Subject Areas |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - Colonial America and the New Nation |
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Time Required |
| 1: One class period
2: One to two class periods
3: One to two class periods |
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Skills |
| Listening
Speaking
Investigating
Observing and describing
Interpreting written, oral, and visual information
Comparing and contrasting
Making inferences
Thinking critically
Representing ideas and information orally, graphically, and in writing
Working collaboratively |
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Additional Student/Teacher Resources |
| Historian's
Questions worksheet (PDF file) |
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Date Posted |
| 7/16/2002 |
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American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
IntroductionLife in the thirteen original British
colonies was very different than it is today. In this lesson, students will explore
daily life and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different
colonies—Delaware and Massachusetts. Students will become historical detectives
and learn to gather information from artifacts and make inferences about the lives
and times they represent. They will then use what they have learned to write historical
fiction in the form of friendly letters between fictitious cousins in Massachusetts
and Delaware. Guiding Question:What
was life like for people living in the original thirteen British colonies during
the late 1700s? How and why did life differ for families in different areas? How
did life in the colonies influence the lives we lead today? Learning
ObjectivesAfter completing these activities, students
will be able to: - Identify the original thirteen British colonies
on a map
- Understand how physical geography affected settlement
- Understand
how settlers' backgrounds influenced their values, priorities, and daily lives
- Examine artifacts and make inferences about the people and the historical
periods that they represent
- Imagine typical daily life for different
families in colonial America in the late 1700s
- Write a letter from the
viewpoint of someone who lived in a different time and place
Preparing
to Teach this LessonFirst, read the entire lesson
to get a sense of the content involved. You should be familiar with core facts
about colonial life in various regions. See key ideas listed within individual
activities below. Review the Web sites embedded in the activities. For
profiles of colonial life in different regions, go to Colonial Culture, available through EDSITEment-reviewed
resource Digital History,
and read background information about New England, Middle Colonies, and Chesapeake
Colonies. You may also want to read about Colonial Culture, Colonial Economy,
and Colonial Government and Politics. Any
other resources you have available related to colonial life might offer additional
information for you or your students. Make
copies of maps, worksheets, and any other resources you will distribute to students.
Suggested Activities 1.
Defining the British Colonies Distribute
to all students a blank map of the United States. Ask students to label the thirteen
original English colonies in pencil to the best of their knowledge. If you need
a blank U.S. map, you can print one from the EDSITEment-reviewed
resource National
Geographic Xpeditions. In the Atlas, select "United States of America" and
choose "Basic" to get a blank map of the U.S. today. After
students have attempted to label the colonies, show them a map of the U.S. colonies
and territories in 1775. You can find such a U.S.
Territorial Map 1775, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource American
Studies at UVA. You can either project or distribute this map. Ask
students to correctly label their maps with the names of the 13 original English
colonies in ink. Then ask them to color three different colonial regions in different
colors using colored pencils: New England, Middle Colonies, and Southern Colonies.
They should also make a key, which includes a list of colonies in each region
(see below). Key:
New England—Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island (Vermont and Maine came later) Middle
Colonies—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware Southern Colonies—Maryland,
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia Students
should also trace the lines of the Mississippi River and the Ohio River. Then
they should shade in the section between the original colonies and the Mississippi,
and label this region "British Territories." They should shade the part of the
country west of the Mississippi with another color or marking and label it "Other
Territories." Finally, they should label the map "The British Colonies in 1775."
Once they have finished, discuss as a class
the significance of physical geography in the late 1700s, when colonists were
settling the area that is now the United States. Some ideas to address in the
discussion might include the following: - Settlements
needed to be near waterways because boats were the most practical way to transport
cargo. In particular, access to the Atlantic Ocean was crucial at the time, as
trade with Britain, the rest of Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa was essential
to the colonial American economy.
- Geographical barriers such as rivers
and mountains limited settlement because transportation technology was much less
developed than it is now.
- Climate and geography had a major impact on
the crops that settlers could grow for food and for trade. Tobacco, imported from
Trinidad in 1612, became an important export crop for the Southern Colonies, where
it grew particularly well. In addition, other crops such as corn and wheat grew
well throughout the colonies. Fishing developed as an important industry, especially
in New England, where ocean geography offered ideal conditions for abundant fish
populations. About 4/5 of the colonial population were farmers. Approximately
¼ of the colonial population were slaves, brought to the colonies against their
will from Africa in the triangular trade system, in which European manufactured
commodities were traded for slaves in Africa, who were then traded for agricultural
commodities such as sugar, cotton, and tobacco to be taken back to Europe and
the colonies.
- All land was taken from Native Americans, either peacefully
or forcefully. Native American friendliness was the only way that the initial
colonies survived. Native American communities did not have the same sense of
land ownership that Europeans had; they shared the land they occupied rather than
staking a claim. Thus, there was a major cultural difference between the Europeans
and the Native Americans, which resulted in major displacements of the latter.
Next,
discuss with students what was going on during that period in American history.
Some ideas to address in the discussion might include the following: - People
came to the colonies for different reasons, such as seeking freedom from religious
persecution, seeking fortune, or being kidnapped and enslaved. Naturally, their
reasons for coming and their backgrounds had an impact on their values and priorities.
- Life was very different in the various colonies. For example, slaves,
who were an important part of the economic system, made up about 40% of the population
in the Southern colonies at that time, while they were less common in the Northern
Colonies. Agriculture was the primary industry in most colonies, but almost universally
in the South. In New England, government was organized around town councils, whereas
the Middle and Southern Colonies generally tended to organize their governments
around counties. (This is still true.) Desire for religious freedom was a major
incentive for settling in New England and the Middle Colonies, whereas economic
opportunity was a primary factor in the settlement of the Southern Colonies. The
Middle Colonies were settled largely by non-English Europeans, including Swedish,
Dutch, and Germans, Swiss, French, Scottish, and Welsh.
