flow of history

From their own pens...

2012-02-27T12:41:00.001-05:00

What were the experiences of Civil War soldiers as they left home, experienced camp life, and fought in their first battles? The University of Vermont and Vermont Historical Society are collaborating on a digitizing project to bring these experiences to the internet, directly from the soldiers' own pens.

You can view the original letter or a typed transcription. Each letter also has a brief description of the writer, recipient, and topic(s). For instance, the little clipping below is accompanied by:

Hiram H. Barton was born in 1836 at Crown Point, N.Y., the son of William A. and Electa (Taylor) Barton. He served in Co. C, 96th New York State Volunteers. He married Jennie Abbie Johnson on September 5, 1869 in Bridport, Vermont. He died there of a cerebral abscess on April 6, 1903 and was buried in the Bridport Village Cemetery.

Hiram Barton's one letter was written to his sister, Melissa Barton, and describes his regiment, the soldiers' clothes, and the barracks.

It is also possible to search the website by topics such as: African-Americans, battles, desertion, diseases, drill tactics, fugitive slaves, homesickness, grief, slavery, religion, and many others. To find topics, just click on Browse the Collection.

Teachers are beginning to use the collection in a variety of ways. One teacher is having students choose topics to research and collect quotes related to the topics. Students then find historic photographs to connect to the quotes and share via Google presentation. Another teacher had his students collect quotes on topics which they will then use to compare with stories they gather from veterans in their community today..

Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel

2012-01-23T11:22:00.005-05:00

Starting with Civil War battle scenes that showcase the fury of battle with a terrifying immediacy and moving through to Lincoln’s address, author/illustrator Butzer brings home the sentiment behind the history-making cemetery dedication with a substance and reality that is very timely. Combining words from actual letters of the time with accessible and expressive art, he introduces young readers to the idea that they may owe something to those who sacrificed all they had for democracy. YA

Flow of History teachers arrived at book discussion either loving or hating this graphic novel. Some teachers had never read a graphic novel before. By the end of the session, just about everyone grew to appreciate how well the author was able to depict Gettysburg as a turning point in the war.

The Gettysburg Address

2012-01-16T11:15:00.000-05:00

Four score and seven years ago....

The Smithsonian History Explorer has an interactive exhibit on the Gettysburg Address where students can hear it read and examine the original document as well as the transcription.

Teacher Tip Sheet for Exploring the Gettysburg Address
http://historyexplorer.si.edu/search/resource.asp?id=1815

Background on the Gettysburg Address
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/gettysburg-address-1863mdashdefining-american-union#sect-background

Background on the Emancipation Proclamation
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/emancipation-proclamation-freedoms-first-steps#sect-background

What a Girl Saw and Heard at Gettysburg

2012-01-09T11:03:00.000-05:00

When thinking about Civil War battles, it is easy to forget that civilians were caught up in the maelstrom. This little memoir recalls the experiences of a young girl who was present at Gettysburg.

The Shriver House Museum at Gettysburg also focuses on the civilian experience and draws its interpretation from this memoir.

The Expansion of Slavery

2012-01-02T11:30:00.005-05:00

Understanding why the expansion of the United States is key to understanding causes of the Civil War can be difficult for students. This political map and the chart below can help.

Reynolds’s Political Map of the United States (1856)

Spiraling Questions

Descriptive Questions:

When was this map published?

What do the different colors mean?

Interpretive Questions:

What is the Missouri Compromise Line and why is it highlighted?

What could happen if the Missouri Compromise was repealed?

Analytical Questions:

Why do you think this map was published?

Expanding the Federation Chart

Spiraling Questions

Descriptive Questions:

Using the Reynold’s Map and the chart, trace with your finger the admissions of each State beginning with Kentucky in 1790. What direction does your finger travel?

What do the numbers in each box mean?

Interpretive Questions:

Why were the states admitted as sets?

Look at the newspaper notice below the chart. What does it mean to have a “free soil” platform?

Analytical Questions:

Who had more power by the 1850s? North or South?

Why would the creation of the Republican party threaten the South?

You be the historian: Evaluating Causes of the Civil War

2011-12-19T11:52:00.003-05:00

Evaluating the Evidence is an interactive exercise that guides students through the process of evaluating primary sources in order to develop a thesis.

In this case, the primary source materials provide evidence for the relative importance of four different hypotheses about the causes of the Civil War:

Conflicting Economic Interests
Preservation of the Union
Slavery
State's Rights

Students evaluate the evidence and see if the primary sources provide enough support for their argument.

Another type of Pilgrim

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

In the Dummerston book group, we discussed ways to teach children about Thanksgiving that get beyond the Pilgrim story. Here are some picture books that might help.

Have you read Molly's Pilgrim? It's a beautiful story of a Russian Jewish child trying to fit into her new American classroom. When the teacher asks the children to create a "pilgrim" or "indian" for a Thanksgiving diorama, she and her Mother create their own idea of a "pilgrim".

How Many Days to America? is another favorite book which reminds us that people still seek refuge in America.

The immigrant community is not very visible in our part of Vermont, however many Cambodians have settled in the Burlington area. Two stunning, gruesome, and difficult books about this community are First They Killed My Father and Lucky Child by Loung Ung who escaped the Killing Fields and came to Vermont. These are adult reads.

Thank You Sarah,: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving tells the tale of Sarah Josepha Hale's 38-year quest to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Ignored or refused by administration after administration, she persisted until at last, President Lincoln, possibly persuaded by her argument that it would help to reunite the union, declared the fourth Thursday in November as a national holiday in 1863.

What Thanksgiving books do you use with students?

The Escape of Oney Judge

2011-11-21T12:35:00.000-05:00

The Escape of Oney Judge (pronounced "Ona") provides students with an exciting story about one of Martha Washington's slaves who escapes to Portsmouth, NH. It is an excellent accompaniment to the Washington Slave List or an alternative picture book to Chains.

The picture book opens up all sorts of discussion topics and questions for students.

Why wouldn't Martha Washington free her slaves?
How could a Founding Father have slaves?
What were the fugitive slave laws during the time?
How did the North respond to fugitive slaves at the time?

Oney's story is well-told on Wikipedia!

And here is a primary source to connect with the book:

George Washington's Slaves

2011-11-16T12:13:00.004-05:00

George Washington had slaves? This astounds students. This list of slaves, drawn up by George Washington sometime in 1799, provides a view into plantation life and offers many topics about colonial life for students to pursue in their own inquiry.

The slave list, available in a typescript as well as original format, includes George Washington's slaves on the left (who were to be freed upon the death of Martha Washington) and Mount Vernon's "Dower" slaves on the right (who were to go to Martha's Custis heirs upon her death).

By closely analyzing the document, students can build a list of questions for future research around topics such as slave family life, work on a plantation, and slave children's lives. There is a teacher's guide to this document available from Mt. Vernon.

Where to go for research?

Colonial Williamsburg has a student interactive that looks at clothing for colonial people of different social status.
Williamsburg's 3-d Role Playing game also looks at Colonial life and includes an enslaved house servant and a young planter gentleman.
Slideshows take a look at the types of trades found in a colonial community or on a plantation such as Mt. Vernon's.
And, of course, there is much to learn online at Mt. Vernon.

Finding Slaves in Unexpected Places : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site

2011-11-08T09:35:00.002-05:00

Keeping Blacks in Bondage Was Not a Southern Monopoly

AMONG THE MINUTEMEN who turned out on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, to confront the British and start the fight for American freedom was Prince Estabrook, a black man and a slave. He was wounded in the shoulder. Five years before, runaway slave Crispus Attucks was among five men slain by British soldiers in the Boston Massacre, a confrontation he may have rashly initiated. Some modern Americans might guess that Estabrook and Attucks were southern slaves visiting New England with their masters, but they were Massachusetts residents, two of the hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children in northern bondage during the eighteenth century.

Read more of the article at:

Finding Slaves in Unexpected Places : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History Site

Phillis Wheatley

2011-10-28T13:21:00.007-04:00

What would your students say if asked to list what they knew about slavery? Typical answers might include:

*Slavery was in the South.

*They were not paid.

*Black people were enslaved.

*People were sold.

*Slavery was the cause of the Civil War.

*There is no slavery today.

*The Middle Passage was horrific.

If you were to then hand them this image of Phillis Wheatley, what might they observe?

*She’s writing a letter.

*She’s well dressed.

*She’s black.

*There is a book and a quill pen on the table.

*She’s not working, she looks to be in repose.

*She has the same name as the person to whom she is a servant

*She lives in Boston/the North.

Born in West Africa and purchased by the Boston Wheatley family, Phillis Wheatley complicates our ideas of slavery and of the American Revolution. Her book of poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral and published in 1773, was the first book of poetry published by an African-American. Phillis was eventually freed by her owner. She continued writing and even corresponded with George Washington. Read more about her life at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Her story has been told in picture book format, A Voice of Her Own, and in a YA novel, Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons. The Old South Meeting House has published a teacher's guide as well.

Flow of History is reading Laurie Halse Anderson's YA novel Chains which tells the story of young Isabel, another enslaved girl at the time of the American Revolution. In Chains, the author begins each chapter with a quote from a primary source. One of the first quotes is from Phillis Wheatley's poem, "To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth"

I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate

Was snatch'd from Afric's fancyied happy seat: ...

...That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:

Such, such my case. And can I then but pray

Others may neve feel tyrannic sway?

How might Isabel have identified with Phillis? Phillis's portrait gives some clues and offers an accessible primary source for readers of Chains.

“This Mighty Scourge”: Teaching the Civil War as a Focal Point in American History.

2011-10-24T11:51:00.002-04:00

For 2011 - 2012, Flow of History will be examining issues central to our Nation's history, beginning with the American Revolution and continuing through to the end of the Civil War. We'll be featuring young adult historical fiction, memoirs, a stunning book of Civil War photographs, contextual articles, and a graphic novel. Reading strategy tools and primary source inquiry will also be shared as we continue to deepen our understandings of how to bring history to students in meaningful ways.

Here are the books we're reading:

Robert Penn Warren, The Legacy of the Civil War In this elegant book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer explores the manifold ways in which the Civil War changed the United States forever. He confronts its costs, not only human (six hundred thousand men killed) and economic (beyond reckoning) but social and psychological.

Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains

Set in New York City at the beginning of the American Revolution, Chains addresses the price of freedom both for a nation and for individuals. Isabel tells the story of her life as a slave caught between Loyalists and Patriots. YA Fiction Accompanying picture book: Emily McCully, The Escape of Oney Judge

Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel

Starting with Civil War battle scenes that showcase the fury of battle with a terrifying immediacy and moving through to Lincoln’s address itself, first-time author/illustrator Butzer brings home the sentiment behind the history-making cemetery dedication with a substance and reality that is both necessary and very timely. Combining words from actual letters of the time with accessible and expressive art, he introduces young readers to the idea that they may owe something to those who sacrificed all they had for democracy. YA

Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone

Kate Stone was twenty years old when the Civil War began. At that time, she was living with her widowed mother, five brothers and younger sister in northeastern Louisiana at her family home Brokenburn, a large cotton plantation of 1,260 acres and 150 slaves. During the war Kate and her family lost everything, watched as their way of life was destroyed and left their home to become fugitives to escape the Union Army they feared would harm them. Kate kept a diary from 1861 through 1868, in which she recorded her daily experiences.

