Unit 3: Nineteenth Century Social and Cultural Transformations (1820s-1860s)

​In this unit we will explore the social, economic, and cultural dimensions of American – and especially local northwest Connecticut – life in the period stretching roughly from the 1820s to the 1860s. More specifically we will examine the Market Revolution (early industry and advances in transportation like canals and railways), the evolution of everyday life (from education to sanitation), and the emergence of important movements for social change (temperance, women’s suffrage, and abolitionism). The anchor for much of this learning will be a week-long Cemetery Project, which will be conducted jointly between Humanities History and Humanities English. The research-orientation of this project will allow students to tailor their learning experience to their personal interests.
Picture
Family of an ore miner in nearby Sharon, Connecticut. Sharon Historical Society.

Homework assignments

#301: Market Revolution

​Read Foner, 259-64 (Market Society, Commercial Farmers, The Growth of Cities, The Factory System, The "Mill Girls," and The Growth of Immigration).
  • Watch "Crash Course History #12: The Market Revolution" (see embedded video to right).
  • As you read Foner and watch Crash Course, consider:
    • What are some ways the Market Revolution was likely to influence life in Salisbury, Connecticut? (Consider links to the documentary we watched in class).
    • Identify two examples your own life has been impacted by the consequences of the Market Revolution.

Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring  Foner to class.
#302: Secret Life of a Developing Country (Ours)

Task:
Materials needed for class:
  • Copy of the reading (Foner and the Course Reader are not needed).
Please note: Sections HH250-01 and HH250-15 will continue regular Unit 3 lessons (#303-#306) after the completion of the Cemetery Project.
​#303: Workers at Lowell

Task:
  • Read and annotate Bixby letters in the Course Reader, 35-38.
  • Annotations will be checked and graded for completion out of 4 points.

Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring the Course Reader to class.

#304: Public Women

Task:
Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring Foner to class.
Please note: Sections HH250-09 and HH250-10 will continue regular Unit 3 lessons (#305 and #306) after the completion of the Cemetery Project.
#305: Women and Abolitionism: Sojourner Truth and Harriet Jacobs​

Task:
  • Read Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” in the Course Reader, 33.
  • Read Harriet Jacobs, selections from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
  • As you read, consider:
    • Why do you think Sojourner Truth was invited to speak to feminists in Akron, Ohio, in 1851? Why do you think that it is considered one of the most important speeches in the early women’s rights movement? Are the answers to these two questions the same or different?
    • Harriet Jacobs describes her master as “my old tyrant.” Where have we heard this term before? How is this type of tyranny similar or different to what we have discussed before?

Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring the Course Reader and a copy of Harriet Jacobs to class.
#306: Abolitionism: Frederick Douglass
​
​Task:
  • Read David Walker, selections from Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World” (1830).
  • Read Frederick Douglass, selection from “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” (1852) in Foner, 361.
  • As you read, consider:
    • How might have various groups of Americans (e.g., white Southerners, white Northerners, black Americans) responded differently to David Walker’s question: “Now, Americans! I ask you candidly, was your sufferings under Great Britain, one hundredth part as cruel and tyrannical as you have rendered ours under you?”
    • What might Frederick Douglass hope to accomplish by accusing white Americans of injustice and hypocrisy?

Materials needed for class:
  • Please bring Foner and a copy of David Walker’s Appeal to class.