Division: North vs. South

In the midst of growing American unity and strength over the first 75 years of our existence as a nation cracks were beginning to form. The North and South grew in very different ways. The North organized around business, cities and shipping. The South ran on farms, often worked by slave labor. In this unit we'll find out if those differences were just too big.

Essential Question: In what ways were the regions of the early United States different from one another?

Power Point Lecture Notes

Lab Activities

1. Industrialization Experiential Exercise [Student Sheet] - Students experience different methods of production to see how division of labor and interchangeable parts led to increased production.

2. Dossiers: Reformers - A look at info-sheets on six northern reformers before the Civil War.

3. Declaration of Sentiments: Mockery or Model? [Student Sheet] - Students compare the Declaration of Independence to the Declaration of Sentiments to determine if the latter was written as a mockery or simply used the DOI as a model. Featuring special guest Weird Al Yankovic teaching us about parody.

4. Book Jacket: Uncle Tom's Cabin - After a read-a-loud of chapters 39 and 40 of Uncle Tom's Cabin students will create a book jacket appropriate for the novel.

5. Nat Turner - He claimed God spoke to him. Was he crazy?

6. Follow the Drinking Gourd (or the Blinking Ford?) - Students analyze the folk song "Follow the Drinking Gourd" then rewrite directions to their homes in the style of the song. We will also experience what it would be like to try to fit into a box like escaped slave Henry "Box" Brown.

7. North & South DBQ - Students analyze a series of graphics from the textbook to determine if life in the North and South really was as different as often portrayed.

8. HA: Narrative of the Life of a Slave - Students do a close / critical reading of a passage from chapter 1 of Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of a Slave which focuses on his relationship with his mother to show the powerful emotional trauma inflicted by slavery.

9. Digging for the Truth: The Antebellum South - Learn what life was like in the south by examining various artifacts with this multimedia extravaganza! Make sure to download and run through Powerpoint for the best experience. Teacher Script.

10. WTE: John Brown - Weigh the evidence to determine if John Brown was a treasonous terrorist or a holy hero.