Summer Visits to Colonial New England

2011-06-20T13:46:00.000-04:00

Place-Based Learning this Summer~

Plimoth Plantation
Explore the stories of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. Visit Mayflower II.

Historic Deerfield and Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, MA
Find out about the early settlement of New England and the Raid of 1704.

Fort Ticonderoga
Learn about the French and Indian War.

The Fort at #4
Learn about life for the earliest settlers to our region.

Early Settlement in the CT River Valley Unit Frame

2011-06-13T13:04:00.000-04:00

The purpose of this unit is to study the early settlement of the Upper Connecticut River Valley using primary sources and the landscape. Students follow an inquiry model where they gain background knowledge to the topic, generate questions about the people who settled this region, and then launch an historical investigation culminating in a historical cemetery quest that they can share with their community.

Enduring Understandings

The Abenaki first lived and named the area we now call Vermont and New Hampshire.
The Connecticut River Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire was primarily settled by colonists from Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Town meeting was the main political institution in VT and NH communities.

Essential Question

What is the relationship between culture, humans, and geography?

Focusing Questions

Who first lived in this area we now call Vermont/New Hampshire?
Where did the first European settlers come from? Why did they come to this area?
Who settled here and how did they live?
What did they do to organize their towns?

Background Information

Bibliography

Settling the Land

2011-06-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wondered what the Vermont and New Hampshire landscape might have looked like at the time of European settlement and how it changed?

Try this activity with your students. The "magic lens" allows students to look closely at historical details and make inferences about what the Vermont/New Hampshire landscape might have looked like at the time of European settlement.

Image credit: "A Home in the Wilderness," from A Vermont Settler's Own Story.

Mapping the Land we now call Vermont

2011-05-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

The Blanchard and Langdon map, published in 1756, is one of the earliest depictions of the New Hampshire colonial towns stretching from New York to the Atlantic Ocean.

What can you say about the Native American presence by looking at this map?
What parts of the region have been surveyed?
Where are the forts?
Where have towns been established?
Where are the roads?
How might the map entice settlers to travel up the Connecticut River to settle?

Blanchard and Langdon Map, 1756
Courtesy Old-Maps.com a resource with many historical maps both free and for sale.

Chartering a Town

2011-05-23T13:15:00.004-04:00

Chartering a Town

Towns and cities in Vermont and New Hampshire were formed by charters. A charter is the document that grants a group of people known as proprietors the right to form a new town. New Hampshire’s royal Governor, Benning Wentworth, issued most of the charters for the towns along the Connecticut River.

By reading a charter students will find out the size of their town, when it was chartered, the names of some of the first settlers, and what they had to do after they got their land.

Focusing Questions

When was my town chartered?
How large was my town?
What did the first settlers need to do after they got their land?

Topical Understandings

Towns were chartered by the Governor.
Towns were typically 6 miles x 6 miles square.
Settlers had to plant a certain amount of land within a certain period of time.
There were other conditions of settlement, such as not cutting the large white pines, and setting aside a plot of land for a minister.

Background Information

Why did settlers come to New Hampshire and Vermont, and where did they come from?

Materials

Copies of your town charter--enough for each student

Procedures

Hand out copies of your own town charter (call your town clerk to see if they have a copy or look in your town history).
Cut up a photocopy of your town charter into small sections or mark small sections of the charter for students to read and analyze.

Where was this charter written?
Under whose authority?
What is the size of the grant in square miles?
What shall this town be called?
How many families are they hoping to have live there?
What will two events will be held as soon as there are enough families?
In the future, when will town meetings be held annually?
When are town meetings held today?
What must “grantees, heirs or assigns” do within five years? Why?
Who has rights to the pine trees? Why?
What is the date of this charter?

Report back and discuss.

Literature Connection

Diana Appelbaum, Giants in the Land

Post-Its as a Reading Tool for Constructing Understanding

2011-05-09T12:31:00.001-04:00

When reading an article or scholarly work, we often ask teachers to use post-it notes. For each article, we'll ask for at least two questions, two text-to-text connections, and two text-to-classroom connections. We ask that the page number be written on each note.

After the discussion, we will collect the notes and put them in page-number order on plain paper as a record of our thinking all the way through the articles. This can help the facilitator when it comes time to record the discussion.

Visualizing the Story as a Reading Tool

2011-05-02T12:26:00.001-04:00

One of the most successful reading tools Flow of History teachers have used is "Visualizing the Story." This tool, used with a primary source or short piece of text can help students move to analyzing a visual source more fully.

VISUALIZING THE STORY

Strategic readers visualize and imagine

I see……

I hear……

I taste…….

I smell……

I feel…….

Two Reading Tools for Refining Discussion Skills

2011-04-25T12:20:00.000-04:00

Flow of History book discussions are always rooted in the text. "Taking it Back to the Book" is a gentle reminder we give at the beginning of the first few sessions to remind everyone to keep the discussion rooted in the book. "Save the Last Word for Me" is a helpful tool to help build a discussion beyond a simple round-the-table sharing of favorite passages.

Refining Discussion Skills: “Take it Back to the Book”
In order for text-based book discussions to be rooted in the text, sometimes it is necessary to remind participants to "take it back to the book." Before offering an opinion, share the page # and paragraph of your quote. Wait until everyone has found the passage. Tying ideas to the text should become second nature.

