Elijah of Buxton

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

Activity 1: “Mapping Buxton”

In this activity, students will create and label a map of Buxton, using both primary sources and the text.

In Elijah of Buxton, the setting plays a key role in developing the tone and establishing the pace of the novel. One of the author’s tasks in developing that setting was to research the real Buxton and look at maps of the area. Often authors create maps to help them tell their story and create a real sense of place.

• Review the novel’s setting. Where do the characters travel and how are those places connected to one another?
• Look at the real Buxton and the surrounding area using online mapping tools and satellite imagery. What other landmarks (such as towns, borders, or rivers) mentioned in the novel appear on real-world maps?
• The website for the Buxton Museum might also be a helpful resource.

Use what you have learned to create a detailed map of Buxton and the surrounding area.

• Your main map should be a detailed view of Buxton as seen through Elijah’s eyes, including labeled landmarks like the school, his home, and the homes of his friends and neighbors.
• Include an inset that reveals the larger surrounding area.
• Your map should also include captions showing where at least 5 events from the novel took place.
• Feel free to use color and detailed drawings in addition to the noting masses of lands, roads, rivers, and other geographical details.

When you have completed the map, evaluate your work with a small group of classmates. Could you write about the novel’s setting using one another’s maps? In what ways are the maps helpful in understanding the novel’s plot? What other fictional worlds could you map based on the author’s writing?

Teaching Suggestion: Students will have an opportunity in this activity to engage with often-overlooked aspects of the writing process, especially in fictionalized stories based on historical events and places: research and mapping. Students can use this opportunity to review the text in preparation for future activities and assessments. Including the plot points as a requirement for the map is an engaging way to create this opportunity.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who are tactile learners, or students who seek chances to work with technology, consider offering the option to create a diorama of Buxton made from craft objects or to use online world-building software.

ACTIVITY 2: “Maroon Communities and Freedom”

In this activity, students will research maroon communities throughout the Atlantic world.

As you learned in the novel and author’s note, Elgin is one of many free Black communities in the Buxton-Chatham area of Ontario, Canada. Did you know there were many others like it around the world? Wherever African people were enslaved, there were routes to freedom, and at the ends of many of those routes, there were communities like Buxton. Review the list below. Choose one name, place, or keyword to start your research, or suggest your own based on maps of enslaved people’s escape routes. 

• Free Black Communities in
• Canada
• Philadelphia
• Boston
• New Orleans
• Washington, DC
• Nova Scotia (Canada)
• Liberia (West Africa)
• Texas
• Mexico
• Nanny the Maroon (Jamaica)
• Cimarrones or Maroons (Colombia)
• Maroons in Latin America

As you read, gather information about facts you didn’t know before. Focus on basic information in order to provide an overview for your peers:

• Where is this place located?
• How did people get there?
• From where did people mostly escape from?
• What is logical about the placement of the settlement for escaped formerly enslaved people?
• Who were some of the individuals who lived there?
• What were their lives like in the settlement?
• Which laws and changes in history affected the formation of the place and the people living there?
• Can people visit museums or cultural centers in the area today to find out more? if so, name them.

Plan a community teaching event at which you and your classmates share what you have learned using presentations, slides, graphics, videos, and/or songs.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity will enrich student learning by demonstrating that Buxton was one of many maroon communities around the world. Formerly enslaved people found ways to build community, stay safe, and live freely, sometimes in slavery-holding territories, right under the noses of the authorities. Exposure to this aspect of the history will help students learn more about the widespread impact of enslavement and offers a chance to utilize research and presentation skills.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Elijah of Buxton is primarily a character study of the main character, Elijah Freeman, and his community members.

• How does Elijah grow and change over the course of the novel? (topic sentence)
• Compare Elijah’s words, thoughts, and actions at the beginning of the novel to his actions and behaviors in the end. Provide at least 3 specific examples of comparison in support of your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize the way in which Elijah’s community contributed to his growth and development.

2. Throughout the novel, Elijah struggles with being seen as “fra-gile.” He often sees it as a weakness, as do many of the adults around him.

