Teachers’ Guide
to
Jérôme: The Mystery Man of Baie Sainte-Marie
A website created by
Caroline-Isabelle Caron and Lise A. Robichaud
Teachers’ Guide by
Ruth Sandwell and Catherine Duquette
With the assistance of
Caroline-Isabelle Caron and Lise A. Robichaud
A Great Unsolved Mysteries
in Canadian History Project
Project Co-directors
John Lutz, Ruth Sandwell, and Peter Gossage
Table of Contents
Introduction
Teachers’ Support and the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History websites — 3
Historical Contexts: “Jérôme” in Canadian History — 5
Learning Outcomes of this Site — 7
Unit Plan: Who Was Jérôme? A Unit for Senior Secondary Students — 9
Fitting this unit into your provincial curriculum — 9
Unit Overview — 11
Unit Rationale — 12
Unit Themes — 12
Unit Objectives, Skills and Attitudes — 12
Instructional Strategies — 13
Unit Synopsis (detailed overview of lessons) — 14
Preparatory Exercises — 15
The Lessons
Lesson 1: The Story of Jérôme: Rural Legend or Acadian History? — 16
Lesson 2: Finding Jérôme in History: Establishing Significance in Historical Contexts — 21
Lesson 3: Situating Individuals in their Historical Context: The Cast of Characters — 26
Lesson 4: Examining Primary Documents: Point of View in History — 29
Lesson 5: Who Was the Historical Jérôme? Interrogating the Evidence I — 32
Lesson 6: Who Was the Historical Jérôme? Interrogating the Evidence II — 33
Lesson 7: Culminating Exercise: Performing the History Behind the Legend- 36
Support Materials
Support Material 1: Establishing the Canon of the Legend: “What Happened? According to Whom?” — 39
Support Material 2: Understanding Jérôme — 40
Support Material 3: The Research Record — 42
Support Material 4: Who was… — 43
Support Material 5: Using Photographs as Evidence — 44
Support Material 6: Inferring Ethnic Points of View from Documents: English and French — 45
Support Material 7: Evaluating the Letter — 47
Support Material 8: French/English Place Names — 48
Support Material 9: Assessing the Credibility of the Evidence I — 49
Support Material 10: Assessing the Credibility of the Evidence II: The Frozen Man — 50
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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/login/indexen.php
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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/indexen.html
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
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Historical Contexts: Jérôme in Canadian History
This Web archives looks at one of Atlantic Canada’s best known mysteries: the story of the legless and mute man who washed up on an Acadian shore in the fall of 1863. The task for students is to use the primary and secondary sources on the website to decide just who Jérôme really was. While this mystery involves finding out the identity of one very unusual man who lived in very unusual circumstances, the mystery of Jérôme provides students with a fascinating window into the nature of everyday village life in Canada during the second half of the 19th-century.
The story of Jérôme begins on September 8th 1863. On that date, a legless man was found on the shore of Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia. It is not clear whether he was unable or simply unwilling to speak French, English, or any other known language. Whatever the cause of his silence, the result was that he did not communicate with local residents about his origins, or the events that left him legless on these shore. It was only later that people realized that Jérôme had mental and/or emotional problems that almost certainly hindered his ability to communicate.
For the first five months after he was found, Jérôme was taken care of on the Digby Neck with funding from the “Overseers of the Poor”. Because the unfortunate foundling was later assumed to be Italian, and therefore Catholic, he was sent in February 1864 to the village of Meteghan (in the municipality of Clare, Nova Scotia, on the other side of St. Mary’s Bay) to stay with a Catholic family. It was while he was with the family of the Corsican Jean Nicolas (known as « The Russian ») that the stranger was given the name Jérôme. Soon Nicolas’ first wife, Julitte Comeau, died, and he married Victoire Comeau, her distant cousin, 5 months later. Victoire was the one who took care of Jérôme on a daily basis and did so until her death in 1870. At this point, Nicolas left Meteghan without a trace and Jérôme’s care was taken over by Victoire’s brother, Dédier Comeau and his wife Zabeth, in the village of St. Alphone. Jérôme would stay with the latter even after Dédier’s death in 1902, until his own death on 15 April 1912, the day the Titanic sank. For his entire stay among the Acadians of Baie Sainte-Marie, the government of Nova Scotia paid a small weekly amount to cover the cost of his upkeep, first to Nicolas, then to Dédier, then to Dédier’s son William.
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Jérôme never did reveal his true origins, nor the circumstances of his abandonment. Faced with his silence, those among whom he lived wondered about his mystery and conceived of various possibilities. Speculations about Jérôme’s identity spilled beyond the village and began appearing in newspapers all over the eastern seaboard from the 1880s onward. The legend of Jérôme grew, and soon stories of pirates, the Italian mafia, and rival noble families’ revenge began to emerge. Though several people claimed to have solved the mystery of Jérôme during and after his lifetime, little hard evidence was ever brought forth to support their claims. Hearsay, rumor, legend, and speculation have created a legend about Jérôme. This is how things stand today.
This unit will help students to separate legend from history, hearsay from good evidence, as they decide just who Jérôme really was. And, as the Unit Plan relating to the site suggests, the simple question: “Who was Jérôme?” engages students in discussions about a number of important historical topics, themes, and issues: What is the difference between history and legend? What was nineteenth century society and economy like in Nova Scotia? How were the infirm, the poor, and the mentally ill taken care of during the second half of 19th century? And what were the relations between the Acadians and their Anglo-Protestant neighbours? The unit provides teachers with background information, specific lesson plans, and Support Materials to help students solve the mystery of Jérôme, and in the process, teaches them how to ‘do’ history.
