This 40-saw cotton gin and the wooden gearing came from a farm formerly owned by the Augustus C.
1880s Agricultural Nation Classroom Activity Guide
Grade Range: 5-12
Resource Type(s): Primary Sources, Lessons & Activities, Worksheets
Date Posted:
1/22/2011
In this set of classroom activities developed for the exhibition America on the Move, students will use visual, analytical, and interpretive skills to examine primary sources including historical maps to answer questions about farming, transportation, immigration, and racism in the 1880s, and will answer questions about the history and impact of railroads on their own communities. The activities provide opportunities for historical analysis, interpretation, evaluation, analyzing cause/effect relationships, understanding multiple points of view, performing original research, debating and persuasive writing and help students develop and strengthen map-reading skills and the ability to identify issues and problems in the past and connect the past to the present.
National Standards
United States History Standards (Grades 5-12)
Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)
2: Massive immigration after 1870 and how new social patterns, conflicts, and ideas of national unity developed amid growing cultural diversity
3: The rise of the American labor movement and how political issues reflected social and economic changes
4: Federal Indian policy and United States foreign policy after the Civil War