Support Your Local Thesis!

I know that making these tree maps is not the most exciting thing in the world but I promise you that they do pay off.  The more organized you are before you write the paper, the less work the paper will be.  You wont just show up to run a marathon after doing nothing but hang out for the past year.  No, you spent months training your body for that type of challenge. The Tree Map and outlines are apart of your prep.

Every great paper has a strong thesis.  This allows the reader to know what you are writing about and what your opinion is.  It is your opening statement, your headline, that lets the audience know what your paper is about.  Without the thesis then the paper doesn't have a direction and the reader becomes lost.

        Your paper can not stand on the thesis along though.  That is where your claims come in.  These statements are the main arguments or reasons that you are giving to support the thesis.  These claims will help you prove your point and win your argument.  If the claim contradicts the thesis then you will not win your argument.  (Lets say you are writing a paper on why your friend should break up with his g/f.  You would not mention that she volunteers at a homeless shelter would you?  No, that makes her look good, and thats not your goal.)

The claim is made up of evidence and details.  This helps you prove that your claims are accurate and that your thesis is correct.  The evidence makes up your body paragraphs and should come from a variety of sources.  The more sources that support your claim, the stronger the claim is.  Think, if you want mom or dad to allow you to go to the movies and you say, "well Jean is going", that might not be to convincing.  However, if you say Jean, Mary, Judi, Merrissa, Emily, Betty Lou, and Mrs. Vanderberg are going...well you got a stronger case.

        Your sources for these facts are your L.P.S., L.M.G., your textbook, and the notes.  Up in the library there are some books put on reserve that I encourage you to use for your paper.  The more sources you have, the more well rounded the paper will be.  This also shows that you applied yourself and took that extra effort on your assignment. No hurt in that.

     

When I think of a paper or an essay, I think of the Greek or Roman Temples.  The thesis is the roof of the temple and the columns are the claims (body paragraphs).  If the claims are weak and do not support the thesis then the whole temple will collapse.  And you dont want to be responsible for a bunch of dead Romans now do you.

Keep up the donations for the Turkey Trot!!   

Lowell Paper

After spending two weeks on the Industrial Revolution it is now time to apply what you know to the assessment assignment. You will need to use your L.M.G packet, the textbook, and the L.P.S. packet to find the details for your paper.  You will be writing a paper and you have two options.  

   The first is to decide if working at Lowell was either positive or negative for the women at the mills.  You will need to pick an opinion on this issue and defend it. Imagine that you are a lawyer and you want to prove that Lowell is guilty of abusing the workers of the mills.  Or you need to prove to the jury that the women workers actually benefited from their time at Lowell. If you are writing about the positive impacts, you should not mention any negative things in your paper.  As a writer, the goal should be to allow the reader to see your point of view.  Try and convince me that your opinion is the right one.

    The second option is on Wal Mart.  If you choose to do this one, you need to ask me for permission first.   In this paper, you will compare life at Lowell to life for a Wal Mart employee. You will need to consider the working and living conditions for the Mill Girls and the Wal Mart employees.  I have some articles and other sources for you to use with this.  If you want to choose this paper, understand that it will require a good amount of work on your part.  

  

      Your Thinking Map is due on December 5th and your final draft is due December 12th.  By using the map you are getting prepared for your final copy.  Handing in a rough draft is optional but also recommended for some.   If you hand in your rough draft I will look it over and show you what corrections you need to make.

I want you to start thinking about what you would like to write about.

Transportation Revolution

See a Need, Fill a Need.

Not to steal from that movie, but the quote does do a great job of explaining the connection between the Transportation Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.

The mills of Lowell and the Northeast all required a large supple of raw materials.  Raw materials are goods such as: cotton, wheat, coal and grain.  These natural resources were essential to the survival of the factories and mills in the country.  As a result there was a demand to have these goods.  Politicians and businessmen sought out ways to provide a method to get those goods to the people in the Northeast.   

At the same time the nation was expanding.  People in the West and the South needed manufactured goods.  Products made in factories of the North were in demand in the South and West where there were little to no factories.  Many called for new ways of getting goods across the nation.

       In class we talked about the different methods that were used to move goods from place to place. The goal with each method was always to lower the cost and to have it done faster.   Some would be more efficient and faster then others.    As technology improved so would the means of travel.

The first method of moving goods was through roads.  Private corporations and states would pay for the construction of roads in different parts of the country.  While roads linked towns and cities they were also unreliable.  Tree stumps, large rocks, mud, and roots would often give the passengers of wagons a rough ride while increasing the travel time.  

Rivers provided some towns and cities with a reliable way of moving people and goods.  Some towns were not near a body of water so canals were constructed.  Canals linked cities to larger rivers, such as the Mississippi.  Once connected to the Ohio, Mississippi, or Missouri Rivers, that city would have access to other major ports across the world.  Travel time was reduced and the price of goods from the East would drop.  People on the East Coast would now have access to cotton, rice, corn, and tobacco from the Southern and Western parts of the nation.

Hopefully you can describe for me the Positive and Negative Results of the following Transportation methods:

Steamboats, Clipper Ships, and Railroads.