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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 “Jérôme”.
See: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/jerome/home/howtousesite/indexen.html
Learning Outcomes of the “Jérôme” website
The website can be used as the foundation for a whole course or for a single class. This Teachers’ Guide provides a number of lessons that comprise a single unit built around the question: Who Was Jérôme? Lessons in this unit are directed at a senior secondary level class in history or social studies. They are designed to be cumulative, providing students with the scaffolding of skills and background knowledge that allows for their increased understanding, both of historical thinking and historic knowledge as the unit progresses. Nevertheless, many of the lessons in the unit can be adapted for stand-alone single lessons, if time is too tight to allow an entire Unit on this site. We have generally found that a single class does not allow the students or the instructor to fully answer some of the basic questions and would suggest devoting more time.
While this unit is directed at a senior secondary class, the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History websites have been used for elementary to university graduate students, and the Jérôme mystery is no exception. The level of your students will determine how “deep” you ask them to go.
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A list of the specific courses across Canada for which this site would be a particularly appropriate have been included at the beginning of the unit. In general terms, this site will promote the following kinds of knowledge and skills. It will allow students to:
- identify and clarify a problem, an issue, an inquiry
- develop a vocabulary that will allow them to analyze historical documents
- plan and conduct research using primary and secondary 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 that integrate a variety of media
- demonstrate leadership by planning, implementing, and assessing a variety of strategies — to address the problem, issue, or inquiry initially identified
- develop their abilities to work independently or in groups
- refine abilities to construct and defend an argument
Please see Unit Plan that follows to find more specific ways to introduce your students to the site, and for examples of instructional strategies that take full advantage of the pedagogical strengths of this site.
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Unit Plan:
Who Was Jérôme?
~ A unit of study designed to foster critical thinking
in the senior 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. Jérôme could be used effectively in the following courses, by province:
British Columbia
Social Studies 10 – Canada 1815-1914
Law 12 – Foundations of Law in Canada
Alberta
Social Studies 20 – The Growth of the Global Perspective
Social Studies 26 – You and the Canadian Identity
Saskatchewan
History 30 – Canadian Studies
Social Studies 30 – Social Change
Manitoba
Senior Social Studies 2 – North America: A Geographical Perspective
Senior Social Studies 3 – Canada: A Social and Political History
Ontario
Grade 11 – Canadian Politics and Citizenship
Grade 12 – Canada: History, Identity and Culture
Quebec
Secondary 4 – History of Quebec and Canada
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New Brunswick
Grade 12 – Canadian History 122
Nova Scotia
Grade 11 – Canadian History 11
Grade 11 – Études acadiennes
Prince Edward Island
Grade 12 – Canadian History 621
Newfoundland
Canadian History 1201
Canadian Issues 1209
Canadian Law 2104
Nunavut & NWT
Yukon
(see British Columbia)
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Unit Overview
The story of Jérôme, the legless and mute man who washed up on a Nova Scotia shore in the fall of 1863, is one of Atlantic Canada’s best-known mysteries. This unit invites students to use the primary and secondary sources on this website to decide just who Jérôme really was. In the process, students not only learn some key themes, issues, and events relating to the social and economic history nineteenth century Canada – including issues that are often difficult to ‘see’ in the historical record, such as poverty, infirmity, village life — but in the process they have the opportunity to actively engage with some key aspects of historical thinking: what is the difference between history and legend? What makes some evidence better than others? What is the significance of Jerome’s life to those interested in the history of Canada? Students, in other words, will learn about ‘doing’ history, and will emerge with a better understanding of Canada’s past as a result.
The rich selection of documents that students will encounter provides a nuanced picture of the development of the legend surrounding Jérôme and the many ways individuals have tried to shed light on this gripping mystery. The voices of the Acadian people are sometimes difficult to “hear” in these documents, since many were written by Anglo-Protestant men. Nevertheless, with a careful reading of available documents, and with some background readings about the period and region, students can explore not only “what happened” in Sandy Cove in 1863, but also how we (and the community) have come to understand and evaluate its significance.
The overriding question is one of historical representation and interpretation. What is the real evidence behind the layers of legend? Can the mystery of Jérôme ever be “cracked”? And, in essence, this comprises the "hook" for students. They are being asked to play detective: to evaluate the diverse puzzle pieces offered, to seek out additional information, and to assemble their own historical narrative and assign responsibility for these events as they see fit. This unit is intended to focus on the examination and analysis of evidence to culminate in the formation of a historically grounded hypothesis as to who Jérôme truly was, where he came from, and how he was treated over the five decades he spent in Nova Scotia. Students are not only permitted, but required to question, and then create, historical truth.
This unit has been designed to be flexible in its application. Students will be invited to explore legend-making from the perspectives of the creators, and to develop an awareness of the constructed nature of historical narratives. 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. Students at the senior 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. This unit proposes to introduce them to these skills and resources. 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.
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Unit Rationale
First, this unit uses the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History website “Jérôme: The Mystery Man of Baie Sainte-Marie” to introduce students to some of the issues facing the socially and physically disadvantaged in nineteenth century Canada. Secondly, it is designed to introduce students to primary documents in history and social studies. It particularly aims to facilitate students' critical awareness of the social context of historical documents, to teach them to evaluate opposing evidence, to understand the utility of documents from a variety of perspectives, and to encourage students to adopt a broader and more critical perspective when reading historical evidence and narratives.
Unit Themes
To facilitate teachers in developing additional lessons and/or an expanded unit, some of the central themes of this website are listed:
Legends and history
Acadian history
Atlantic Canadian history and geography
Canadian medical history
Inequality and social welfare in Canada
Canadian Social History
French – English relations in nineteenth-century Canada
Settlement history
Unit Objectives, Skills, and Attitudes
The central goals of this unit are:
- to contribute to students' knowledge of Canadian social history, and Atlantic Canadian history more specifically
- to encourage students to think about the significance of everyday life in history
- to refine students’ historical thinking through the use of primary documents, understanding the nature and uses of evidence, and the role of both of these in building historical narratives
- to raise students' awareness of the constructed and contested nature of historical narratives
- to encourage students to develop tools appropriate to the evaluation of opposing evidence
- to facilitate students' critical awareness of author's perspective in historical documents
- to encourage students to adopt a broad perspective when reading historical evidence and narratives in order to become aware of less-obvious and alternate agendas
- to build a coherent narrative based on non-sequential evidence
- to develop skills in defending an argument
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Instructional Strategies
Need for Computer Lab Time
While this entire unit is fully integrated with the Jérôme site, most tasks can be completed if the requisite documents are printed off ahead of time and handed out 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 following skills and habits of mind are ones that should be carefully assessed in the process of evaluating the critical thinking needed in working with this site:
- Issues are analyzed seriously and thoughtfully
- Presentations and talks are given carefully, with materials well-prepared and organized, and points well thought out
- Results are expressed cautiously and are supported with reference to appropriate evidence
- Opinions are reasoned. Reports and narratives are written discerningly, reflecting the above and with care, attention and evident pride in quality work
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Unit Synopsis
Key Question: Who Was Jérôme?
Lesson Overview
Lesson 1:
The Story of Jérôme: Rural Legend or Acadian History?
2 classes
In this class, students explore the differences between history and legend, and are introduced to the Legend of Jérôme. They go on to assess whether the story of Jérôme qualifies as a Maritime legend. Students evaluate various accounts of the Jérôme story to find the common aspects, or the ‘canon’, of this particular legend, and the variations in it. They conclude by clarifying the kinds of questions that would help them to distinguish the history of Jérôme’s life from the legend.
Lesson 2:
Finding Jérôme in History: Establishing Significance in Historical Contexts
4 classes
Students begin by focussing in more detail on the importance of “significance” in history, and review definitions of primary and secondary documents. They are provided with five contexts in which Jérôme’s life could be considered significant in Canadian history, and are divided up into research teams that will spend the next class researching these five aspects of nineteenth century life. Students create posters about their research that they present in the fourth class, in a ‘heritage fair’ type event where students teach the other students about their findings.
Lesson 3:
Situating Individuals in Their Historical Contexts: The Cast of Characters
1 class
In this lesson, students will read the biographies of the people who played a role in Jérôme’s life. Working in groups, students will explore the extent to which each of the individual’s lives can be used to illuminate or provide an exception to the general social, economic, and political trends outlined in the last lesson.
Lesson 4:
Using Primary Documents: Exploring Point of View in History
2 classes
Students take on the identity of either an Acadian Francophone or an English- speaking Nova Scotian and write a letter to a friend describing the strange life of Jérôme. To prepare them to take on this role, students first review ethnic differences within the Nova Scotia population, and then learn to draw inferences about ethnicity from two primary documents. After students have decided on the criteria of a good Acadian or English Canadian letter, they complete their task. The lesson concludes with peer reviews of at least one letter. In an extension exercise, students explore the significance of different place names that the Acadians and the English speakers gave to the same place.
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Lesson 5:
Who Was the Historical Jérôme? Investigating the Evidence I
1 class
Students begin by refining the key criteria needed to evaluate the quality and quantity of evidence provided in a historical document needed to provide a convincing interpretation of events. Students use these criteria to evaluate one of the first three “theories” on the Theories part of the site, and present their findings to the class.
Lesson 6:
Who Was the Historical Jérôme? Investigating the Evidence II
2 classes
Students are divided into groups, and work on different portions of the evidence relating to the fourth theory, the “Frozen Man” evaluating their own portion of the evidence using the rubric provided. In the second class, after presenting their portion to the class, students then work together to assign a grade 1-5 to the interpretation as a whole. Students then vote on which of the four interpretations best meets the criteria for ‘best history’. This is the history that will be performed in a one act play “Jérôme: the History behind the Legend”.
Lesson 7:
The Performance
4 classes
Students write and perform a play that successfully reveals the history behind the legend of Jérôme.
Preparatory Exercises
If students have not worked critically with primary source documents before, it is strongly recommended that students do at least one of the preparatory lessons included in the Teachers’ Corner section of the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Website: http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/indexen.html
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The Lessons
Lesson 1:
The Story of Jérôme: Rural Legend or Acadian History?
Days 1 and 2 of unit
(2 classes)
Overview:
In this class, students explore the differences between history and legend, and are introduced to the Legend of Jérôme. They go on to assess whether the story of Jérôme qualifies as a Maritime legend. Students evaluate various accounts of the Jérôme story to find the common aspects, or the ‘canon’, of this particular legend, and the variations in it. They conclude by clarifying the kinds of questions that would help them to distinguish the history of Jérôme’s life from the legend.
Lesson 1, Class 1
(Day 1 of Unit)
Step 1: Ask students to work in pairs to come up with at least three differences between history and the past. Regroup, and ask each group to present at least one difference to the class. Their answers should include, on The Past side, that the past is everything that has ever happened, including thoughts, biochemical reactions, and every tree falling in the forest that no one ever saw. By contrast, for a history to exist:
a) There must be evidence that a past event, issue, or belief existed; some kind of record must have been created
b) This evidence must have been preserved, or left over from the past – it must be observable now for people to see and interpret
c) Someone must care about the evidence and what it documents; the evidence must be deemed significant to those in the present
d) There must be an interpretation of the records left over from the past; it is not enough to simply list the evidence – the historian has to synthesize, analyse, and contextualize it to give it meaning in relations to other issues, events and beliefs in the past, and in the present
e) The interpretation should be contained in a meaningful narrative that clearly links the particular issue, event, or behaviour to what other historians have written about, and what people care about in the present.
