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U.S. History: Colonial America
U.S. History: Colonial America
Lesson 1: Massachusetts: Plymouth and Mass. Bay Colonies
Pilgrims and Puritans
MAYFLOWER.pdfPURITAN CHARACTER.pdfSalem Witchcraft .pdfSalem Late Troubles.pdfLesson 2: Slavery in the Colonies
From_Africa_to_America-teacher.pdf
slavery in the colonies.pdfOlaudah Equiano slave.pdf
U.S. History: The Revolutionary Period
U.S. History: The Revolutionary Period
Lesson 1: Lead-up to the American Revolution
MESSY TEA PARTY.pdfClick the "Join Class" button at top right of page at 10 am on Tuesday to read and discuss this article together as a class.
If you cannot attend our zoom class, please read this passage and complete the questions on your own paper. For the short answers, start by rewording the question and then just answer in your own words. You can send me a picture of your work to my email or phone.
Lesson 2: Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence was written to be read aloud. Watch the clip from the HBO documentary called John Adams when you finish reading the passage.
DECL OF IND.pdfDelaware Ride.pdf(1776) The Deleted Passage of the Declaration of Independence •.pdfRevolutionary Rhetoric (Propaganda?)
Revolutionary Rhetoric (Propaganda?)
rise of abolitionism.pdfThe spirit of revolution which overtook much of American colonial life in the 1770s involved heady ideas of freedom and independence. These ideas clashed with the institution of slavery, which was being practiced everywhere, though mostly in the South. As a result of this "cognitive dissonance," many people began examining slavery in a way they hadn't previously. Some northern places began outlawing slavery and others freed their slaves. For the first time there were free black communities in the American colonies. And abolitionism--a movement to outlaw slavery altogether--became an important development.
Slavery managed to survive the revolution but some leaders understood it was a serious crack in the foundation of their new country and it would ultimately become the fuel for a bitter civil war. There became an unspoken agreement to kick the can down the road for as long as they could before the country erupted.
Lesson 3: Writing the Constitution
Just a reminder that when we talk about America's founding--whether the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War itself, or the Constitutional Convention after the country was officially The United States of America, we are talking about just those red states pictured in the map, the original 13 colonies.
After the Americans won the Revolutionary War, they set up a federal government that was fairly weak. They decided after a few years that they needed a stronger connection to each other, so they got together in Philadelphia to write a new constitution. What they did there resulted in the Constitution we still have today.
Please read the accompanying article called Publius and an American Identity. Then answer the questions. We will discuss them in class at 11 am on Thursday. If you can't make it, send your answers to me via text or email.
PUBLIUS.pdfAfter reading and answering questions, watch this great little video that dramatizes the scene!
Lesson 4: Review: The Founding of American Democracy
Please read the passage in Common Lit called The Founding of American Democracy. Answer the guided questions as you read, then answer the assessment questions at the end.
Some questions to think about and discuss. Please jot down your thoughts:
~ The 10th Amendment guarantees that any power not belonging to the central government will automatically belong to the state governments. Can you think of any laws in your state that are different in other states?
~ Today we still use the same Constitution that was written in 1787. What are some pros and cons of using a document that is more than 200 years old to justify new laws and policies? How do we ensure that our laws stay up to date?
U.S. History: Westward Expansion & Native Dispossession
U.S. History: Westward Expansion & Native Dispossession
Lesson 1: Native Dispossession
So...We won the Revolutionary War! We created the Constitution! Now we try to get more land...
Look at the map. Notice the dark orange section. That's what we won in the war. It includes the original 13 colonies and some extra territory thrown in (Ohio!). Notice how we gained territory in big sections. The green LOUISIANA PURCHASE was big.
Look at the map. Notice the dark orange section. That's what we won in the war. It includes the original 13 colonies and some extra territory thrown in (Ohio!). Notice how we gained territory in big sections. The green LOUISIANA PURCHASE was big.
Most of us know that there were native peoples living all over the country in those colorful blocks of land. We will talk in class about how they were killed, moved, or assimilated.
Invisible Guns.pdfNative Americans.pdfNative Removal.pdfLesson 2: Sacagawea INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
Please LOGIN to Readworks and find the passage assigned to you about Sacagawea, the Native American woman who helped American explorers navigate newly acquired territory in the west.
Think about these questions as you read: How much do we really know about Sacagawea? Why did explorers Lewis and Clark want her help? What must her daily life have been like?
Answer the questions in Readworks and submit. Then you will get credit for attending class.
Lesson 3: The Expedition of Lewis & Clark
Along with the assigned passage in Readworks ("Mapping the West: The Journey of Lewis and Clark"), we will use the following two websites to discover what Lewis & Clark discovered.
As always, if you cannot join us live, please do the Readworks on your own and submit.
