Special Readings

Jan 29 Introduction to Course, with Technology Orientation
Introduction: Dr. Reed Stewart opening notes


Interactive TV environment & Threaded Discussion: Alan Girelli  PowerPoint Presentation

Requirements of the Course: Bobby Robinson notes

Feb. 5: Peoples of Massachusetts:
Native Americans and First English Settlers: Eric Johnson, Mass. Historical Commission
PowerPoint Presentation

Native Americans of Massachusetts
Language, lifeways, society, tribes

Native American Landscapes of Massachusetts

An example, Pocumtuck
Wigwams or wetus
Yearly cycle of settlement and subsistence
Communal ownership of land and resources
The mythic landscape
Homeland and house

English settlers in Massachusetts
Contrasts in attitudes, technologies

Epidemic disease, "Widowed land"

Transformations of the environment and economy

An example from Cape Cod
Native American landscape
European settlement
New economy, domestic animals, extractive industries
Ecological transformations, forest to dune
Economic reorganization

 Immigration to Massachusetts:
Dr. Westy A. Egmont, International Institute of Boston,
Dreams of Freedom, Boston's Immigration Museum
Images: Percent Born Outside, English as a Second Language,
Ethnicity and Race1, Ethnicity and Race2

I. Four Motivations
II.Video: The Last Resort
III.Four Distinct Centuries

            Settlers

            Colonist

            First Americans

            Immigrant America
IV.Today's Diverse Population: 1 in 9
V.  Benchmarks of a Century

Feb. 12: Physical Geography:
Dr. Richard Gelpke, Prof. Earth and Geographic Sciences,
University of Mass. Boston.
Power Point Presentation

Place In Mass History- Digital Images

Discussion Question

Images (Print Landscape)
Mass Towns

Mass Topography

I. Location of Massachusetts
A. Situation
B. Site

II. North American Geology
A.Tectonics
I. How We Got Here 

III.  Physiography-Geomorphology

A.     Regions of Massachusetts

IV. Glaciation

A. Effects

B.Soils

V.  Climate and Weather

VI. Forests

VII. Resulting Natural Landscape

Feb 19: Off Campus Research, Unit Development Approach

Feb. 26: Development of Towns and Cities:
Michael Steinitz, Director, Survey and Planning,Mass. Historical Commission
Power Point Presentation

The Massachusetts Settlement Landscape: the Development of Towns

1) Towns, parishes, precincts and plantations
- the framework of settlement

2) The domestic landscape –
- dividing the land
- creating farms and farmsteads

3) The public landscape –
- town centers
- meeting house, common and burial ground

4) The commercial landscape
- roads and turnpikes
- the growth of villages and hamlets

5) The urban landscape
- the seaport towns and the maritime world

6) The legacy of the landscape
- myths and images that reshape the past
- preserving the landscape

 

March 5: Economic Transitions: From Farm to Factory:
Dr. Laurence Gross, Professor Economic and Social Development University of Mass. Lowell

From Farm to Factory,
From New England Village to the City of Lowell Village Life

Household Production

Farming
Gender Roles
Self-organization
Diverse Skills
Village Sustainability
Moral Economy, Barter
Waterpowered Mills
Labor Saving
Regulated

Factory Life

Agricultural Decline
War of 1812
Waltham Experiment
British Model
New Ways of Life
Factory Production in Lowell
Harnessing the Merrimack
Work for Wages
Mutual Mistrust
Labor-Cheapening Machinery
Market Economy
Supply and Demand
End of Reciprocal Responsbilities

 

March 12: Economic Transitions: From Maritime Trades to Factory:
Dr. Len Travers,Professor of History, University of Mass. Dartmouth
Primary Sources
New Bedford 1838

From Maritime to Factory: A Tale of Several Cities.

I. Prologue: Jefferson’s Nightmare.
A. History of a Loser: The story of Mayo Greenleaf Patch.
B. From a family economy to a labor market.

II. Pawtuket, R.I.
A. Surf and Turf: A Diversified Economy.
B. Slater’s Mill (1790) changes everything.
1. A textile town.
2. Class consciousness.
3. The old order passeth.
4. Middle-class morality.
5 Alarums, excursions, and strikes (oh my!).

III. New Bedford
A. Small town with a Niche Industry.
B. Big Oil, nineteenth-century style.
1. New Bedford becomes a one-industry town.
C. Reshaping the social profile.
D. Manufacturing - a hard sell in New Bedford.
1. Resisting technology.
2. Resisting immigrants.
3. Disaster is the key.