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Step 2: Repeat the process with the question: What are the differences between history and legend? Emphasize that while both legends and history depend on the significance of a particular person, issue, or event, history depends on the interpretation of evidence left over from the past, while legends have only to be supported by stories. More than that, legends are not really about proving something with evidence to come up with the ‘truth’; they are about suspending disbelief in order to be shocked, frightened, or impressed.
Step 3: Ask students what an urban legend is. Discuss some examples that the students should be able to provide. What are their defining characteristics? What is the relationship of our contemporary “urban legend” and “legends.” Ask students to speculate on why a particular urban legend might capture the interest of so many people. Can we make inferences (define) about our society on the basis of the urban legends that fascinate us? Repeat these questions with reference to the legend of Jérôme.
If there is time, and a computer lab is available, have students look at such websites as Urban Legends & Modern Myths: http://www.warphead.com/urbanlegends/
Step 4: Introduce the story, or legend of Jérôme. Ask if anyone knows the story of Jérôme, famous in Acadia. Provide an overview of the legend of Jérôme, perhaps showing parts of the film about Jérôme, or reading a brief account of the story from the Mysteries website, and emphasizing his continued importance in Acadian culture today.
You can find texts dealing with this issue either on the homepage or using the following texts:
“Se souvenir de Jérôme”
“Maritime legends”
Step 5: Explain that over the course of this unit, thanks to a special project called the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, they will learn not only about Jérôme in the context of his own time and place, but, through the analysis of digitized primary source materials on the site they will determine what parts of the story are legend, and which parts history as they determine his true identity.
Step 6: In conclusion, ask students to answer the question, is the story of Jérôme social history or maritime legend? What else do they need to know before they can answer that question?
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Lesson 1, Class 2
(Day 2 of Unit)
Preparation: Before coming to class, find some other ‘maritime legends’ in the history of Canada. Visit the site http://www.americanfolklore.net/canada.html#3 for some suggestions.
Or you may use the Mary Celeste legend:
This legend is also linked to Baie Sainte-Marie and happened in the middle of the 19th century. This ghost vessel was built by Acadians and (after having been renamed and having had a long career) was found adrift and completely empty as if it had been abandoned very quickly. An inquiry was done at the time and no reason was found for the mystery. Here are a number of websites providing you with information on this urban legend:
- A movie was made in 1935 starring Bela Lugosi of all people: http://imdb.com/title/tt0026759
- A very complete account of the legend in English is found on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Celeste
- Another account in English, on the same site that you can find a Jérôme account, is http://mysteriesofcanada.com/Nova_Scotia/mary_celeste.htm
- In French, the most complete account is here: http://cnc.virtuelle.ca/vaisseaufantome/presse/presse9.html
- The actual wreck of the vessel was found in 2001 in Haiti, but the website is only in English: http://www.numa.net/expeditions/mary_celeste.html
- A very complete and thorough English analysis of the evidence, and a debunking of the legend, is found here: http://www.maryceleste.net/
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Activities:
Step 1: Review the legend of Jérôme from the last class. Introduce the concept of Maritime Canadian legends. Ask students if they know any Maritime legends, besides the story of Jérôme that they have just learnt about. Give students one or two brief, written, or oral examples.
Step 2. Explain to the class that Maritime legends in Canada have more particular characteristics – the inclusion of pirates, treasures, mysterious boats, ghosts, and nefarious plots.
Step 3: Ask them to re-read the introduction to the Jérôme mystery from the website, ask the students to answer the following — How does the story of Jérôme conform to, and differ from, the criteria of an Atlantic Canadian legend? Go over these briefly as a class.
Step 4: Working in groups of two to analyze up to ten of the recountings of the Jérôme legend, students are then asked to determine the key elements in the story of Jérôme –what is the ‘solid’ core’ of events that never changes in the different renditions of the legend, and what are the elements that are not consistent through the different re-tellings? Ask students to use Support Material No. 1: Establishing the Canon of the Legend: “What Happened? According to Whom?” as a guide to evaluate up to four of the following versions of the legend.
(Note: Support Materials 1 provides a number of the key events along the top. Feel free to ask students to come up with these items by themselves, if there is time, and/or provide an empty column or two so that they can add additional items)
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Provide students with these different versions of the Jérôme legend using the following documents (or ask them to find more on the website):
“Mrs. Elisabeth Comeau”
Nova Scotia’s Mystery Man
The Authentic Story of Jerome the Legless Mystery of Meteghan
A Mystery Man of the Nova Scotian Shore
Jerome, MysteryMan of Digby County
Without a Name and Dumb for Forty Years
Story of ‘Jerome’ Remains Unsolved”
Legless Mystery Man Took Secret to Grave
Jerome: The Mystery Man of Sandy Cove
A Canadian Enigma: Jerome
Step 5: When the ‘solid core’ of events, issues, and personalities is found and agreed upon in the whole class, create a permanent poster presenting the core legend, and the variations. Ask students to evaluate whether each of the core events would count as history (based on evidence that can be proven) and mark this with an H, or whether it counts as legend (unbelievable or unable to be proven by evidence), and mark these with an L. The final product can be a time line showing the most important events that occurred in Jérôme’s story. Leave this poster in the classroom so students may refer to it while they work on the remaining lessons.