Without the demand for goods created by the Industrial Revolution there would be no rapid change in transportation.

Have a good weekend.

L.P.S.

Lowell Primary Sources

    The L.M.G. packet was a pretty good collection of Secondary sources on what life was like for the Lowell girls.  Today, we used primary sources as a way of seeing what life was like for the people living through the Industrial Revolution.  This allowed us to see how they felt and what they believed, rather then reading a summary of the events.  Using a primary source is important when you need to defend an opinion or get a point across.

The L.P.S. is a collection of letters, rules and regulations, and statistics from the 1800s.  The data is a very useful way of seeing what the Lowell Mill Girls went through.  From this information you can form an accurate opinion on what life was like in the Industrial Revolution.  

    With the L.P.S. packet you needed to answer some questions regarding the well being of the girls at Lowell.  Some of these questions were:

1.) What diseases did the most people from Lowell die from? Why did they spread so quickly?  

2.) When did the diseases strike?  

3.) How could the mill owners prevent some of the respiratory problems that the workers       would suffer from?

4.) Name one positive aspect about the boarding houses and one negative aspect.

5.) What was the average age of death of a person who lived at Lowell.

All of these facts will help you down the road when you need to choose a stance on the Industrial Revolution.

Finally for Homework:

You have until Monday to complete an advertisement for a mill company of Lowell.  I want you to be creative and take your time with this one.  It is not due until Monday, November 24th.  You are allowed to work with a partner.  If you have any questions on the assignment or lost your sheet please let me know.

Don't Forget To Bring in an Item for the Turkey Trot!!!

Positives and Negatives @ Lowell

From the L.M.G. we got a great amount of information on what life was like working at Lowell for these young women.  The packet is a pretty good secondary source that explores several different areas.

Housing, Working Conditions, Job Positions, Social Life/Lifestyle.

For each of those areas you should be able to give some positive facts and some negative facts.

For Example

Housing: 

(+) food was supplied to the women that lived in the houses

(-) living conditions were very crowded and cramped 

Some other questions that were discussed in class that we wrote down were:

1.) Why did the women have a difficult time getting the reforms passed?

2.)  Who was Sarah Bagley and what did she set up?

3.) What method did Sarah Bagley use to try and get outside help for the women of Lowell?

4.) Who was receiving bonuses for high production output in the mills?

Tonight for homework each class (but 4th) had to identify another 5 people and or terms that were assigned in class.  You should have ten terms now defined for class tomorrow.  

P.S.

Sorry,

The Homework is to read and mark up the L.M.G. Handout.  Do not just highlight random quotes!! Highlighting is like hot sauce.  If you do it to much your going to ruin it and give yourself heartburn.

Introduction to the Industrial Revolution

      Today we finished our two day presentation on the Introduction to the Industrial Revolution.  

I want you to examine the I.R. from the point of view of one of the owners of the mill or the plantation. 

   Men like Francis Cabot Lowell and Samuel Slater had some decisions to make for their business ventures.  Where will they construct their mills?  Who will work the machines?  How will they get people to work in their mills?  

First Issue: Location, Location, Location.

New England is rich in natural resources.  Beautiful coastlines, excellent harbors, forests, fertile land, ice cream parlors... But, the most important resource are the rivers.  Rivers like the Merimack, Connecticut, and Pawtucket provide a constant supply of energy.  Water power is the first energy source for the Industrial Revolution.  New England has plenty of fast moving rivers and streams so it was the perfect location for the early mills.

Second Issue: Good Help is Hard to Find.

     These owners needed to have a cheap reliable source of labor. Who could they get to work for less money?  Women!  Slater and Lowell both advertised for women to work in their mills.  They believed that female workers would be more docile and obedient then male workers.  In other words, they would not protest as much as make workers if they did not like their working conditions.   

     We saw that the women that went to work for these mills had their own agendas and various backgrounds.  Some were poor farm girls who were hoping to make some extra money and then eventually leave and find a new job or get married.  Some mill workers were educated women who were trying to earn some of their own income for the first time.  Traveling to a city to start a new life allowed them to meet new people and be introduced to new ideas and beliefs.  They did not plan on settling down at the mills for more then a few years.

     Third Problem:  Advertising.

  How was life in the mills advertised?  What did the owners promise the families of New England?  Why did the owners make all these claims about what life would be like for the mill workers. 

Finally,

Here are some higher level questions.  Feel free to respond in class.

1.) In the L.M.G. reading it is mentioned that the owners were looking for a temporary source of labor.  What does that mean?  How might conditions in the mills have been different if they were looking for life time employees?

2.)  How did Lowell Mill Girls find themselves competing against the Irish for jobs?  How did the massive amounts of immigrants force the average salary of a mill worker to go down?

Revolutionary War Part II

Since Jay's Treaty the relationship between Great Britain and the United States could be considered frosty at best.  The British navy had been attacking and imprisoning American merchant ships and sailors on and off for the past decade.  Many Americans were tired of British aggression on the high seas. Out in the Western frontier, the British had been supplying Native American tribes with weapons to use against American settlers.  The British promised the Indian tribes that they would never encroach on their land and that the Americans were intruders who should not be trusted.  