IV. Conclusions (sort of).

Teacher/Practitioner:
Steve Kocur, a member of our class at the Dartmouth campus, is a graduate of UMass. Dartmouth and Simmons College who is certified at the secondary level to teach History, English and Social Studies and Moderate Special Needs K thru 9. He is presently teaching Grade 7 Social Studies at Old Rochester Regional Jr. High in Mattapoisett. Prior to teaching , he worked from 1980 to 1988 as a Museum Site Supervisor of Interpretation and Museum Educator at Plimoth Plantation. He has been recognized for Excellence in Teaching Social Studies by the MA Council for Social Studies, was chosen Runner up MA Teacher of the Year in 1999 by the Dept. of Education, and received the Excellence in Inclusive Education Award by the Dept. of Mental Retardation in 2000.

Steve has prepared Maritime to Factory classroom ideas on his own website as a follow-up to Professor Travers¹ presentation.
http://orr.mec.edu/~skocur/maritime.htm

Lowell as a Case Study of Reforms in Society in Early Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts
1. Review: Place and the Birth and Growth of Lowell, the Industrial City

2. Flaws in the System
· Beginnings of unrest: early turnouts
· Education reform debates (over public funding for Irish education needs)

3. The New Culture
· Public library, churches, theaters, lyceums, other cultural amenities in Lowell
· The Lowell Offering and other literary magazines

4. Tensions Rise: Reform and Protest in Mid-Century Massachusetts
· Voice of Industry as a mouthpiece for labor reformers
· The Ten-Hour Movement
· Health and safety issues in textile manufacturing cities
· Lowell and the anti-slavery movement
· Concord and Cambridge writers and reform movements
women’s rights movement

March 26: Unit Development: Sharing Session
Unit Design
Power Point B. Robinson

Performance Assessment
Power Point M. Brisson

Outline of Units:
Dartmouth
Mike & Kathy Borges
Teresa Dall
Steve Kocur http://orr.mec.edu/~skocur/unit.htm
Mike Leonard http://mleonard.home.mindspring.com/somerset.unit.htm or (LeonardUnit.doc)
Mike Leonard Resources
Rory McFee
Mike Roy

Lowell

Boston:
Julie Fletcher
Kelley Foley
Jen Herlihy-Rakeman
Tim Lavin
Dwight MacKerran
Colleen Onderdonk
Kim Vogel

April 2: Slavery, Discrimination, Civil War and Abolition: Kathryn Grover, Historian, New Bedford

FUGITIVES, WHALING, AND THE ANTEBELLUM COASTING TRADE:
THE CASE OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS

1. Statistical view of population of color in New Bedford, 1850
a. Comparisons to other northern port cities, 1850

i. percent born in slave states
ii. percent nonwhite population of total population
iii. percent nonwhite population change, 1850-60

2. Triangulating primary sources on possible slave-state origins

3. The antebellum Atlantic coastal trade
a. difficulty of overland travel along southern Atlantic coast vs. facility of waterborne travel
b. vitality and nature of New Bedford coastal trade with southern ports
c. kin, political, and economic connections between southeastern MA and southern merchants

4. Ubiquity of people of color in maritime trades, North and South
a. existence of documented fugitive assistants among maritime workers in North and South
b. fugitives’ awareness of maritime, customs, coastal trade routes, sympathetic crew and captains to plan escapes

5. Extent of fugitive traffic as reported in southern press and secondary historical accounts

6. Extent of fugitive presence, as reported by contemporaries, in New Bedford, 1830s-1850s

7. Documented presence of fugitives on New Bedford whaling vessels to 1863

April 9: State and Regional Systems: Water, Energy, Transportation
and Communication
Dr.Jack Looney, Chair, Earth and Geographic Sciences, University of Mass. Boston
PowerPoint Presentation
Thoughts on Place

Transportation Growth
Pre-colonial
Colonial
Westward movement
Early steam
Steam
WW I and WW II

Geography
Central Place
Commuter zone
Sector / Wedge
Edge city formation

Economics
Planning
Historical Evolution

Boats
Canals
Railroad
Highways

 

April 16: Unit Development Presentations; Wrap up

Reed-End of course tie-together

Draft Unit Evaluation Rubric

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