Step 6: Brainstorm the following question: What evidence, and what kinds of evidence, would they need to prove both the existence, and the true identity, of Jérôme? In other words, what would they need to know in order to separate the legend from the history?
Step 7: Emphasize the use and the importance of questions in History. The questions we ask determine, for example, if a particular primary document is simply a source, or is a piece of evidence. Ask students to work in groups of 4 students to come with a list of questions using the 5 W’s format, that they would like to answer about the historical Jérôme. To help students, have them fill out both columns of Support Material No.2 Understanding Jérôme.
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Lesson 2:
Finding Jérôme in History: Establishing Significance in Historical Contexts
Days 3 to 6 of Unit
(4 classes, assuming 75 minute periods)
Overview:
Students begin by focusing in more detail on the importance of “significance” in history, and review definitions of primary and secondary documents. They are provided with five contexts in which Jérôme’s life could be considered significant in Canadian history, and are divided up into research teams that will spend the next class researching these five aspects of nineteenth century life. Students create posters about their research that they present in the fourth class, in a ‘heritage fair’ type event where students teach the other students about their findings.
Lesson 2, Class 1
(Day 3 of Unit)
Activities:
Step 1: Tell students that today’s lesson will focus on the concept of Historical Significance. What makes something or someone significant? Ask them to work in pairs to answer the question: What would it take to make what happened in school today historical significant?
Step 2: Summarize the discussion by explaining that historical significance can be evaluated on the basis of different criteria. Roland Case and Mike Denos have articulated three criteria for evaluating significance in their book: Teaching About Historical Thinking (eds. Peter Seixas and Penney Clark; Vancouver: The Critical Thinking Consortium, 2006, p 13):
- Prominence at the Time – how deeply felt or profound was the impact?
- Consequences -- magnitude of impact; scope of impact; lasting nature of impact
- Subsequent Profile – has this event/person/trend been memorialized? Is it emblematic of a particular time, place, or social context?
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Step 3: Divide students into groups of two. Using the ‘canon’ of the Legend of Jérôme, ask students to discuss which of the three criteria for significance best suit the story of Jérôme.
Step 4: After discussing the possible significance of Jérôme, explain that historians have used the story of Jérôme as a place to investigate five significant themes in Canadian/Acadian history that the story of Jérôme’s life particularly illuminates:
- The history of how physically ill people survived in Canada before Medicare.
- The history of how mentally ill people survived in Canada before Medicare.
- The history of French/English relations in Acadia.
- Social and economic trends in nineteenth century Acadia.
- The history of how poor people lived in Canada before welfare.
Step 5: Review with a short lesson on the differences between primary and secondary sources. See: Teachers’ Support: Key Concepts in Historical Thinking (http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/teachers/indexen.html) for the distinction between primary and secondary sources.
Step 6: Divide students into research teams that will begin work next class researching the questions for each group, for a class ‘heritage fair’ to shared with all students. Ask students to keep track of each of the sources they use, on the site and elsewhere, as primary or secondary documents. As they are working with a variety of documents as they conduct their research, have them fill up Support Material No. 3 Research Record. This will have to be given back to the Teacher at the Heritage Fair. It will serve as a first assessment of their progress (graded or not) and will allow you to check if your students need to review their understanding of primary and secondary sources. .
(NOTE: In a “regular” class of 30, students would be working in groups of 5 or 6 students. If you feel, as a teacher, that these teams are too big to be really productive, you can easily separate these topics in two: one team working on the general issues and the other specifically on Acadia. Of course, teams working on similar subjects will still work in a close partnership in order to exchange useful information.)
Assign to each group one of the following research topics:
1. What are the key differences and similarities between the ways in which physically ill and infirm people lived in Canada in the nineteenth century, before Medicare, and the ways they do now, after universal Medicare?
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Students might consider some of these questions as they conduct their research:
What kinds of hospital care was available to people who got ill in the nineteenth century? Where did rural people get medical help? How many people were able to afford a doctor when they got ill? How safe and healthy were hospitals? When did nurses begin to work in hospitals? What kinds of social assistance were available for people who were sick and unable to look after themselves? What were the commonest illnesses? What were the commonest illnesses? What were the most common causes of death? What was the most common age of death?
In Acadia: Which hospitals might Jérôme have visited? Who would have performed the surgery on his legs? What kind of care would have been available to him, besides the care of strangers?
Documents Relating to this Research:
Documents in the Historical Context section are most relevant to this question. Have students browse through the appropriate subsections of the site.
In particular, students should look at the following text on the Jérôme site:
There is a great deal of statistical information available online pertaining to the health of Canadians since 1871. For those teachers interested in getting their students to examine a selection of this information, see:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/11-516-XIE/sectionb/sectionb.htm#Health
2. What are the key differences and similarities between the ways in which mentally ill people lived in Canada in the nineteenth century, before Medicare, and the ways they do now, after universal Medicare?
Students might consider some of these questions as they conduct their research:
What kinds of hospital care was available to people who were mentally ill in the nineteenth century? How many people were able to afford a doctor, or a specialist, if they became mentally ill? What kinds of treatments were common in the nineteenth century for mentally ill people? What kinds of social assistance were available for people who were sick and unable to look after themselves?
In Acadia: Is there any information about Jérôme’s mental state? Any indications of treatments he might have received?
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Documents Relating to this Research:
Documents in the Historical Context section are most relevant to this question. Have students browse through the appropriate subsections of the site.