History Channel: Lewis & Clark Expedition
National Park Service: Travel the Lewis & Clark Expedition
Lesson 4: Cherokee and the Trail of Tears
In 1838 and 1839, as part of President Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and migrate to Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears" because of its tragic consequences. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.
If you cannot join us for class, please read the article in Readworks called "Cherokee in the United States" and "Excerpt from Trail of Tears Diary" posted here. Answer questions for both passages.
trail of tears .pdfLesson 5: President Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson, President of the United States in the 1930s, was a character of contradictions. He was praised by many as a supporter of the common man, interested in democracy for all people, not just the "elites." And yet he was responsible for the forcible relocation of thousands of Native Americans and he was against abolitionism (the ending of slavery).
If you can't join us for class, please read the Readworks assignment on Andrew Jackson and then this accompanying primary source document, his speech to Congress on "Indian Removal."
Andrew Jackson speech.pdfLesson 6: Transcontinental Railroad INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
Please LOGIN to Readworks and find the passage called "American Indians and the Transcontinental Railroad." Please answer the questions fully (using complete sentences) when you are finished reading. Then watch this video about the RR.
U.S. History: Slavery, Antebellum
U.S. History: Slavery, Antebellum
Lesson 1: Slavery in the Territories
As many of you know, Americans fought over slavery right from the beginning of the country's founding. There were compromises included in the US Constitution that allowed slaveholders to think they could keep their "peculiar institution" and slavery opponents to think they could eventually outlaw slavery everywhere. By 1820 there was a law called The Missouri Compromise that said slavery could only be in the Southern states where it already existed, that any new territory out west would be "free soil." But it didn't stay that way, and tensions became high...
We will read together and talk about the passage in Readworks called "Slavery in the Territories." Then we will learn about the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) that reversed The Missouri Compromise and examine excerpts from a primary source, Abraham Lincoln's speech about the new law, also found in Readworks.
If you cannot attend class, please read and answer questions in Readworks so I can give you credit.
1820
1854
Lesson 2: The Underground Railroad INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
Please login to Readworks and find the passages called "Slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction: The Underground Railroad" and "Wesley Harris: An Account of Escaping Slavery." Read them carefully and answer the questions. Your Social Studies portion of the GED is almost entirely composed of long passages like these and answering questions, so this is excellent practice.
Lesson 3: Abolitionists
Abolitionism was a movement to end slavery. Slavery existed in the American colonies and continued after the revolution and birth of the new nation in the 1770s. In fact, it became entrenched in the American South for reasons relating to the growth of a plantation economy that served not only the United States but much of Europe and the western world. Northerners gradually strengthened their opposition to slavery in organized ways, and the most radical, or extreme, opponents of slavery became known as abolitionists. They constituted the new Republican Party, formed a decade before the tensions over slavery erupted into the Civil War in the 1860s.
Check out this interactive map of the Atlantic slave trade. Watch the dates of the ships as they cross the ocean, delivering slaves from Africa to the "New World" of the Americas. The bigger the moving dot, the larger was the ship. If you pause the video, you can read the details of the ship. A lot of research was done to create this map.
Check out this interactive map of the Atlantic slave trade. Watch the dates of the ships as they cross the ocean, delivering slaves from Africa to the "New World" of the Americas. The bigger the moving dot, the larger was the ship. If you pause the video, you can read the details of the ship. A lot of research was done to create this map.
Abolitionists included men and women, white people, free black people, and former slaves. They had different ways of contributing to the cause of freedom for slaves. The abolitionists we will read about and discuss are John Brown, the two Harriets--Harriet Beecher Stowe and Harriet Tubman--and Frederick Douglass.
If you cannot attend class, please find and complete the passages about these people in Readworks.
U.S. History: Civil War
U.S. History: Civil War
Lesson 1: The Civil War and Reconstruction - Overview
Reading
Questions
Lesson 2: Civil War, Gettysburg Address INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
Please find these articles in Readworks: "American Civil War" and "Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Address." You will read about the reasons for the war and Lincoln's need to rally the union troops halfway through the war. This is a major topic in U.S. History and will definitely be on the GED.
Lesson 3: The North and the South
37 maps that explain the American Civil War - Vox.pdfPlease scroll through these fantastic maps of the Civil War showing almost every angle of the conflict.
Please scroll through these fantastic maps of the Civil War showing almost every angle of the conflict.
commonlit_the-south-secedes_student.pdfcommonlit_a-nation-divided-north-vs-south_student.pdfLesson 4 Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, the man who presided over the American Civil War on the side of the Union and against the rebellious, southern Confederate States of America is known as "The Great Emancipator." In other words, Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. That's what we hear and remember from the earliest grades, right? Did he? How? When? By what authority? Let's find out.
commonlit_the-emancipation-proclamation_student.pdfAbraham_Lincoln_and_the_Emancipation_Proclamation-teacher.pdfEmancipation Proclamation
Emancipation Proclamation
This is an example of a primary source. A primary source is an immediate, first-hand account of a topic, from a person who had a direct connection to it. Examples include speeches, laws, diaries, letters, newspaper reports, eyewitness accounts.
Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order called the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, right in the middle of the Civil War. It freed the slaves in the Confederacy (the Southern states, the ones which had seceded, or rebelled).
Let's read what it says.
The legal basis for the Emancipation Proclamation was tricky, dubious even. Listen carefully to this fairly accurate historical account of Lincoln's reasoning in freeing the South's slaves and justifying it legally. In this monologue from Steven Spielberg's film Lincoln, the President (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) talks about how slippery it was to consider the South to be both part of the Union and a "belligerent nation" at the very same time. Why did this matter? Did Lincoln consider slaves to be property? How can you tell?
When he gives this speech, Lincoln mentions that he issued the Emancipation Proclamation two years ago. How does he know that his tricky and controversial decision to free the Confederate slaves ended up being OK with the people? And why does he think the Emancipation Proclamation isn't an effective measure to free the slaves altogether? What does he say needs to be done now to *really* free the slaves once and for all?
This is hard work. Listening to or reading old-fashioned speech, especially speech that is dense with meaning, is extremely taxing to the brain, but this is what we mean by careful reading and critical thinking. These are the kinds of questions you will be asked on your Social Studies GED. You will need to read the passage for meaning, going over it a few times if necessary, to figure out what the answers are. Be patient with yourself. Try to think what he means, what he's saying.
Be sure to listen to the audio and read along.
Lesson 5: The 13th Amendment INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
The 13th Amendment is why we no longer have slavery in America. Please login to Readworks and learn how hard Abraham Lincoln worked to convince Congress to pass this Amendment. Really read "between the lines" to understand the inferences. Then answer the questions with care. This is a fundamental topic in United States history and will certainly be on your test.
When you are finished reading the assigned passage in Readworks, watch this dramatic clip from Steven Spielberg's film about Lincoln. You'll recognize the scene.
Read the language of the 13th Amendment carefully. Can you find a loophole? When is forced labor, or "involuntary servitude," still allowed in America today?
Please watch the two videos below to learn more about how the American prison system has exploited the 13th Amendment.
Lesson 6: Reconstruction
Reconstruction is the period that followed the American Civil War. The North won the war, and slavery was abolished through the 13th Amendment. Chaos, confusion, tension, and outright violence characterized this post-war period, and Lincoln wasn't around to help out because he was assassinated almost immediately when the war ended. His party, full of "Radical Republicans," the people who were formerly abolitionists wanting to end slavery, were eager to make sure the South was punished for having put the nation through such a devastating war. And they wanted to make sure the "freedmen," the name they gave newly freed slaves, got their rights. Let's go through the Khan Academy lesson on Reconstruction together.
U.S. History: Immigration
U.S. History: Immigration
Lesson 1: Contradictions In Immigration
Words to Know:
Words to Know:
assimilation
Nativism
prejudice
salad bowl v. melting pot
family-based v merit-based
"No World" by Kara Walker
"30,000,000 Immigrants" by Bernarda Bryson
We will read and discuss the following passages together. As usual, if you cannot make class, please do the work independently and send me your answers. Remember that the GED is largely a reading test, and it requires powerful concentration. You should really focus on the reading and answer the questions carefully. This is just what the GED will look like!
commonlit_the-rush-of-immigrants_student.pdfcommonlit_the-new-colossus_student.pdfLesson 2: The First Wave INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
Chinese Exclusion Act
Irish Immigrants
Political Cartoons
The Chinese Exclusion Act is an important legislative step in American history. It was the first attempt by the federal government to restrict immigration, and, significantly, it targeted a particular group of people characterized by ethnicity, which was later declared unconstitutional. The reasons for targeting the Chinese, like so much about history, are complicated and controversial. Most historians recognize the presence of discrimination that was both exacerbated by and masked by economic concerns. Nativism refers to prejudice against the foreign-born. Nativism most especially takes hold against people who look different, such that their foreignness can be detected without interaction. Sometimes there are genuine fears about losing jobs to people willing to work for less, and sometimes those fears are mixed up in prejudice.
Watch the two videos and consider the facts.
The Irish, too, encountered discrimination. In the first big wave of immigration, they came because of starvation in Ireland. They didn't "look different" the way the Chinese immigrants did, but they were mostly Roman Catholic, which engendered great hostility among many Protestant Americans.
Please read the passage called Irish Immigrants in Readworks and answer the questions carefully.
