NHD process paper

This is my National History Process paper everyone had to write one except the people who did a paper for the type of project I did
Process Paper

I started with many possible topics for my National History Day project. I started out with different options: the underground railroad; how Mount Airy is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Philadelphia; people trying to get rid of Mayor Rizzo; and Suffragettes. I narrowed it down to Mt Airy being a diverse neighborhood or the underground railroad. The next day, I asked my social studies teacher which would be best. He handed me a book titled The Underground Rail Road. It was decided. I would do my report on the Underground Railroad which then evolved into a study of William Still who was known as “the Father of the Underground Rail Road.” William Still was the author of the book my teacher gave me. I have always been interested in the Underground Railroad and slavery. Prior to this research, I had never heard of William Still specifically, but knew of the underground railroad, Harriet Tubman, and stories of slaves trying to escape from slavery.
Initially, I began my research with the book William Still wrote himself; skimming through it to get some ideas. I then went to the library to checkout some books and went online to look at websites. I scheduled an interview at the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum. I also interviewed a women named Gloria Still, who is the great great grand niece of Williams Still. Those two interviews and prior research completed last year on this topic in Constitution High’s archives were the most important sources. I used a variety of sources but needed to use more primary sources so I went back to my original sources.
I had some difficulty with the annotated bibliography. For a couple of the websites I couldn’t get all the information I needed. For example, the websites didn’t have the author or the date published, and if it didn’t have that information I then had to use part of the URL address. To do the MLA format correctly, you need all the pieces of information MLA format lists, otherwise it is wrong. The way I overcame those challenges was to go back to the book or website and get the information I needed.
For my project I chose to create a play. I chose this over the other projects because I enjoy acting and my teacher said that plays and papers aren’t done as often so those two categories have more of a chance of going to the next level of competition. I first thought of stories or characters that stood out to me. For example, Henry “Box” Brown who mailed himself to Philadelphia so he would be free was very interesting; or the story of Williams’s father buying his freedom from the plantation owner but he wasn’t allowed to buy the rest of his families’ freedom. The second step was to create a script after I choose the setting. I realized that my script was limited and needed to enrich Still’s experience so I included more dialogue about the context of my story and organizations that Still interacted with. The third step was rehearsing and revision as I rehearsed. When the steps are laid out they are: brainstorm, type, revise, add on, rehearse revise and rehearse.
This year’s National History Day theme is conflict and compromise. The conflict of my project is blacks were being forced to be slaves and work on plantations. Blacks wanted to live freely without being separated from the rest of their family and being treated as inanimate objects. The compromise was black slaves ran away and were helped/given aid by William Still at the Vigilant Committee in Philadelphia. The other conflict is the story of how blacks were being treated cruelly and inhumanely wasn’t being heard until William Still decided to record their stories.