In particular, students should look at the following text on the Jérôme site:
Mental Illness in the 19th Century
For those teachers interested in getting their students to examine a selection of this information, see
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/11-516-XIE/sectionb/sectionb.htm#Health
See also the History of Madness website: http://historyofmadness.ca/
3. How would you describe and explain the history of French/English relations in Acadia?
Students might consider some of these questions as they conduct their research:
What was the population of English speaking and French speaking people in the Maritimes in the late nineteenth century? When did the first French speakers come to the area? English speakers? From where did they arrive? What characterized the Acadian and the English population respectively – religion, economic activity (how did people make their living), standard of living (poverty and wealth)? How did language or religion influence where and how people lived?
Documents Relating to this Research:
Documents in the Historical Context section are most relevant to this question. Have students browse through the appropriate subsections of the site.
Students can also look at the following text on the Jérôme site:
Relations with Strangers
Acadians in Nova Scotia and in Clare in the 19th Century
4. Focus on the documents in Chez Dédier Comeau et sa famille à Saint-Alphonse, Chez Jean Nicholas de Meteghan, and the Historical Contexts sections of the website to create an overview of social and economic conditions in Acadia at this time.
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Students might consider some of these questions as they conduct their research:
What was the population of the time? Did they live in the city or the country, or in small towns? What did people do to make a living? Where did their food come from – did they produce it or gather it themselves, or did they buy it? Did they work for other people, or were they farmers or self-employed workers? What were the differences between the rich and the poor? What effect did ethnic differences have on people’s wealth? How did differences in where people lived (country, city, near the ocean, away from water, on rocky land) – i.e. their immediate environment – have on their wealth or poverty? How did international and national trade relations affect people’s lives? What was the place of the church in people’s lives? What were the major groups, and what characteristics distinguished them? How did people communicate over large spaces? What newspapers did they read (if any)?
Local: Take a look at the kitchen reproduced on the website. What can you infer about daily life from this reproduction? Are there other documents on the site that tell you about the daily life and help to describe the history of Acadia in the nineteenth century?
Documents Relating to this Research:
Documents in the Historical Contexts, Chez Dédier Comeau et sa famille à Saint-Alphonse, and Chez Jean Nicholas de Meteghan section.
Students can also look at the following text on the Jérôme site:
Acadians in Nova Scotia and in Clare in the 19th Century
The Economy of the Maritimes in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries
5. What are the key differences and similarities between the ways in which poor people lived in Canada in the nineteenth century, before welfare, and the ways they do now, after universal welfare?
Students might consider some of these questions as they conduct their research:
How did poor people live in Canada before welfare? What was their condition? Did they receive any help? If so, who helped them? How could they come into this condition? Was there any exit to this condition?
Documents Relating to this Research:
Documents in the Historical Contexts, Chez Dédier Comeau et sa famille à Saint-Alphonse, and Chez Jean Nicholas de Meteghan sections.
Students can also look at the following text on the Jérôme site:
Homework: Ask students to work on their respective research projects.
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Lesson 2, Class 3
(Day 5 of Unit)
Activities:
Finish Research, begin to make poster representing their research findings.
Homework: Work on posters.
Lesson 2, Class 4
(Day 6 of Unit)
Activities:
1. In this class, students spend the first half of the class finishing up their posters, preparing for the group presentation. Students have the opportunity to browse the different posters. Presentations are quick (5 minute news flashes) and then the posters are affixed to the classroom walls.
Lesson 3: Situating Individuals in Their Historical Contexts:
The Cast of Characters
Day 7 of unit
(1 class)
Overview:
In this lesson, students will read the biographies of the people who played a role in Jérôme’s life. Working in groups, students will explore the extent to which each of the individual’s lives can be used to illuminate or provide an exception to the general social, economic, and political trends outlined in the last lesson.
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Hook: (This exercise works best if the teacher visits the StatsCan website, or finds in the newspaper, some statistics relevant to senior high school students, or asks them to find such statistics). Students are asked to outline some key economic, social and/or political ‘trends’ in Canada today. Does each individual student in the class fit into statistical averages of, for example, of number of children per family, or age at first marriage? Are they aware of these statistics? What is the relationship between social and economic trends, and individual lives? This question should be left open as the topic of this lesson.
Step 1: Have students work alone and provide them with two or three main characters to investigate. Most texts are quite short and to the point, students should not have trouble reading them quickly.
Here is the list of available characters:
Angus Morrison Gidney
Dedier Comeau
George Bennison
Honorable Senator George Gerard King
John Hutchison
Judge A.W. Savary
Reverend Ferdinand Blanchet
Samuel Gidney
Victoire Comeau
Judge Willie Comeau
The Catholic Mutual Benefit Association
Elisabeth Comeau
George Gallager
Jean Nicolas
John Meechi
Julitte Nicolas
Reverend James Daly
Samuel White
W.B. Vail
George Albright
Doctor Henry Peters
John Brown
John O’Leary
Alphonse B. Côté, c1914
Robert Bishop
The Frozen Man
William Eldridge
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Step 2: Have students fill in the first part of Support Material 4: Who was…. Sometimes, the text will not provide your students with answer to all the queries. This is normal and students should be brought to consider that when historians deal with primary sources, one unique text will not always provide them with answers to all their questions.
Step 3: Once students have filled in the first part of Support Material 4, have them go around the classroom to examine the posters for evidence that will allow them to assess the extent to which their character illuminated, or provided an exception to, the general trends and issues outlined on the posters (or elsewhere on the site). While they are going around the class, students fill in the second section of Support Material No. 4 where they must indicate in what ways, and to what extent the character Illuminates or provide an Exception to generalizations we have made about nineteenth century Acadian life.
Step 4: Students briefly present their character to the class, with their evaluation.