Political cartoons will be on your Social Studies GED test. They are drawings that convey "commentary"--an opinion--about politics or current events. The artist chooses to send a message through a picture instead of an essay. Your job will be to interpret what that message is. You should look at the characters and things in the picture and identify them. They may represent something larger. For example, Uncle Sam represents the United States of America. An elephant represents the Republican Party and a donkey represents the Democratic Party. If the cartoonist isn't sure you might get his reference, he might put a word on a picture of something, just to be clearer, but often he trusts you to do the cognitive work and be tuned in to the world's events.
Take a look at these cartoons from the 1800s.
A 1886 Anti-Chinese political cartoon from The George Dee Magic Washing Machine Company depicting the Chinese Exclusion Act. The purpose of this racist cartoon was to promote the company’s new washing machine.
The xenophobic and racist mindset of many Americans of the late nineteenth century is graphically illustrated by this political cartoon. In the first panel people of Irish and Chinese descent are eating Uncle Sam; in the second scene they finish eating Uncle Sam, and in the third scene the Chinese-American eats the Irish-American. Many native-born Caucasian Americans feared the new wave of immigration and many considered Chinese-Americans a negative influence on American society (similar to the anti-Irish and anti-German sentiment, which started during the antebellum era). This societal hatred and fear forced Chinese-Americans into dangerous occupations such as building the nation’s railroads. It also led to their exclusion from U.S. society of the era. The societal fears of native-born Caucasian Americans also was reflected in the politics of the era. To stop what people saw as a flood of Chinese immigration into the United States, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, barring further Chinese immigration. With anti-Chinese sentiment so common, when Chinese-Americans migrated to cities they tended to settle together in the same neighborhoods, creating neighborhood support networks to cope with the discrimination of the time.
(text from The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia.)
Lesson 3: Comparison of Perspectives
'Shut the Door' Speech.pdfThe Case for Getting Rid of Borders - The Atlantic.pdfLet's take a look at these two passages and compare/contrast. First we need to figure out what we're looking at. What are the dates of publication? Are these opinions or reporting and what form do they take? What is the thesis (or main idea) of each piece? What are the authors' supporting arguments?
Look at titles, subtitles, and opening/topic sentences for main ideas. Most good writers organize their arguments so it's easy to see a kind of structure.
You should be able to fill in the blanks for each passage:
The author recommends that ______. These are his reasons: ______.
Week May 25-29 U.S. History: The Gilded Age and the Rise to Reform
Week May 25-29 U.S. History: The Gilded Age and the Rise to Reform
Lesson 1: The Reform Movement
Background (1865-1900)
Background (1865-1900)
A handful of smart, hardworking men got really rich in the period after the Civil War because they built gigantic, new industries of oil, steel, coal, railroads, and banking. Their names might sound familiar to you: John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and some others. Many cities, buildings, companies, universities, and foundations are named after them.
We call theirs the Gilded ("Gold") Age because they and other company owners were able to get extremely wealthy since their industries were new and America hadn't yet figured out how to protect workers. They raked in high profits and paid workers very little, and if workers got hurt, they just fired them and hired new ones. They hired children for cheap labor and forced workers to work under stressful, dangerous conditions. A large disparity of wealth arose. This means that they became richer and richer while the workers became poorer and poorer.
As a comparison, we can think about the handful of wealthy men today who got rich from the brand new computer industry. Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), and Elon Musk (Tesla) are smart, hardworking people who got very rich building the gigantic tech industries that we sometimes lump together in a place we call Silicon Valley. The difference between the Gilded Age and the "Silicon Age" is that today we have many rules and regulations that prevent them from exploiting workers. Although there is still controversy over some things like pay and working conditions, they are not as bad as the pay and working conditions of the workers in the late 19th Century.
Read & Respond
We will work on this lesson together in class. If you cannot attend, please read the passage, answer the questions, and send them to me via text or email.
We will work on this lesson together in class. If you cannot attend, please read the passage, answer the questions, and send them to me via text or email.
Lesson 2: The Gilded Age INDEPENDENT WORK DAY
Please complete the following activities in Khan Academy. Make sure you are logged in; that way I can see that you did the work and credit you for attendance.
(The following four are located in the first link. Please select these before doing others that might interest you. The first three videos occur one after the other, but then you will have to skip down the list of some other topics to get to the article.)
1. Introduction to the Gilded Age (video)
2. The Gilded Age and the Second Industrial Revolution (video)
3. What Was the Gilded Age? (video)
4. America Moves to the City (article)
These two are located right after each other in the second link:
5. The Progressives (video)
6. The Progressive Era (article)
Lesson 3 (Thursday): Labor Practices and Unions Join class at 10 am or 6 pm
commonlit_the-triangle-shirtwaist-factory-fire_student.pdfcommonlit_shoe-factory-horror_student.pdfworkers-rights-and-the-history-of-labor-unions_student.pdfPage updated
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