Through this lesson, students will explore primary sources related to the buying and selling of human beings for the purpose of slavery. Students will analyze receipts from stores and discuss what they demonstrate about modern society. Students will then analyze the language and iconography used in bills of sale pertaining to the buying and selling of slaves in the 19th century. The students will write a paragraph to compare and contrast the items from both eras.
This lesson was created in partnership with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
Students will explore two NCSS Notable Trade Books and a newspaper advertisement to develop an understanding of what life was like for slaves in the nineteenth century. Students will use their understanding to write a narrative story about being a slave in the nineteenth century. Students will use the website MyStorybook to create and publish their stories.
Students will explore an article about education in the early nineteenth century and a newspaper article from 1818 to determine what education was like in the early nineteenth century. Students will investigate the documents and find text evidence to find out what schools were like in the early nineteenth century. Students will use their findings to write a story.
In this lesson, students will explore the invention of the steamboat and the role it played in the economy, transportation, and culture of the lifestyles of plantation owners, yeoman farmers, slaves, and townspeople of early nineteenth-century Alabama. Students will compare and contrast steamboats, wagons, and stagecoaches as different modes of transportation for goods as well as people. Students will create a steamboat advertisement to illustrate the importance of the invention of the steamboat in Alabama.
Students will analyze a primary document and read a secondary source about the Marquis de Lafayette's Grand Tour of the United States in 1825. The Marquis and his entourage toured lower Alabama for a few days in April.
Students will create an annotated timeline detailing his days and the events that occurred in Alabama as the country prepared to celebrate America's 50th birthday. The timeline will include dates and descriptions of the people, places, and events in informative summaries as well as appropriate illustrations.
In this lesson, students will be able to describe cultural aspects of early nineteenth century townspeople by reading a newspaper article describing the opening of a new school. Students will also be able to discuss, infer, and write from a variety of perspectives when explaining the roles of various people mentioned in the article.
This lesson will provide students with two primary documents, a drawing of a postal stagecoach and a newspaper article outlining the difficulties of mail delivery. Students will complete a graphic organizer to provide evidence that details a specific perspective described in the documents.
Students will examine the cultural and economic aspects of the early nineteenth century and will refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences. Students will be able to explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points of view.
Students will read from an Alabama newspaper about President James Monroe's surprise visit to Huntsville. The article discusses the purposes of the visit, the locals who welcomed and entertained the President, and his discussion of current (1819) events.
Students will analyze a primary document that details items purchased to celebrate the Marquis de Lafayette's tour of Alabama in April 1825. Students will create an invitation to the celebration, including the What, Where, When, Why, What to Bring, and R.S.V.P. Students will include details from the secondary source, as well as the primary document, to include on the invitation. The event will be explained utilizing the format of the invitation.
This lesson is part of the SSC3 A+ College Ready training.
Students will watch a video on the history of the quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama. After watching the video and discussing the lifestyle of the citizens of Gee's Bend, the students will create a classroom quilt that reflects their personalities and lifestyles. The class will have to use factor pairs to decide the best way to assemble the quilt.
This activity was created as a result of the Arts COS Resource Development Summit.
In this learning activity, students follow the path of a slave in 1860 as he courageously travels the underground railroad to freedom. With this interactive, students get a unique, first-hand account of what life was like for slaves. Students encounter the dangers of the Underground Railroad and meet brave abolitionists who helped runaways and compare life in the North and South.
In this learning activity, students analyze images of tools used on rice plantations to determine each tool's purpose. Students will study these objects to learn about slavery and the lives of the slaves who worked on rice plantations.
In this interactive game, students build a sod house by choosing the proper construction of the house. If they choose too many wrong answers, the house will collapse! This game will help students understand the challenges settlers faced while trying to survive on the open prairie.
In this activity, students learn about life in a sod house by looking at photographs (primary sources) and answering questions.
In this learning activity, students analyze newspaper advertisements (primary source) regarding runaway slaves from the Charleston Mercury, a South Carolina newspaper, to learn about the Underground Railroad.
In this learning activity, students will use their "senses" to see, smell, and feel what it would have been like to live on a prairie long ago.
In this learning activity, students read Dakota Dugout by Ann Turner. They look at an object that would have been important to a woman living in a sod house and try to determine what the object is.
This is a collection of images of steamboats, artifacts, and articles about transportation and changes in transportation in the early nineteenth century.