Step 5: Regroup and as a class discuss around the topic of personal history and general history. This should lead up to a discussion of how, when we generalize in history, we tend to forget that not everybody shared the same experiences.
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Lesson 4:
Examining Primary Documents: Point of View in History
Day 8 and 9 of unit
(2 classes)
Overview:
Students take on the identity of either an Acadian Francophone or an English Canadian Anglophone and write a letter to a friend describing the strange life of Jérôme. To prepare them to take on this role, students first review ethnic differences within the Nova Scotia population, and then learn to draw inferences about ethnicity from two primary documents. After students have decided on the criteria of a good Acadian or English Canadian letter, they complete their task. The lesson concludes with peer reviews of at least one letter. In an extension exercise, students explore the significance of different place names that the Acadians and the English speakers gave to the same place.
Lesson 4, Class 1
(Day 8 of Unit)
Explain their task:
Explain to students that they will either take the persona of an Acadian Francophone or an English Canadian and write a letter to a friend describing the life of Jérôme. The letter should be a least one page long and follow the criteria expressed on Support Material No. 7: Evaluating the Letter. Before they begin their task of writing a letter that conveys their point of view, they will study how people reveal aspects of identity through the way they write about something. First, students will learn more generally about drawing inferences from texts.
Step 1: Present the following photograph to your students Meteghan circa 1930. It is a picture representing Meteghan around 1930. Have your students work in pairs with Support Material No. 5: Drawing Inference from Photographs. This is a quick introductory exercise that should not take your students very long.
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Step 2: Debrief what students were able to infer from the photo.
Step 3: Explain to students that they will now need to do something similar but this time using documents instead of pictures, and a more specific question. What can we know about the ethnic identity of an author from how s/he describes/explains something? Give one or two of the following texts to your students and ask them to complete Support Material No.6 Inferring Ethnic Points of View from Documents: English and French. In this exercise, students will have to draw inferences from evidence in the text.
Suggested Documents:
“Jérôme”
Who is He?
A Mystery of the Nova Scotian Shore
Legless Mystery Man Took Secret to Grave
“Jerome” Dead and His Secret Dies With Him
Savage Barbarity
To the Editor of the Freeman
Barbarity
Step 4: Students present their findings as a group.
Step 5: Explain to students that they will either take the persona of an Acadian Francophone or an English Canadian and write a letter to a friend describing the life of Jérôme. The letter should be a least one page long and follow the criteria expressed on Support Material No. 7: Evaluating the Letter.
Homework: Have students work on their letter at home.
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Lesson 4, Class 2
(Day 9 of Unit)
Step 1: Provide some time for students to complete their letter if they didn’t have time to finish them at home.
Step 2: Pair students in groups of two and have them exchange their letters. Students are then told to take Support Material No.7: Evaluating the Letter in order to complete the peer evaluation process. Students have to grade the letter according the criteria and give out a mark on 15.
Extension: A fair amount of time has been allotted to the peer review process. If your students are accustomed to it and if you have time, it is interesting to undertake the following extension exercise (which can also be done in collaboration with either French second-language or English second-language classes).
Present Support Material No. 8: French/English Place Names to your students. Having them work as a pair let them read through the list of place names and compare the French title with the English title. As a class, discuss the differences and the similarities between these names and ask your students what can they infer from them. This activity should strengthen the students understanding of cultural differences and how it can influence one person’s understanding of an event.
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Lesson 5:
Who was the Historical Jérôme? Examining The Evidence I
Day 10 of unit
(1 class)
Overview:
Students begin by refining the key criteria needed to evaluate the quality and quantity of evidence provided in a historical document needed to provide a convincing interpretation of events. Students use these criteria to evaluate one of the first three “theories” on the Theories part of the site, and present their findings to the class.
Lesson 5, Class 1
(Day 10 of Unit)
Activities:
Step 1: Separate your students into small teams and give each team the task of reviewing one of the three following theories on Jérôme. Provide your students with the texts that deal with their theory. Some documents are suggested here, but students can go to the appropriate sections to read more of the documents if they have time.
Theory A: Italian or American?
Suggested Documents:
Jérôme, c1910
His Appearance 1
His Appearance 2
Who Is He?
The Jerome Mystery
Theory B: Silence by choice or because of mental problem?
Suggested Documents:
His Behaviour
His Expression
His Silence
The Noises He Made 1
The Noises He Made 2
Theory C: Pirate or Nobleman?
Suggested Documents:
Jérome
With an Axe?
Pirate or Nobleman?
"Jerome" The "Mystery Man" of Clare
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Step 2: After reading the documents provided, students fill in the appropriate section of Support Material No. 9 Assessing the Credibility of the Evidence I. In doing this, students must provide evidence for both theory and then judge which of the theories they find has the best evidence to support it.
Step 3: Ask students to come up with some clearly defined criteria for ‘strong evidence’ and ‘weak evidence’.
Lesson 6:
Who was the Historical Jérôme? Examining The Evidence II
Days 11 and 12 of unit
(2 classes)
Overview:
Students are divided into groups and work on different portions of the evidence relating to the fourth theory, the “Frozen Man”, evaluating their own portion of the evidence using the rubric provided. In the second class, after presenting their portion to the class, students then work together to assign a grade 1-5 to the interpretation as a whole. Students then vote on which of the four interpretations best meets the criteria for ‘best history’. This is the history that will be performed in a one act play “Jérôme: the History behind the Legend”
Lesson 6, Class 1
(Day 11 of Unit)
Activities:
Step 1: Explain to students that they will now, as a group, work on the fourth and last theory. As there are many documents dealing with this issue, students will work in expert groups. Place your students in groups of 3 or 4 students and explain the concept of an expert group. Each expert group will be working on a set of specific documents and they will, at the end of the exercise, share their findings with the class.
