National Endowment for the Humanities We the People Summer Institute 2009

National Endowment for the Humanities “We the People” Summer Institute 2009

The Role of Slavery in the Rise of New England

The Two C’s= Commodities and Connection

A Lesson Plan

Audience: This lesson is designed for middle school students in grades 6-8. We use Howard Zinn’s, A Young People’s History of the United States as our textbook. Our school is located in western Massachusetts, an area whose economy was shaped by the forces of early industrialization.

Rationale: Intriguing information is resurfacing in scholarly writings regarding the connection between slavery and northern industry. This connection was not lost on the people involved in it in the 17th and 18th century. Over time, however, with the advent and aftermath of the American Civil War, a type of collective amnesia set in regarding the North’s role. In a classic “to the victor goes the spoils” scenario, Northerners controlled textbook manufacturing for the next century and the story of immoral South, noble abolitionists took hold. A more useful, truthful story is emerging that shows and entire nation benefiting from the slave labor of the South as well as the poorly paid wage laborer of the North. However, if the historical information only remains a scholarly, intellectual enterprise, a lesson plan or unit, then we have not done our job as educators. Students need to connect their knowledge with the present and look for the same patterns and behaviors today. We need to connect students with the human cost of the actions of others not only historically but in present day. That is the aim of this lesson which could be placed within a unit on antebellum industrialization.

Background Information: Housatonic, Massachusetts is located in southern Berkshire County at the base of Monument Mountain. It is a mill town. It still functions in this capacity in that one small paper mill still operates on the bank of the Housatonic River. Although there has been some attempt to use the textile mill buildings for a variety of uses which include a computer repair shop and a dance studio, most of the mill buildings have been shuttered. In its heyday, however, the complex at what was known as The Monument Mills had eleven buildings that were constructed in 1850. There had been a smaller mill on the property as early as the 1827. The mill constructed in 1850 was a cotton warp mill and became know by the 1870’s for a specific kind of jacquard cotton fabric used in quilts. The mill employed immigrant labor primarily from Poland and Italy. While the mill did not employ slave labor, it certainly benefited from the production of readily available cotton in the South. In this way, the actions of the mill owners helped perpetuate the slave trade as did the actions of those who bought the cloth manufactured at the mill.

The Plan:

Objective: Students will understand the interdependence in a commodity market. They will evaluate the human costs of commodities. Students will think about their own commodity consumption and modern actions to humanize the production of commodities.

Supplies Needed for the Lesson:

1) Hershey’s Chocolate Bar

2) Green and Black’s Organic Bar

3) Picture of a Mill…available by clicking on Document One and scrolling to the bottom of the page

4) Balls of Cotton…or preferably cotton from the South.

5) Sock

6) Dollar Bill

Day One Introduction:

Have students go to the dictionary and look up the word commodity. Wordmonkey defines it as an article of commerce synonymous with trade goods. Discuss what this means.

Question:

What are some important commodities past and present?

Day One Body:

1) Show students a mill picture (building only)- include a bit of history of where this particular mill is located , a sock, a bag of cotton and a dollar bill.

2) Divide students into groups of three or four people. Ask them to write down the following:

- How are these three things connected? Relate them to one another in a step by step

process.

- What is the missing element that is needed to bring these things together?

3) Discuss the students findings. “People” should be the answer to the missing element.

4) Discuss with students what types of people are needed at each stage? Do some have more worth than others? Why or why not? How do we decide?

Day One Wrap-up:

Write a Op Ed piece to a local newspaper in 1855. You are a Southern planter. You have been reading many articles written by Massachusetts abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. You run across this poster. What would you say in response to Northerners given what we looked at today. The op-ed piece should be about 150 words.

Day Two Introduction:

Have students read some of their op-ed pieces.

Day Two Body:

1) Show them the Hershey’s Bar.

Questions:

- Is this a commodity? What would / do you trade for this?

- Where does it come from?

2) Have students read “Chocolate Firms Launch Fight against ‘slave free’ Labels” and “Chocolate Industry Accepts Responsibility for Child Labor” (See links below- #3 and #4)

3) Discuss reaction to articles with the students.

Day Two Wrap Up:

1) Show them a Green and Black’s Organic Bar. Give them Green and Black’s website address: Review their story for homework.

Assessment:

1) Choose a common, desired commodity and answer these questions:

- What resources are involved? Where do they come from?

- How are human beings involved in the process? What types of jobs does the

commodity create? Who is paid well? Who is not?

- Is the process environmentally responsible?

- Is the manufacture and consumption of this product consistent with the ideals of the

Declaration of Independence and The Constitution?

2) Present you findings in a short paper or a powerpoint.

Enrichment:

1) Students could Google and watch “The History of Stuff” and write a short (300 word) response.

Documents:

1) http://eev.liu.edu/wall/millHistory.htm

Bibliography: