Using Maps to Learn about Early Village Life

What was village life like in Vermont after settlement? What did they do for food, clothing, and shelter? How and where did they travel? The James Whitelaw maps of 1796 and 1810 provide a window into that world.  These maps show the major buildings in each Vermont community.

Begin by providing your students with a visual image of life at settlement. One possible image is
Thomas Cole's painting, A Home in the Woods. While it is romanticized, it still provides the types of details that students need to "enter" into the Whitelaw maps. Use visual thinking strategies to gather details students see in the picture. Categorize those details into "food," "clothing," and "shelter."

Now find your own town on the Whitelaw map and have students do the following:

Check off any of the following that appear on the map--the key is at the top of this post and is also located on the bottom right of the map. Hopefully they will have some questions about these terms and will want to do a bit of research.

_________ Meeting Houses         _________ Grist Mills       _________ Swamps

_________ Forts                           _________ Saw Mills        _________ Dwelling Houses

_________ Falls                           _________ Fulling Mills    _________ Grammar Schools

_________ Ferries                        _________ Iron Works

_________ Bridges                      _________ Mountains

Now answer these questions:

Where are the churches and other large public buildings located?

Where are the mills and factories located?

What can you see on this map that would help settlers in your town make their cloths?

What can you see on this map that would help settlers in your town build their homes?

What can you see on this map that would help settlers in your town bake their bread?

Where do the roads go?

What might you conclude about your town from this map?

What questions do you now have?

The Escape of Oney Judge

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

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

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

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.

Early Settlement in the CT River Valley Unit Frame

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

• 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?

Bibliography

Chartering a Town

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

1. 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).
2. Cut up a photocopy of your town charter into small sections or mark small sections of the charter for students to read and analyze.
Questions to ask students:
• 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?
3. Report back and discuss.

Literature Connection

Diana Appelbaum, Giants in the Land

The Book Pass as a Reading Tool

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

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

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)

New England's Slave Past

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

Slavery in the North

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.