Refining Discussion Skills: "Save the Last Word for Me"
The idea of this discussion skill technique is to encourage participants to gather ideas from all group members before the person who chose the passage explains his or her interpretations. It is a way to ensure that the discussion deepens and that several people have the opportunity to share their opinions.

How it works:
Group member shares a passage s/he particularly liked. The others in the group each then share why they think the reader thought the passage was important, how the passage relates to something else in the book, or just what they noticed or thought about as the passage was read. After a few people have shared, then have the original group member explain why he chose it.
from: Harvey Daniels & Nancy Steineke, ed., Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles (2004)

The Book Pass as a Reading Tool

2011-04-18T12:04:00.001-04:00

The Book Pass is a structured way to look at a collection of books in a limited amount of time as a way to evaluate literature. Set up stations with four seats each. At each station, place one set of books related to a book group theme. Hand out the Book Pass Review sheet. Have everyone sit down and grab a book. Browse the book for 2 minutes. Then in the next 30 seconds fill out the review sheet so you remember which book(s) you liked and why. Then pass your book to the left and repeat. This can be used as a pre-reading activity to help students choose a book for literature circle or reading.

Adapted from: Harvey Daniels & Nancy Steineke, ed., Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles (2004)

Exploration & Discovery
Jean Fritz, The Lost Colony of Roanoke (2004)
Melody Herr, Exploring the New World: An Interactive History Adventure (2008)
Karen Lange, 1607: A New Look at Jamestown (2007)
Betsy and Giulio Maestro, Exploration and Conquest: The Americas after Columbus (1994)
Scott O’Dell, The King’s Fifth (1966)
Jane Yolen, Encounter (1992)
Jane Yolen and Heidi Elisabet Yolen Stemple, Roanoke: The Lost Colony (2003)

Changes in the Land
Virginia Lee Burton, The Little House (1942)
Lynne Cherry, A River Ran Wild
David Foster, New England Forests Through Time (2000)
Richard Michelson, Tuttle’s Red Barn: The Story of America’s Oldest Family Farm (2007)

Slavery in the North
Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (2008)
Kathryn Lasky, A Voice of Her Own: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet
Ann Rinaldi, Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons, 1996
Patricia Wall, Child Out of Place: A Story of New England (2004)

Lewis & Clark
Joseph Bruchac, Sacajawea (2000)
Alvin Josephy, Jr., ed., Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes (2006)
Rosalyn Schanzer, How we Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis & Clark (1997)
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, Bad River Boys: A Meeting of the Lakota Sioux with Lewis and Clark

Book Pass Review Sheet

Title:

Author:

Relates to: __Exploration __Changes in the Land __Slavery in the North __ Lewis and Clark __ General Historical Thinking

Genre _____ Fiction _____Non Fiction ____Biography

_____ Picture Book _____ Chapter Book with Pictures _____Unillustrated Chapter Book

Reading Level ____Above Grade Level ____At Grade Level ____Below Grade Level ____Good Read Aloud

Illustrations ____None ____Historically Accurate _____ Good for Visual Thinking Strategies

Historical Accuracy _____ Endnotes and Bibliography Provided ______Stereotypes Avoided

Comments:

Early Settlement Links

2011-04-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

Background Information

Freedom and Unity
This exhibit provides good contextual information.

New Hampshire Historical Society Slide Shows
Several slideshows discuss early settlement topics. See especially "Settling New Hampshire Towns" and watch New Hampshire develop from its original four towns in 1623 up to the last town to be recognized in 1966.

Native Americans of New Hampshire
Information, lesson plans, and activities inform students about life among the Woodland Indians who lived in this area and prepare them for the museum traveling program On the Abenaki Trail.

Landscape History of Central New England
This is the website for the book "New England Forests Through Time"

Maps

Old Maps
Here is where you can find copies of old maps such as the 1796 and 1810 Whitelaw maps

Cemeteries

New Hampshire Census Information
Spreadsheet and worksheet for exploring New Hampshire's population

How to Read a Graveyard

This website provides concise, step-by-step directions on how to look at a graveyard as a historian.

Stones and Bones

"Stones and Bones: Using Tombstones as Textbooks" contains content information about what to look for in cemeteries, cemetery symbology, glossaries, burial customs, attitudes toward death, information about marble and granite, folklore and superstitions about death and burial customs. The packet also includes skill sheets and sample activities, including important information about the "do’s and don'ts" of gravestone rubbing, and a resources section that includes a list of organizations, books available from the Barre Granite Association about gravestone memorial art and architecture, and a bibliography.

The Cemetery Quest

This lesson introduces students to data collection and to the families buried in their local cemetery. It also provides resources that can be used back in the classroom to link student work in mathematics and computer technology.

Exploring the Cemetery
This is an introductory lesson for students and teachers about exploring cemeteries.

Town Meeting

Town Meeting Lesson Plan
About Town Meeting Records

Evolution of New Hampshire Town Meeting

Vermont State Archives
The Vermont State Archives includes election history, transcriptions of Vermont’s constitutions, and essays about continuing issues in government.

Who's Who in Local Government
The Vermont Secretary of State's page includes links to guides to the duties of officials elected at town meetings as well as a variety of kids’ guides to local government.

Teaching Early Settlement Bibliography

2011-04-04T11:56:00.002-04:00

Background History Books

Jan Albers, Hands on the Land (2002)

Rebecca Brown, Editor, Where the Great River Rises (2009)

Frank Bryan, Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How it Works (2004)

Susan Clark & Frank Bryan, All Those in Favor: Rediscovering the Secrets of Town Meeting and Community (2005)

Colin Calloway, The Western Abenaki of Vermont, 1600 - 1800 (1994)

David Foster, New England Forests through Time (2000)

Benjamin Hall, History of Eastern Vermont (1857)

Jere Daniell, Colonial New Hampshire: A History (1981)

Michael Caduto, A Time Before New Hampshire (2003)

Picture Books

Diana Appelbaum, Giants in the Land (1993)

Jesse Bruchac, Mosbas and the Magic Flute

Marge Bruchac, Malian’s Song (1996)

Lynne Cherry, A River Ran Wild (1952)

Alice Dalgliesh, Courage of Sarah Noble (1954)

Michael Hahn, Ann Story (1996)

Natalie Kinsey-Warnock, The Bear that Heard Crying (1997)

Chapter Books

Joseph Bruchac, The Winter People (2004)

Susannah Speare, Calico Captive (2001)

Books on Historical Inquiry and Teaching with Primary Sources

Joan Brodsky Schur, Eyewitness to the Past (2007)

Perspectives ’76 (1976)

Abenaki History and Culture Unit Frame

2011-03-28T10:07:00.000-04:00

Abenaki History and Culture

Overview: The purpose of this unit is to study the history and culture of the first people who
inhabited and continue to live in Vermont and New Hampshire, the Abenaki.

Enduring Understandings:

The Abenaki have lived in the area we now call Vermont and New Hampshire for at least 12,000 years.
This area is the Abenaki homeland.
There are many Abenaki place names in Vermont and New Hampshire.
From first contact to the American Revolution, Abenakis and Europeans sometimes cooperated with each other and sometimes fought.
European settlement of Vermont and New Hampshire increased continually and the Abenaki tried to maintain control of their lands.
Europeans eventually prevailed over the Abenaki and took control of their lands.
Today, the Abenaki have reasserted their identity as the longstanding inhabitants of Vermont and New Hampshire.

Essential Questions

Why do groups of people come into conflict with each other?
How are Native American and Euro-American cultures different?

Focusing Questions

How was traditional Abenaki society organized and how did the Abenaki live?
How is the landscape central to Abenaki culture, stories, and history?
Why did the Abenaki and European and American settlers come into conflict?
Why did Americans in Vermont and New Hampshire come to believe that the Abenaki had disappeared from these states?
How do Abenaki people live today?

Background Information

Bibliography

Mosbas and the Magic Flute

2011-03-21T14:30:00.001-04:00

Jesse Bruchac has published a new book written in both English and Abenaki. A lesson story for all ages. Mosbas was far too shy to speak to girls. When he is given a magic flute, he finds its power too much to control and is eventually changed forever. You can actually download the book as a PDF here.

Connie Bresnahan, a Middle School teacher in Putney, VT, has used this book with her students combined with a visualization reading tool where students write down what they "see," "hear," "smell," "taste," and "feel." This tool provided a springboard for a lively discussion of both the story and the role of stories in Abenaki culture.

Teachers in spring workshops agreed that this would be a useful teaching tool to help students keep focused on the story and yet not be distracted by too many questions.

A Historical Tale

2011-03-14T16:07:00.000-04:00

Have you ever played the telephone game with your class? Give it a try with this sentence:

"A blue bird is sitting on eggs in her nest." First write down the sentence, then pass the word around. Walt Garner, middle school teacher at Tunbridge, VT, has used this game as a way to introduce to students the idea that stories passed down through the generations can remain accurate.

Malian's Song is an example of a story passed down through the generations. In the words of a young Abenaki girl, the book tells the true story of the deliberate English attack by British Major Robert Rogers on the St. Francis Abenaki community near Montréal in 1759. Jeanne Brink, a descendant of Malian living in Vermont, told the little-known Abenaki version of the brutal attack--which stands in direct contrast to Rogers’ surviving journal records--to the Vermont Folklife Center. The only picture book to present this key piece of North American history from the Native American perspective, Malian’s Song underscores the Abenaki people’s strength and fortitude in the face of unspeakable loss.

This story began in 1759 and has only been passed along 4 times. That is because it was a story that was deliberately told from Grandmother to youngest grandaughter as a key piece of history. You can hear Elvine Obomsawin Royce tell this story online at the Vermont Folklife Center.

Abenaki Place Names

2011-03-07T09:49:00.001-05:00

Who first lived in the area we now call Vermont/New Hampshire?

Place Names are another way to help students recognize that there were Native Americans in the land we now call Vermont/New Hampshire.

Connecting Now & Then to Place

Ask students if they know of any places in their area with Native American names then share with them a list of local Native American place names. Create a Google map with the place names then navigate a journey from one place to the next using Native place names.

e.g. How might you get from Mt. Ascutney to Lake Sunapee? Travel east from Kaskakadenak (Wide Mountain) to Kwanitekw (Long River). Follow the river south to Senomoziktekw (Sugar Maple River); then east up the river to Seninebes (Rock Lake).

Drawing

Provide your students with a ½ sheet of construction paper. Have them carefully write their native word on the top. At the bottom, have them write the definition/translation. In between imagine and draw a picture of that definition.

Discussion

Emphasize many Abenaki still inhabit this community
Emphasize Abenaki folk-ways and food-ways still inform our lives: paved roads trace Abenaki trails; planted fields trace the floodplains; we enjoy and recreate in Abenaki sacred places; and honor the seasonal harvests (sap run, fiddleheads, berries ripening) with celebration.
Native words - not always correctly interpreted or pronounced by Europeans – surround us today.
As Europeans heard Native Americans say a name they would apply these words to name places more permanently by placing the names on maps; and different groups might spell these words in different ways: for example, the name Lake Winnipesaukee has over 100 spellings.

Place Name Abenaki English Translation

Abenaki Wôbanakiak People of the Dawn

Alnôbak The People

Ammonoosuc Ômanosek Zibo Fishing River

Ascutney Kaskakadenak Wide Mountain

Connecticut Kwanitekw Long River

Contoocook Bagôntekw Butternut River

Coos Koasek Pine Tree Place

Mascoma Mazalopskok Zibo Clap Place River (also the name of a Sokwaki man)

Merrimack Molôdemak Zibo Deep Water River

Mississiquoi Wazawatekw Crooked River

Monadnock Menonadenak Smooth Mountain

Moosilauke Mozalhlakik Wadso Cow Moose Land Mountain

Ompompanoosuc Bemômanosek Zibo Fishing Place River

Passumpsic Pasômkasek Zibo Sandy Bottom River

Sunapee Seninebes Rock Lake

West River Wantastekw Lost River

Winnipesaukee Wiwinebeskik Lake Region Place

Winooski Winoskitekw Onion Land River

Wobanakik

We have created a layered map with Abenaki place names connected to present-day names. You can also link it into Google Earth. Give it a try!

http://www.geographic-solutions.net/Wobanakik/

Original Wobanakik Map, Copyright 1995, Frederick M. Wiseman used by permission.

Our thanks to Steve Glazer, Poetics of Place, for his support in creating this lesson.

Background Resource: Rebecca Brown, ed., Where the Great River Rises, 132 - 137. This essay on Native Space includes a map and glossary of Native and European names in the Connecticut River watershed.

An Abenaki Couple

2011-02-28T09:19:00.001-05:00

This watercolor of an Abenaki couple provides us with opportunities to discuss the interactions between Europeans and Native Americans. Can you figure out how? Use the guiding questions below.

Look closely at this image. Make a detailed list of what you see. Go to this larger image and zoom in carefully.

Descriptive Question: What are they wearing?

Interpretive Question: What do you think their clothing is made from? How can you tell?

Analytical Question: Do you think this couple has had any interactions with Europeans? What makes you say that?

Continue your analysis by examining William Wood's 1734 New England Prospect.

Image Credit:
Abenaki Couple, an 18th-century watercolor by an unknown artist. Courtesy of the City of Montreal Records Management & Archives, Montreal, Canada. This version obtained from Wikipedia Commons

New England Prospect

2011-02-21T09:30:00.001-05:00

The New England Prospect, by William Wood was originally published in London in 1634. This was the first book to provide reliable first hand information on British America for prospective colonists. Particular attention is paid to Native culture and the environment.

Before looking at the New England Prospect, spend some time analyzing the Abenaki Couple. See if Wood's description of Native American clothing adds to your analysis of the image.

Descriptive Question:

1. Based on Wood’s description, what did the Indians wear in winter?

Interpretive Question:

2. How would you describe Wood’s description of the Indians?

Admiring? Condescending? Arrogant? Sympathetic? Bewildered?

Analytical Question:

3. What makes you say this? How does he explain why they dress the way they do?

For background information to pull these two primary sources together, take a look at William Cronon's book, Changes in the Land, p. 102

Bibliography on Abenaki History and Culture

2011-02-14T14:42:00.001-05:00

Teacher Resources

Abenaki in Vermont: A History Kit for Students and Their Teachers, Sarah Rooker, ed, (Vermont Historical Society, 1988). Artifact kit and Teachers Guide, available through the Vermont Historical Society.

The Abenaki of Vermont: A Living Culture: Teacher’s Guide, Gregory Sharrow. ed. (Vermont Folklife Center, 2002). Designed to accompany the Vermont Folklife Center’s video of the same title, the book is a valuable tool for teachers. The Abenaki of Vermont: A Living Culture

1609: Quadricentennial Curriculum (Lake Champlain Maritime Museum). An up-to-date curriculum for Vermont schools, with a good focus on the Native American experience. Good for all grade levels.

Champlain: The Lake Between (Vermont Public Television, 2009). This video about the history of the lake region from Champlain’s visit through the French and Indian War features Abenakis and Iroquois. The accompanying curriculum guide has good content and lessons.

History

Calloway, Colin G., The Abenaki (Chelsea House, 1989). Calloway is the premier non-native scholar of the Abenaki. This is a good first book for grades 4-8, and a resource for 9-12 and teachers. For a more comprehensive history, read Calloway’s The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800 (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990).

———, ed., North Country Captives (University Press of New England, 1992). These captivity narratives are interesting primary sources that reveal much about the Abenaki during the eras of contact and early European settlement.

Cherry, Lynne. A River Ran Wild (Harcourt, Brace, 1992). This excellent picture book portrays the historical evolution of the Nashua River from Native American use up to present-day clean-up; timeline included.

Gallagher, Nancy, Breeding Better Vermonters: The Eugenics Project in the Green Mountain State (University Press of New England, 1999). The stunning story of the eugenics movement in Vermont from the 1920s to 1940s reveals the ways that Abenaki people were targeted for persecution and sterilization. It’s critical to understanding recent Abenaki history.

Haviland, William, and Marjory Power, The Original Vermonters (University Press of New England, 1994). This is the standard anthropological/archaeological work on the Western Abenaki area; makes a strong case for the presence and persistence of the people. It’s a good resource for upper grade teachers and could be used with high school students.

Wiseman, Frederick M., The Voice of the Dawn, an Autohistory of the Abenaki Nation (University Press of New England, 2001). Designed as a resource book for teachers (middle school and up) and professionals, this book combines personal experience and philosophy with historical data, and discusses the important political events of the 1990s.

Stories and Tales

Bruchac, Jesse, Mosbas and the Magic Flute (Bowman Books, 2010). This wonderful book includes an Abenaki dictionary and pronunciation guide along with a great story.

Bruchac, Joseph, The Wind Eagle (Bowman Books, 1985); The Faithful Hunter (1988). Excellent collections of Abenaki stories.

Joseph Bruchac has written several young adult novels about Abenaki history and experience, covering various time periods. Ones especially recommended by teachers include The Winter People (Puffin, 2002), about Rogers’ Raid of 1759; The Arrow Over the Door (Puffin, 2002), which takes place during the American Revolution; and Hidden Roots (Scholastic, 2004), about a teenage boy who struggles with his Abenaki identity as his family copes with the aftermath of the eugenics project in Vermont.

Bruchac, Marge, Malian’s Song (Vermont Folklife Center, 2005). Based on oral history, this wonderful picture book tells the Abenaki side of the story of Rogers Raid, which destroyed the village of Odanak in 1759, during the French and Indian/Seven Years War.

Caduto, Michael, and Joseph Bruchac, Keepers of the Earth (1988). Native American stories with environmental lessons; contains Abenaki stories as well as those of other tribes. Excellent resource for teachers wishing to integrate science, literature, and social studies.

Speare, Elizabeth George, Calico Captive (Sandpiper, 2001). A well-regarded young adult novel inspired by Susannah Johnson’s famous narrative about her capture at Fort Number Four in 1754 and subsequent three years living with the Abenaki.

Online Resources

Flow of History: The Gathering and Interactions of Peoples, Cultures, and Ideas
This section of the website includes background essays and timelines focused on early settlement in the Connecticut River Valley.

Freedom and Unity
This exhibit provides good contextual information.

Native Americans of New Hampshire (New Hampshire Historical Society)
Information, lesson plans, and activities inform students about life among the Woodland Indians who lived in this area and prepare them for the museum traveling program On the Abenaki Trail.

Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Black History

2011-02-07T13:04:00.001-05:00

Flow of History teachers had the opportunity to visit the Southern Poverty Law Center this past summer as part of our summer institute on the Civil Rights Movement. We spent time at the moving memorial designed by Maya Lin.

As part of their Teaching Tolerance program, the Southern Povery Law Center has created a "Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Black History while it is Black History Month." First on their list is to incorporate black history year-round. Here's the link.

Freedom Riders Webcast

2011-01-31T09:28:00.000-05:00

Freedom Riders National Youth Summit Webcast

The Smithsonian Institution and the National Endowment for the Humanities in partnership with American Experience are offering a unique opportunity for middle and high school students to learn from actual history makers about the 1961 Freedom Rides. On Wednesday February 9, 2011 at 12:00 p.m. (EST) a webcast will join live audiences from six cities around the country (Birmingham, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, LA, and Dearborn, MI) to engage students in conversation with scholars, public historians, and most importantly, one another. Summit panelists will include award winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson along with four original Freedom Riders; veteran Congressman John Lewis, Diane Nash, Reverend James Lawson, and Jim Zwerg.

Encourage local educators in your community to reserve a virtual seat for their class by registering here. This webcast will also be archived for future reference.

Freedom Riders Educator Resources - Coming soon!
American Experience has partnered with Facing History and Ourselves to create comprehensive Freedom Riders curriculum materials for high school teachers and students. These resources can also be adapted for middle school and college curriculums and will be available mid-February.

Martin Luther King at Dartmouth

2011-01-24T11:38:00.002-05:00

Did you know that Martin Luther King spoke at Dartmouth?

On May 23, 1962 Martin Luther King came to Hanover to speak about the state of the Civil Rights Movement. His visit coincided with the arrival in Montgomery, Alabama, of the Freedom Riders who were protesting the segregationist polices of southern bus terminals. Mass rioting, the beating of activists, and angry mobs prompted Dr. King to return to Alabama immediately.

Towards Freedom is a multimedia presentation about Dr. King's speech at Dartmouth where you can watch the speech, read the transcription, and learn more about his visit.

A book for Martin Luther King Day

2011-01-17T11:18:00.004-05:00

A decade before Jackie Robinson became the first black player in major league baseball, Satchel Paige helped integrate the sport by touring the country and playing exhibition games with white players. Told from the point of view of a sharecropper, this graphic novel follows Paige from game to game as he travels throughout the segregated South. Panel discussions at the back of the book provide historical context and references to relevant primary sources.

The author, James Sturm, is the Co-Founder and Director of the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT.

Civil War Book of Days

2011-01-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

The Civil War is perhaps America's greatest story; it played out on a huge stage, with great characters and themes, and multiple plot lines; it's both inspiring and absolutely heartbreaking.

The 150th anniversary of the Civil War deserves our attention not only because the war is endlessly fascinating for myriad reasons having nothing to do with battle strategy, but also because in many ways, the issues it dealt with are still with us--particularly federal-state power and, of course, race.

To honor the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Vermont Humanities Council is producing the Civil War Book of Days e-newsletter, weekly e-mails marking what happened that week 150 years ago.

To check out past issues of the newsletter, click here.
To receive the weekly newsletter, sign up here.

New England's Slave Past

2010-12-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Boston Globe has published a slide show of pictures and documents that tell the human story of slavery in our region.

Check it out at:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/gallery/new_englands_slave_past/?s_campaign=8315

New Teaching with Technology Workshops

2010-12-20T10:30:00.000-05:00

EdTech Teacher announces their summer Teaching with Technology workshops to be held at Harvard. Topics include:

Teaching History with Technology (June 27 - 29 and Aug. 1 - 3)
Primary Sources 2.0 (June 30)
Dynamic Teaching with Interactive Whiteboards (July 11 - 13)
Geography and Maps 2.0 (Aug 4 - 5)

For more information go to: http://edtechteacher.org

New teaching kits on abolition in Vermont

2010-12-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Have you visited Rokeby Museum?

