Village Life Lesson: From Farm to Factory

Overview: The sheep boom created new work for women and girls. On the farm women and girls had many new chores to help process wool and prepare it for market. Jobs in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and other cities provided girls with new opportunities away from home.

Focusing Question

How did women’s work change with the sheep boom?

Topical Understandings

• The sheep boom spurred an increase in fulling mills (to wash wool), carding mills (to comb wool), and spinning mills in New England. These mills depended on rivers and streams for water power. 
• Farm women’s work became focused on processing wool. 
• Many farm girls left their homes to work in the new textile mills. 

Materials:

• Map and Worksheet: Vermont Textile Factories 1840—1849
• Diary excerpts from The Diaries of Sally and Pamela Brown and note-taking worksheet
• Letter Excerpts: AVermont girl goes to Lowell

Procedures:

1. As a class examine the Vermont Textile Factories map and use a Vermont state map to conclude that the factories were located on Vermont rivers and were water powered.

2. Provide students with the following two diary excerpts and note-taking worksheet.

The Diary of Sally Brown (born 1807) 1832 – 1838 Plymouth Notch, Vermont

June 1833 4. Tues. Worked about. A.M. Asa came down to attend the training*, brought Lephia and is to stay and  help Father shear sheep. In the evening finished knitting George’s stockings. 5. Wed. Worked about house. Tonight three men have come to shear the sheep Father is keeping for  Squire Walker. 6. Thurs. Worked about house. Susan found some ripe strawberries. The men finished shearing sheep. 7. Fri. Washed and did some other housework…Mother finished my gown. 8, Sat. Ironed and other housework. Marcia and I went to the old place for some green currents. 10, Mon. Helped milk morning and night. Did some chores and picked tag locks*. Father had given  lots of wool to me. Father has finished planting tiny potatoes. 11, Tues. Worked the same as yesterday. 12, Wed. Two Tin Peddlers stayed here tonight. 13, Thurs. Worked about house. Picked locks as I could get time. Mr. Pratt and Mr. Henry came  and bought Father’s wool. Two hundred and thirteen pounds. They gave fifty-three cents a pound.  He is to carry it to Woodstock Saturday or Monday. They were here to dinner… 14, Fri. Did some chores about house and finished picking tag locks except the dirtyest which I washed.  Last night was a heavy thunder shower. Today is some cloudy…

The Diary of Pamela Brown (born 1816) 1832 – 1838 Plymouth Notch, Vermont September 1836 Thur. Sept. 1st. Spun five skeins. Fri. 2nd. Spun some and went to the funeral. It was at Joseph Moore’s House. Mr. Davis preached. Sat. 3rd. After Mr. and Mrs. Jennison had gone I spun five skeins and worked on Marcia’s veil. Mon. 5th. Spun six skeins and began me a pair of stockings. Wed. 7th. Spun six skeins. Thurs. 8th. Spun two skeins and worked on my veil. Marcia and I went to the post office for a letter but found none. Friday. 9th. Spun six skeins. Silas and Rebbeca Brown and Mrs. Leland a girl Silas brought from Grafton took tea with us. Sun. 11th. I am twenty today. A rainy day. Mon. 12th. We had a housefull all day but they are all gone. Tues. 13th. Spun some stocking yarn to send to Michigan. Wed. 28th. The ground was white with snow this morning. Spun my days work and made Hannah’s’ work bag. I think it very handsome.

3.  Discuss their answers and summarize women’s work on a sheep farm. What sort of chores were they doing? Have students write a summary paragraph describing a woman’s typical day on the farm.
4. Provide students with the excerpts of Mary Paul’s letters. Ask them to take their own notes about work in a textile mill. Have students write a summary paragraph describing a woman’s typical day in a textile mill.
5. Create a 2-column chart comparing women’s work on the farm and women’s work in a textile mill.
6. Discuss as a class. Would they have left home to work in a textile mill? Why or why not?

Village Life Lesson: Changes in the Land

Lesson: Changes in the Land

Overview: Vermont’s sheep boom led to deforestation as thousands of sheep were put to pasture in the hills. Upon seeing the environmental impact, George Perkins Marsh wrote Man and Nature (1862), a warning about the impacts of clear-cutting the land. This lesson combines informational text and visual images that help students understand how agriculture changes the environment.

Focusing Question

How did sheep farming change the land?

Topical Understandings

William Jarvis imported merino sheep to Vermont and New Hampshire, which were highly profitable because of their hardy nature and fine wool.

