Supporting Question
Why does John P. Parker’s story matter?
For the formative performance task, use the sources to answer the following questions:
What are the important events in this person’s life? What emotions did this person experience throughout their life?
What did this person invent? What other inventions have been done in this area?
What do we know about the biases this person faced and how they responded? How did their responses compare to other people of their time?
How much—if it all—did the person’s life change after their inventions? Did they receive credit for their invention? Did they profit from it?
In what ways did this person address social issues of their day?
Featured Sources
Source A
Talk about Patents
Source B
His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad, edited by S. Sprague. The John P. Parker Historical Society, 1996.
“...I [John Parker] now went to asking her [Mrs. Ryder] to buy my freedom, letting me pay her back from my
earnings.
She was frank enough to tell me that the proposition did not appeal to her, because I was always in trouble, and
could not keep a job...
...I went to make a final plea to Mrs. Ryer, she refused to see me. I was desperate, so I held on, until she finally
agreed to see me...I finally made her the proposition that while I was sure I could pay her back in two years, I
would stay another year if only she would buy my freedom...
It was my persistency that finally won her consent...for she agreed to release me as soon as I had paid her in ful.
My contract all signed and agreed to called for the payment of $1,800, with interest, to be paid at the rate of $10
per week...
...In exactly 18 months after I entered into the contract with Mrs. Ryder, I made my last payment to her, starting
forth as a free man.”
Source C
John P. Parker Elementary School
“The school is named for John P. Parker, who was a conductor in the Underground Railroad. This African-American gentleman was a lover of books. Consequently, in the spirit of his legacy, John P. Parker is a school, ‘where good students read good books.’”
Source D
“John P. Parker Elementary teaches kids healthy habits, hands-on science,” WCPO 9, 2017
Source E
His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker, Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad, edited by S. Sprague. The John P. Parker Historical Society, 1996.
“...I assisted 440 fugitives on their way to Canada. For years I kept an accurate list of names, dates, and original homes
of the fugitives...When the Fugitive Slave Law agitation was at its highest...my little memorandum book I dropped
quietly in...my own foundry, so no one knew its existence, especially its damaging content. But the work went on just
the same, in fact more aggressively that ever...”