Black Heritage The Underground Railroad Game

First of all, let me start off by saying that I am an African American High School English Teacher. I must say that I find absolutely NOTHING offensive about this board game. I understand that turning such a sensitive and tragic subject as the American Slave Trade into a "game" would come off as offensive, BUT the object of the game is to test students' knowledge in African American History. There is even differentiated instruction with the cards: There is a multiple choice question, a single response question, and a more open ended question. All of the questions on a single card are similar. They just vary in level of difficulty.

This product says it is appropriate for children age 6 and up, but the questions are quite advanced (high school level). A study guide should be provided, so teachers can easily teach the information players need to answer questions on the game cards. There are 11 spaces on each path. Players roll the die to move. That means a player could potentially reach the finish space in only 2 turns. Perhaps a coin should be used instead of a die, one side of the coin representing 1 space, the other side 2 spaces to make the game last longer. The game board is attractive and high quality.

At the expense of what capitalizm free speach? ya ya ya. You have the right to sell whatever you want - we have the right not to buy it. Yeah for Borders Books. Good-by Amazon. Hope more folks move away. Get conscious!

I have a second grade class and many of the questions were way too hard but there were enough at the right level for us to play if I chose the questions. This means the students can't play on their own but it also means that this game can work all the way from age 7 or 8 to middle school. It says 6 and up but I think that is a little young. Also I took another reviewers advice and used a plus/minus die where the minus was one space and the plus was two spaces, that way the game could go on longer and the kids would get more questions. I also didn't use the safe house and wagon spaces as anything different, the challenge cards are very advanced, except that we would acknowledge it when they landed on those spots and say "you're safe!" Anyway, the kids liked it and it helped me assess how much they had learned from their Underground Railroad unit.

Very educational and fun to play. I recommend this of educational game to all who wish to learn a small portion of time of American History.

I am curious about the very short and very negative reviews of this game. Have any of the reviewers actually played the game? They give no reason for their harsh review except that it is "insulting" etc. It may be insulting, but in what way? I would, in no way, be supportive of any game or book that was insulting to African-Americans, but what exactly is the problem? I ask this because the Underground Railroad is an important part of our history. It is a history of courage and the human fight for freedom. In a small way it might be about the whites, like the Quakers, who helped to make the Railroad work, but most importantly it is a story of amazing bravery - as anyone who knows the lives of Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, or Frederick Douglass would agree. If this game helps our children to learn about true bravery and the fight for freedom, about racial cooperation to achieve a pathway to liberation, then, again, I have to ask - what exactly is the problem?I also notice that there are no reviews at all for the OTHER underground railroad game for sale on Amazon, is this other game not insulting? Looking at the product descriptions they seem very similar. This is very odd indeed, I am beginning to think that there is something else going on here, a kind of reverse version of when authors borrow a friend's Amazon account to write glowing reviews of their own books.Having not played the game I have given it a "3" across the board just because the reviewing process requires a rating.

This is disgraceful and very inconsiderate of African Americans!!! I am tremendously offened by your sale of this demeaning product Amazon!!!!!!!! Perhaps I'll spend my money elsewhere.

My brilliant and marvelous multi-racial 4th grade "gifted" students loved this game. It was easy to play immediately (not a lot of pesky instructions to memorize first! Seriously, who wants to spend valuable play time reading and memorizing lots of rules? We're talking about kids here, not corporate lawyers.) One cautionary statement: the kids should have some prior knowledge of Civil War era U.S. History going in... or they should play the game with an educated adult a few times first. Not knowing any of the answers can take the fun out... but if they start already knowing an answer or two, the intermittent reinforcement (the most addictive pattern a human can experience...) will grab them. My students were hooked and a waiting list formed for who got to play next!