Rokeby Museum is one of the best-documented Underground Railroad sites in the country and it is here in Vermont! Rowland Thomas and Rachel Gilpin Robinson were devout Quakers and radical abolitionists, and they harbored many fugitive slaves at their family home and farm during the decades of the 1830s and 1840s. Among the thousands of letters in the family's correspondence collection are several that mention fugitive slaves by name and in some detail.

Rokeby has just created two teaching kits about abolition:

Speaking Truth to Power

A new multi-media kit presents the stirring words of America’s radical abolitionists and introduces middle and high school students to their principles, tactics, and ideas. Each of the eight speeches – recorded by professional actors – opens the door on a chapter of abolitionist history. The teachers’ guide includes historical and biographical background, text of the recordings, discussion questions, student activities and worksheets, and primary source documents. The kit also includes exhibit panels, period illustrations for student investigation, and a selection of books for further reading. Excellent enrichment for Vermont and American history, speech, and civics courses. Two-week rental is $30 (you are responsible for the cost of return) if we ship the kit; $20 if you pick it up.

Frederick Douglass in Vermont

Did you know that Frederick Douglass – the greatest African American of the 19th century – toured Vermont early in his career? The kit provides newspaper reports of his 1843 speech in Ferrisburgh, a recording of the speech (read by a professional actor), questions for classroom discussion, student activities, and 15 copies of Douglass’s Narrative. Appropriate for middle and high school courses in Vermont and American history, civics, and journalism. Two-week rental is $25 (you are responsible for the cost of return) is we ship the kit; $20 if you pick it up.

For more information about the kit, contact:

ROKEBY MUSEUM
Attn: Jane Williamson, Director
4334 Route 7
Ferrisburgh, VT 05456
Phone: 802.877.3406

e-mail: rokeby@comcast.net

Slavery in the North

2010-12-10T09:37:00.001-05:00

Did you know that John Winthrop was a slave owner? In book group we have been reading Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North. This deep history of one farm (first owned by John Winthrop) north of Boston reveals how interconnected the North was to slavery.

Want to find out more about slavery in the North? Check out these links:

You can actually visit The Isaac Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Mass. This is the real "Ten Hills Farm."

Slavery in the North This website provides an overview of each northern state and its relationship to slavery.

Traces of the Trade: A Story of the Deep North tells the story of how descendants of Rhode Island's most powerful slave trader came to grips with their family history. The website accompanies a film which follows the family as they retrace the triangle trade. The film and teaching materials are available online.

A Forgotten History: The Slave Trade and Slavery in New England is a curriculum published by Brown University. You can purchase the curriculum for download.

Why are there stone walls in the woods?

2010-11-29T06:00:00.002-05:00

Have your students ever observed apple trees and stone walls in the middle of the woods and wondered how they got there?

The Landscape History of Central New England, an exhibit of 7 dioramas that depicts 300 years of changes in the New England Landscape, would help them answer such questions.

Second image in the series depicting an early settler clearing a homestead in 1740.

New England Forests through Time displays all the dioramas in color with interpretive text. These images provide an opportunity for students to improve their visual thinking skills, apply their understandings about chronology, and connect history to the environment.

Alternative Perspectives

2010-11-26T06:00:00.001-05:00

In our Voyage Long and Strange discussion, we asked ourselves how we can best prepare young children for their future studies which (hopefully) will complicate their knowledge of history? How can we prepare students so they won't be angry when they get to high school or college and learn that "everything they had been told was wrong?"

One way is by continually offering a variety of perspectives while teaching about the past. Encounter is one such book which introduces a different point of view about Columbus's voyage.

Try also comparing Sarah Morton's Day with Tapenum's Day when discussing the Pilgrims.

What Happened at the First Thanksgiving?

2010-11-19T06:00:00.005-05:00

The English were there....
The Wampanoag were there....
What really happened?
How do we find out?

Plimoth Plantation's highly-acclaimed interactive website, You be the Historian, introduces Sarah (whose ancestor Remember Allerton was at the 1621 Harvest celebration) and Dancing Hawk (whose ancestors were also there). These student guides lead us through a set of clues to discover what really happened at that "First Thanksgiving."

Mapping the New World

2010-11-15T06:00:00.001-05:00

The Stanford History Education Group has published a new United States history curriculum, Reading Like a Historian. Each lesson revolves around a central historical question and features sets of primary documents modified for groups of students with diverse reading skills and abilities.

The Colonial Unit connects to many of the themes we are discussing this fall. Check out the "Mapping the New World" lesson plan which asks students to think about why maps change over time by comparing a 1636 Powhatan map with this 1651 Virginia map.

Europe, Africa, and the Americas

2010-10-25T12:26:00.006-04:00

History Now, a quarterly online journal for history teachers and students, is now available at www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow.

Teachers responsible for a class in early American history often find themselves asking: When does American history begin? What does "America" include? The current issue of History Now takes the broadest approach to such questions, examining what historians call "The Atlantic World," four continents linked by the Atlantic Ocean. Scholars look at conditions in England and the Americas before English colonization; they create a context for understanding Indian and African enslavement; and they examine the perils of traveling the waters that connect peoples of each continent to one another.

This newsletter is of particular interest for teachers involved in book group this fall. Check out the interactive maps, "Perils of the Ocean in the Early Modern Era", and related lesson plans.

A Voyage Long and Strange

2010-10-25T11:00:00.002-04:00

A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World is our first reading for the 2010 - 2011 school year.

Check out the author's website for a slide show of related primary sources and an interactive map which traces the routes of North American explorers.