Sheep require lots of pasture, which led to the gradual deforestation of Vermont. By the time the sheep boom ended in the 1850s, 70% of Vermont land had been cleared.

George Perkins Marsh was an important environmentalist who warned of the environmental consequences of deforestation.

Materials:

Informational Text

Excerpts from Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels

Excerpts from Man and Nature by George Perkins Marsh

Note-taking worksheets

Primary Sources

Painting: An Early Settler Clears a Forest 

Painting: Height of Forest Clearing and Agriculture   

Photograph: Montpelier in the late nineteenth century   

Procedures:

1. As a class use visual thinking strategies to analyze the Early Settler and Height of Forest Clearing and Agriculture dioramas. Summarize the two eras of farming and create a list of questions or hypothesize about why the land might look so different in the second image. You could use this set of scaffolded questions that begin with descriptive questions and end with analytical thinking:

• What is the title of this image?
• List what you see in this image.
• What season do you think this is? What details make you say that?
• How long do you think the farmer has been on the land? What details make you say that?
• What percent of the landscape do you think is cleared?
• How do you think the landscape came to look the way it does?

2. Provide students with these excerpts from Reading the Forested Landscape and the accompanying scaffolded note-taking charts:

• Excerpt 1 "The European settlement of Vermont brought change to the landscape. Upland areas where forests were less dense were cleared and then settled. Men would usually prepare a homestead over a period of two to four summers and then be joined by their families. The men cleared land by ax—up to three acres a summer—built log cabins, and prepared fencing for animals."

• The Text:

  Answer the question in your own words and underline the text which gave you the information:

  The European settlement of Vermont brought change to the landscape. Upland areas where forests were less dense were cleared and then settled.	The main idea of this paragraph is:
  Men would usually prepare a homestead over a period of two to four summers and then be joined by their families.	It took _____________________ for the men to prepare a home for their families.
  The men cleared land by ax—up to three acres a summer—built log cabins, and prepared fencing for animals.	If it took four summers to prepare a homestead, how much land did they clear for their farm?                         _____________________

• 
  
• Excerpt 2 "In 1810 William Jarvis, American Consul to Portugal, imported 400 merino sheep to his Weathersfield, Vermont, farm. Merino sheep produce very soft, high-quality wool and a lot of it. A wool craze swept the region. By 1840 there were 1.7 million sheep in Vermont and more than 600,000 in New Hampshire.  To support all these sheep, the landscape changed. The countryside was cleared of forest to create pastures. Stone fencing, designed to keep the sheep in their pastures, crisscrossed the landscape."

• The Text:	Answer the question in your own words and underline the text which gave you the information:
  In 1810 William Jarvis, American Consul to Portugal, imported 400 merino sheep to his Weathersfield, Vermont, farm.	What did William Jarvis do?
  Merino sheep produce very soft, high-quality wool and a lot of it.	Why would William Jarvis do this?
  By 1840 there were 1.7 million sheep in Vermont and more than 600,000 in New Hampshire.	How long did it take for the sheep herd in Vermont to get very big?
  To support all these sheep, the landscape changed. The countryside was cleared of forest to create pastures. Stone fencing, designed to keep the sheep in their pastures, crisscrossed the landscape.	How did the landscape change?

3. Discuss their answers and summarize farming during early settlement as compared to the time of the sheep boom.  What were some pros and cons to the sheep boom? For farmers? For the land?

4.  Project Montpelier in the late nineteenth century and use the same visual thinking strategies and scaffolded questions to describe the image.

5.  Provide students with the following quote from George Perkins Marsh and the accompanying note-taking worksheet.  

Read the quote out loud to the group

“Steep hillsides and rocky ledges are well suited to the permanent growth of wood, but when in the rage of improvement they are improvidently stripped of this protection, the action of sun and wind and rain soon deprives them of their vegetable mould….they remain thereafter barren producing neither grain nor grass.”             George Perkins Marsh

Translate the Quote:

George Perkins Marsh’s words	Your Translation
Steep hillsides and rocky ledges are well suited to the permanent growth of wood,
but when in the rage for improvement they are improvidently stripped of this protection,
the action of sun and wind and rain soon deprives them of their vegetable mould . . .
They remain thereafter barren . . . producing neither grain nor grass."

Take notes about the quote:

What have farmers done to the hillsides of Vermont?
What will be the impact on nature?

6. Discuss the quote as a class. Ask how students might change their list of pros and cons about the impact of the sheep boom.