• How does the author show Elijah’s “fra-gility” as both a strength and a weakness? (topic sentence)
• Provide evidence supporting how Elijah’s fragility is both a strength and a weakness. Choose the strongest scenes or situations from the novel to discuss and analyze in support of your topic sentence. Consider Elijah’s decisions and impact on those around him in your selections.
• Conclude your essay by suggesting other words for Elijah’s “fra-gility” and how they connect to your examples.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Elijah, Pa, and other characters frequently question the actions and true motivations of the Preacher, The Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly the Third. In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, analyze and discuss this character and his role in the novel. Is he a villain, a hero, or something in between? Provide text evidence to support your answer.

2. Elijah often thinks of major moments in his life as things he will recall even if he lives to be 50 years old. Of all the lessons Elijah learns from experience, which one is he most likely to remember for the rest of his life? Which made the most profound impression on him? Communicate clear rationale for your choice in a structured paragraph. Include a connection to at least one of the novel’s themes in your response.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Elijah prefer mules over riding horses?

A) Horses are too unfriendly and stubborn.

B) Seeking adventures off the regular path is much easier on a mule.

C) Mule riding is easy-going, deliberate, and slow-paced.

D) Horses are too difficult to find in Buxton.

2. What does it mean when a character says, “Tell your [parent/spouse/friend] I asked about them?”

A) It is a casual way of saying hello.

B) It is a secret message between adults.

C) It is a way to avoid talking to one another.

D) It is a parent’s code to check up on children’s doings.

3. Elijah have a suspicion that the Preacher killed both “slave catchers” and kept both of their guns for himself. What aspect of the Preacher’s character leads Elijah to this conclusion?

A) Greed

B) Craftiness

C) Ambition

D) Secretiveness

4. What makes it difficult for Elijah to understand the ways adults think?

A) Elijah, like his friend Cooter, does not learn from mistakes.

B) The adults in his life often say one thing and do another.

C) Elijah feels intimidated by adults and doesn’t understand why they are so scary.

D) The adults in Elijah’s life don’t try to teach him anything.

5. Mrs. Holton is the only Buxton resident who paid cash for her land and didn’t have to borrow any money to pay for her land and house. Where did Mrs. Holton’s gold come from?

A) Mrs. Holton happened upon the gold during her escape from slavery.

B) Mrs. Holton earned her freedom and inheritance when her father and former master died.

C) Mrs. Holton is a former outlaw who robbed banks and stole from the rich on her way to Buxton.

D) Mrs. Holton’s husband stole the gold from their former enslaver.

6. Which of these ideas best represents the depths of the sacrifices enslaved African people are willing to make for their own children to have freedom?

A) The preacher’s helping his son, MaWee, to escape to freedom at gunpoint

B) Mr. Leroy working day and night to save up for his family’s freedom

C) Elijah’s grandmother insisting that if she ever got so close to Canada again she would attempt escape and never return

D) Mrs. Holton’s saving her money for her family to be able to buy, escape to, and fund their own freedom

7. Why did Elijah vow to never play “abolitionists and enslavers” ever again?

A) His real-life experience with the enslaved people teaches him that those roles should not be treated like a game.

B) He decides that the game is rooted in racist, disempowering stereotypes regarding who is free and who is enslaved.

C) His cousin who escaped from slavery tells him what being enslaved was really like, and he sees the game does not compare.

D) His experience with MaWee and the Preacher teaches him that freedom is not easy to attain or keep.

8. What is the purpose of the speech Elijah’s father and others give to the newly freed? Why is everything “the most beautiful” it has ever been?

A) It helps them to recognize situations in which they will need to hide or lie.

B) It helps them to see the more difficult aspects of life from now on.

C) It requires the whole community to welcome and celebrate newcomers with enthusiasm.

D) It celebrates freedom as an opportunity, which makes the world look new again.

9. Which of the following ideas best represents the novel’s theme of Strength of Community and Family?

A) The welcome ritual the community does to welcome new residents

B) The women and children gathering to comfort Mrs. Holton and her children in their time of need

C) Elijah’s leaving Cooter a note on his way to Michigan with Mr. Leroy

D) Elijah’s mother and father purchasing cookies from Mrs. Brown

10. What feeling most strongly motivates Elijah to accompany Mr. Leroy to Michigan while the town decides what to do about the Preacher?

A) Guilt

B) Anger

C) Betrayal

D) Pity

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How does Elijah learn the lesson that “familiarity breeds content?” Explain the lesson and how he learned it.

2. In what ways does Elijah exhibit the Buxton community creed, “One helping one to uplift all” (Chapter 3)? Provide at least two examples from the text.