Step 2: Give students Support Material No. 10: Assessing the Credibility of the Evidence II and a selection of documents from below, or from the “Frozen Man” section of the website.
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Suggested documents:
Mystery Of The Man At Meteghan Is Explained At Long Last By Senator King
A. W. Savary to Barn(?), 25/01/1907
Authentic Story of Jerome the Legless Mystery of Meteghan, Now Related by A.W. Savary
A. M. Gidney to A. W. Savary, 05/09/1908
Samuel Gidney to A. W. Savary, 12/10/1908
Grand Jury In inquire to Overseer For Payment for Support Of Italian Pauper
Queens County to John Brown a/c [1861]
Bill for services, Dr. Harry Peters
Bill for services, Samuel White
John Hutchison Bill 1861
The Petition of the Overseers of the Poor for the Parish of Chipman praying to be reimbursed certain expenses incurred in saving the life of and supporting an unfortunate pauper from another country.
Savage Barbarity
To the Editor of the Freeman
(Note that text Savage Barbarity and To the Editor of the Freeman should be used together as the second is an answer to the first.)
Step 3: When they have finished completing their worksheet, have students bring forward their evaluations of the evidence relating to the Frozen Man. On the board, write down the information they provide. Then, as a class, write down the timeline of the events that surrounded the life of Gamby.
Step 4: Ask your students to discuss the credibility grade they have given the theory of the Frozen Man. Have a class discussion on the strong and weaker evidence surrounding the Gamby story. In doing this, you can always go back to the list of criteria of strong evidence you made during the previous lesson.
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Lesson 6, Class 2
(Day 12 of Unit)
Activities:
Step 1: Go back with your students on the previous’ class work. Tell them that today, as a class, they will decide on which of the stories surrounding Jérôme represents the best, evidence-based history.
Step 2: Put your students in groups of experts. Have each group review the stories surrounding Jérôme using the following documents, and add these to Support Materials 9 or 10 as appropriate:
Suggested documents:
Who Is He?
Authentic Story of Jerome the Legless Mystery of Meteghan, Now Related by A.W. Savary
Jérome
“Jerome” Dead And His Secret Dies With Him
Each document is fairly long and can be read in advance by students as homework.
Step 3: Ask each team to tell how many points each version of the story got and see which story gets the most points (add the points from each team). The story with the most points will win and will be acted out by the students. Alternatively, students can arrange a debate where students can present evidence to try to change each others’ minds before the next class.
Step 4: Students conclude by writing a timeline of what happened to the ‘real’ Jérôme. This will provide the foundation of the plot and characters of the play.
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Lesson 7:
Who was the Historical Jérôme? The Performance
Days 13 to 16 of the Lesson
(4 classes)
Overview:
Students write and perform a play that successfully reveals the history behind the legend of Jérôme.
Lesson 7, Day 1
Activities:
Step 1: Present the project to your class. Explain that they will act out the history behind the legend of Jérôme, based on the best interpretation of evidence that they have just concluded. The form of the presentation can differ: it can either be a theatrical play in front of an audience composed of class members not playing a role or of other students from different classes. This can also become a bigger project (in link with a citizenship/community project) and be presented to primary students or at a Seniors’ Home.
(Note: Students, those who are writing, designing, and acting, should all make good use of the rubrics relating to characters, “plot”, and historical context that they worked on throughout this unit)
Step 2: Have students choose their roles. Teachers here can draw names from a hat, have a democratic vote, or decide who will play whom beforehand. The cast of actors should be chosen among the following (depending on the story chosen by the students):
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Jérôme
Angus Morrison Gidney
Dedier Comeau
George Bennison
Honorable Senator George Gerard King
John Hutchison
Judge A.W. Savary
Pere Feridnand Blanchet
Samuel Gidney
Victoire Comeau
Willie Comeau
Elisabeth Comeau
George Gallager
Jean Nicolas
John Meechi
Julite Nicolas
Reverend James Daly
Samuel White
W.B. Vail
George Albright
Henry Peters
John Brown
John O’Leary
Mgr Alphone Benoit Cote
Robert Bishop
William Eldridge
Other important roles for the play will be:
- The stage manager
- The props and decors team
- Lighting, if necessary
- The background music
- Costumes and make-up artists (if necessary)
(Note: If you want to have your students do this play but do not have the time for a bigger project, you can tone this performance down by having groups of 4 students perform their play in front of other members of the class. In this case, students must play more than one role during the play.)
(Note: Another possibility is to cut the play in sections depending on the narrative chosen and have different groups of students play the different roles in front of their own class. Here props and decors become a lot less important and can be brought from home the day of the performance.)
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Step 3: In order to help your students be the most effective, it is important to have them work in small teams with well-defined tasks.
Students doing the background decors and the props should start on the different area the play will represent.
(Note: If you are doing the smaller version of the play, have students acting the same part of the narrative regroup to choose who will be playing whom and using the same documents have them write down the dialogue.)
Homework: Students have to play a role, should learn their texts, and all students should be ask to bring from their house props or costumes for their characters.
Lesson 7, Day 2
Have students finish the sets while the actors practice their lines. You should be able to have a short dress rehearsal before the class ends.
Homework: Try to have students practice the play during lunch hours if possible.
Lesson 7, Day 3
Students present the play.
Lesson 7, Day 4
Evaluation: Now that students have performed their version of the play, you can show them the movie Jérôme, and ask the student how the filmmaker’s point of view, and use of evidence, differed from their own.
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