- Despite their
differences, people in all colonies were becoming increasingly discontent with
British colonial rule and its various manifestations, especially taxation without
representation. Other concerns included British regulation of trade, mandates
to house and feed British military, and lack of due process of law (fair trials).
It is this discontent with British rule that united the diverse colonies in a
fight for independence from Britain.
- During the Revolutionary years,
leaders from each colony joined together to a) claim independence from Britain
and b) set up a unified government.
2.
Investigating Life in Early America This
activity will introduce students to the work of historians by asking them to glean
information about people in the past from artifacts they left behind. First, ask
students if they know what an artifact is. Explain that an artifact is any object
created by people, and that historians use artifacts to learn about life in the
past. Discuss examples of artifacts in the classroom (e.g., book, desk, pencil,
etc.) and what they might tell someone in the future about people's lives today.
Explain the difference between an observation
and an interpretation. For example, you might observe that a book has writing
inside. Then you might make the interpretation that a large number of books in
the classroom might indicate that people do a lot of reading for information there.
But this is not a proven fact based solely on the observation that there are books
in the room. They could be used as booster seats! This is an important note about
the work of historians—the stories they tell about the past include many interpretations
based on observations of artifacts as well as other primary sources, which include
actual accounts of the past from people who were there at the time. Even these
accounts involve some interpretation from the person giving them, however. Of
course the more evidence there is, the stronger the likelihood that interpretations
are accurate. Next, divide the class into
two groups: the Ipswich, Massachusetts group and the Mill Creek, Delaware group.
The Massachusetts group should investigate the Choate family at the Within
These Walls Web site, available on the Smithsonian
Institution National Museum of American History, through the EDSITEment-reviewed
resource Digital History,
and fill out the Historian's
Questions worksheet, provided in pdf format, based on their investigation.
The Delaware group should go investigate the Springer family at the Smithsonian
Web site You Be
the Historian and fill out the same worksheet. Depending
on how many computers you have available, you many need to use different configurations
of students. If you have a computer lab available, all students can work at the
same time. If you only have a few computers available, you can divide the class
into groups of 3-5 students and rotate the groups at the computer while the other
students work on another activity. When not
at the computer, students can do the following activity: Print out and distribute
Rules of Civility
& Decent Behavior, available through EDSITEment-reviewed resource The
Papers of George Washington. Explain that this was a popular document used
in schools at the time, and this version of the list was found copied into George
Washington's notebook when he was about 16. Ask students to read the list and
write a paragraph explaining what it tells you about the life of a colonial adolescent
in the 1700s and another paragraph telling how his or her life might compare to
theirs. (You may want to copy and paste the text into a new document for better
printing.) According to the American
Treasures of the Library of Congress, available through EDSITEment-reviewed
resource American Memory Collection: "A
youthful George Washington copied out these 110 simple 'Rules of Civility &
Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation' as a school training exercise.
This code of conduct is a simplified version of Francis Hawkins' Youths Behavior,
or Decency in Conversation Amongst Men, which was based on a sixteenth-century
set of rules compiled for young gentlemen by Jesuit instructors. Washington's
handwriting, grammar, and spelling reflect his youth, and the 'Rules' reflect
his strong desire to be a gentleman planter." When
students have completed their investigations, spend some time as a class discussing
their findings. 3.
Dear Cousin In this activity, students
write letters to each other from the perspectives of children in the Springer
and Choate families. Tell students that they should imagine that the Springer
and Choate families are cousins. Those who have studied the Springer family will
identify themselves as one of their children and write a letter to a cousin in
the Choate family. Those who have studied the Choate family will identify themselves
as one of their children and write a letter to a cousin in the Springer family.
Students should use all they have learned from their studies of the family's artifacts
as well as other learning experiences about colonial life in America to write
a letter that is authentic, although they are encouraged to use their imaginations
to create realistic details. Letters should
follow standard friendly letter format and should include, at a minimum, the following
components: - A date (month, day, and year)
- A description of the child's day,
- A reference to at least one
other member of the household,
- A reference to the setting (e.g., the
season, the house, the community),
- An issue of concern,
- A source
of excitement,
- At least two questions.
Letters
should be distributed to members of the other group, so that each student receives
one. If there is time, students should respond to the letters they receive, which
will give them a chance to learn more about the other family and how their lives
are both similar and different. Finally, discuss
as a group (or in small groups) how life in colonial America is both similar to
and different from life in America today. Ask students to identify ways in which
colonial pioneers influenced the way we live now. You can let the conversation
flow naturally, or you can choose one or more themes to prompt focused discussion.
Some possible themes to discuss might include the following: - Freedom
(religious, economic, political)
- Capitalism
- Individuality and
independence
- Democracy
- Innovation
- Racism
- Euro-centrism
- International trade
- Land ownership
- Power
Extending the Lesson- Ask students to
choose three artifacts from their own households. Then have each student write
a paragraph about each explaining what it shows about the family's daily life
and the historical period in which they live, geared at an audience of historians
from 2100.
- Have students create and perform scenes from a day in the
Springer family's life or a day in the Choate family's life.
- Have students
draw or paint a picture of a scene at the Springer home or the Choate home.
- Send
students to America's
Library, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed resource American
Memory Project (Library of Congress), and ask them to "Jump Back in Time"
and explore the sections entitled "Colonial America" and "Revolutionary Period."
Ask each student to find and read one story of interest about an individual who
was important to American history. Then ask them to take on the persona of that
individual and give a brief speech explaining why he or she is important to American
history.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Standards Alignment
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