Lesson 4, Class 2

Lesson 5:

Did Vigilante “Justice” or the Rule of Law Govern Biddulph Township? Learning to Read Historical Documents

Lesson 5, Class 1

Lesson 5, Class 2

Lesson 6: Exploring Personal Experience in History: Writing a Fictional Biography of a Prisoner in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Lesson 7: Learning to Read Historical Documents: Moving from the Truth of Testimony to the Meaning of Evidence

Lesson 7, Class 1

Lesson 7, Class 2

Lesson 8: Is this Event Significant? The Textbook Test

Lesson 9: Culminating Event: Trial by Historians (or What Killed the Donnellys?)

SUPPORT MATERIAL

The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys in Historical Context

Interrogating Your Document

Vigilantism

What is The Rule of Law in Canada?

The Integrated Unit Option

Individual Lesson Plans

Suggested documents:

Suggestions for College and University Classes

Heaven & Hell on Earth:
The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys

Teachers’ Support
and
The Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Websites

Heaven & Hell on Earth:
The Massacre of the “Black” Donnellys
What Killed the Donnellys?

“Heaven & Hell on Earth:
The Massacre of the ‘Black’ Donnellys”

Key Question
What Killed the Donnellys?

Lesson 1:
Determining the Facts of the Case

Historical Contexts
Learning More About the Donnelly’s World

Lesson 3:
Consolidating our Understanding,
Reading Historical Contexts

Lesson 4:
Writing the News,
Refining Students’ Thinking Strategies Through Newspaper Analysis

Did Vigilante “Justice” or the Rule of Law
Govern Biddulph Township?
Learning to Read Historical Documents

Lesson 6:
Exploring Personal Experience in History:
Writing a Fictional Biography of a Prisoner in Nineteenth-Century Canada

Lesson 7:
Learning to Read Historical Documents:
Moving from the Truth of Testimony to the Meaning of Evidence

Lesson 8:
Is this Event Significant?
The Textbook Test

Lesson 9:
Culminating Event: Trial by Historians
(or What Killed the Donnellys?)