   After the Battle of Tippecanoe it became clear to many Americans that the British were attempting to weaken the United States.  The Shawnee and other Indian tribes were discovered to be using British made weapons.  Across the West and South, Americans were demanding that their leaders do something to protect them from the British.

   One leader, Henry Clay from Kentucky, demanded that the U.S. declare war against the British.  Clay believed that the war would allow the young nation to expand further west.  This would ensure that new acres of land be opened up for farming of cotton as well as tobacco. Clay's home state of Kentucky was one of the most western states of the union.  He felt that the people of Kentucky and the West needed to be protected and not denied the right to expand.

   Like Clay, John C. Calhoun from South Carolina was another supporter of the War of 1812.  Calhoun felt that the British were not respecting the rights of the U.S. as a sovereign (independent) nation.  Calhoun also felt that the U.S. would benefit economically from expanding into other parts of the continent.

   Against the War Hawks were members of the Federalist Party.  Still strong in New England these Senators spoke out against fighting a war with the British.  They believed that the New England states would suffer economically from the fighting.  Shipping and trade would decrease and many businesses could close.   "Mr. Madison's War" would only help the South at the expense of the North.

    For Homework, and I am sorry that there is alot of it you need to do the following.

1.) complete that handout where you write a (brief) speech explaining why the war should be fought, or why it should not be fought.  You can choose from several different perspectives on this.

2.) Read and markup or highlight the handout on the War of 1812.  This reading will give you some valuable information that will help you complete part III of the homework.  There are several major facts and people that are important to understand the War of 1812.

3.) Finally.  You will fill out the graph on the important people from the War.  The reading will help you understand how you should complete it.

Best of Luck to you.

Enjoy your day off 

Tecumseh

Today in class we looked at often ignored period in American History: the settling of the Northwest Territory.  Most history books spend very little time on this topic.  In the beginning of the year we talked about how historians have to choose what to include in history text books.  Sometimes certain events and people do not get to be recorded or have their voices heard.  That is why I wanted to examine the American expansion from the point of view of Tecumseh and other Native Americans. 

 One of the questions that I want you to consider is the legitimacy of the sale of the Northwest Territory.  The British agree to give the land to the United States following the American Revolution.  American settlers that move into the Ohio River Valley feel as though they have a legitimate claim to that land.  The Native American tribes that live in that region view the Americans as intruders.  So did the British really control or own the land that they sold?  Was this sale legitimate? 

    Some tribes fought back and attacked American settlers that crossed the Ohio River.  As the death toll mounted the American government was put under pressure to protect these settlers.  Some members of Congress and the Senate did not want to help these farmers and settlers.  They (the settlers) knew that the land was dangerous and that there would be a chance that Indians could attack them.  Eventually, President Washington asked General Anthony Wayne to go into the Ohio Territory and protect the Americans that were living there.

   "Mad" Anthony Wayne was able to defeat the Indians at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794.  His tactics took advantage of Native American religious beliefs and gave his army the upper hand.  The Treaty of Greenville ended the fighting between settlers and Indian tribes.  *You should be able to tell me the conditions of the treaty.

   We ended class talking about Tecumseh and his background information. 

You should be able to tell me the following:

1.)  Why did Tecumseh refuse to sign The Treaty of Greenville?

2.) What present day states were part of The Northwest Territory?

3.) Why did Tecumseh dislike certain settlers?

4.) Why didn't the Native Americans attack the British

Quiz tomorrow Good Luck

Lewis and Clark

Thomas Jefferson asked fellow Virginian Merriwether Lewis to lead an exhibition to the Louisiana Territory. Lewis then asked his friend and fellow soldier William Clark to help lead the exhibition.  

   Their mission was both scientific and political.  Jefferson wanted the group chart a water route to the Pacific Ocean.  This would allow American merchants to trade with nations in Asia and increase American commerce.  Jefferson also ordered the group to catalogue and chronicle the plant and animal life that they encountered on their journey.  The men kept journals of the trip detailing the different species they had seen along the way as well as the climate of the land they journeyed through.  These journals would become helpful for future American farmers that moved into the lands that Lewis and Clark explored.  

   On the political side of the trip, the men had a very important job.  They represented the United States of America whenever they encountered Native American tribes.  They were ambassadors for the U.S.  As representatives of the U.S., they were ordered by the President to try and establish peaceful relationships with the tribes that they met.  Jefferson also wanted the group to gather as much information on the tribes as possible.  These facts would allow Americans to further their understandings of the different native groups in the American West.

   Jefferson wrote various letters to Captain Lewis before he left for his journey.  We looked at two letters today.  One letter was written in June of 1803, the other was written in January of 1804.  He instructed the men on the following: how to behave towards the tribes, what to tell the tribes, and what to ask them.  For each letter you should be able to explain to me the content.  (we made a chart in class). 

   Why did the tone of the letters change?  What was different about the two letters?

finish the map for h.w.

have a good day