Fane, a team leader and seventh-grade science teacher, was selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities as a Summer Scholar. She was among 80 teachers from across the country chosen to participate in the program. The Endowment is a federal agency that supports Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops so teachers can study with experts in humanities disciplines. Participants received a $1,200 stipend for travel, study and living expenses.

Fane traveled to New Bedford, Mass., to experience Sailing to Freedom - The Underground Railroad. The workshop’s presenters included nationally known scholars of the Underground Railroad, the antebellum Abolitionist Movement and African-Americans in maritime trades.

“I look for interesting professional development opportunities every summer, and I am a lover of black history,” said Fane. “I found the NEH website and decided to apply. My knowledge of the Underground Railroad, like many, is limited to what’s been told about Harriet Tubman and Quakers who assisted in the escape of slaves to the North. I pursued the opportunity to increase my understanding of the operation of the system and those who made it happen.”

As she prepared for the workshop, Fane hoped that she would have the chance to “walk the land the slaves walked” and visit “historical stops on their journeys to freedom.”

“When I made that statement, little did I know what I was to face,” she said. “New Bedford was a safe haven for fugitive slaves. Not only was it a safe haven, but it was a place that afforded a fugitive slave the same opportunities as a free black man or white man.

“Frederick Douglass became a resident of New Bedford, traveling by boat when he escaped his master. We know he was a great orator and spokesman for the abolition of slavery. So many enslaved African-Americans, free African-Americans, white Americans and Native Americans were instrumental in the movement. I was able to visit the Nathan and Polly Johnson Home and the Seamen’s Bethel, which housed fugitive slaves.”

Fane shared three of the most significant lessons she learned from the workshop.

“One, I learned that the account of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in history books is skewed and substandard. Two, most people think of the Underground Railroad as primarily being a by land movement, however, most African slaves escaped by waterways on boats. And three, the entire United States of America profited from the establishment of African slavery. It wasn’t just the Southern states as many are led to believe.”

The workshop included developing lesson plans for students.

“I have a curriculum that was given to the NEH Scholars by the USS Constitution Museum in Boston. It addresses the history of whaling and the role fugitive slaves played in the industry,” Fane explained.

“I have a lesson about Henry “Box” Brown, a fugitive slave who escaped his master by mailing himself in a box to Philadelphia. In this lesson, students will construct a tableau after reading and listening to Brown’s story. I also acquired a plethora of resources from the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the National Writing Project, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and several of the professors and scholars that I will share with my students during Learning Lab,” she said.

“My experience in New Bedford can’t be compared to any other professional experience I’ve had. From the informational documentaries and films to the field trips, walking tours and lectures, I learned how fugitive slaves sailed to freedom,” she said.

Fane would encourage anyone who is considering applying for the workshop to “just do it.”