Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction

Transcription

1 T he Artios Home Companion Series Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction Teacher Overview Thus far we have been studying the men engaged in exploration, in invention, or in the great national struggles through which the United States has passed. But while only a small fraction of the people, as a rule, take an active and prominent part in the stirring events of history, many more work hard and faithfully to furnish all with food, clothing, and other things needful in everyday living. With this thought in mind, let us take a brief glance at a few of the great industries of that time. *The articles contained in this unit are taken from the book, Stories of Later American History, by Wilbur F. Gordy. This book was originally published in Thus, some of the statistics are outdated. It is important to note that we use these articles both to serve as a look back to our country and its progress immediately after the Civil War, and also to use it as a basis of comparing and contrasting current figures and statistics to understand the growth and development we have experienced during our lifetimes. Reading and Assignments A poster encouraging the idea that America is the Bread Basket of the World because of the amount of wheat produced in the United States In this unit, students will: Complete three lessons in which they will learn about four great industries, journaling and answering discussion questions as they read. Define vocabulary words. Read selected chapters from Across Five Aprils, journaling as they read. Complete literature assignments including practice writing topic sentences Continue learning about Personal Essays. Read notes and complete grammar exercises on Comma Rules 9, 10, and 11. Visit for additional resources. Leading Ideas Honesty is a character quality to be desired. The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please Him. Proverbs 20:23 The Bible provides the ethics upon which to judge people and nations. Exodus 20:1-17 Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 1

2 God is sovereign over the affairs of men. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. Acts 17:26 Literature, Composition, and Grammar Unit 6 Assignments Literature and Composition Writing a Personal Essay Topic for Units 5-9 Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt Literature for Units 5-9 Read the assignment background information. Read Chapters 5-8 in Across Five Aprils. Activity While Reading: As you read the novel this week, circle transition phrases or words that Irene Hunt used to help readers flow from one topic to the next. (Please see the Artios Home Companion website for a list of strong transitional words and phrases. Look for the Transition Help Sheet.) In your Reading Journal: Define these vocabulary words: abolitionist demotion detain forte indistinct pompous Many authors try to engage all five senses in the reader. An author might say that a field of grass had bright colors or smelled like spring. Each author has their own way of using the five senses (smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing) to draw in the reader. You can tell how well an author engages the reader in a senses orientated way by looking at a reader s favorite scene in a novel. Write down your favorite location you read about this week or your favorite scene. Why was it your favorite? What details about the five senses did Irene Hunt use to draw you into her story? Practice writing topic sentences this week. Use one of the topics you chose last week and construct topic sentences to support each point. (Further instruction can be found on the Artios Home Companion website.) Grammar Read the notes on Comma Rules 9, 10, & 11, beginning on page 3. Complete the corresponding grammar exercises on the Artios Home Companion website. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 2

3 Unit 6 Assignment Background Topic Sentences: Last week, we discussed the importance of a thesis in an essay. This week, we are going to expand on that by introducing the idea of topic sentences. A topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph. It tells what the paragraph will be about, and each sentence after supports that topic sentence. (Remember each topic sentence must support your thesis). Example: If this is our thesis: Participating in the fine arts can be helpful for a student s emotional development because it promotes teamwork, supports communication, and encourages the use of imagination. Our next step would be to build an essay which supports this thesis through the use of paragraphs that hold up the thesis. You start with your introduction draw the reader into the essay. Start with your topic sentence: The fine arts are a fantastic way to reach out to different learning styles. Your next two to three sentences will build around that topic sentence and then your thesis statement brings the subject of the essay into focus. Your second paragraph should begin with a topic sentence that supports the first point of your thesis promoting teamwork. The fine arts promote teamwork in that they teach students the importance of working together to reach a common goal. This sentence sets up the basis for the paragraph, and supports the thesis. Your next two topic sentences will cover the second and third points of your thesis, and the topic sentence of the conclusion will bring the three points together. Transitions: Transitions are an important part of the construction of an essay. Transitions are words or phrases which help the reader to flow from one point to the next. They help to keep the paper organized and on topic. Transition words such as likewise and additionally help to bridge the gap between ideas. You should always connect one paragraph to the next with strong transition words and phrases. Grammar Notes for Unit 6 U s e d b y p e r m i s s i o n : w w w. a n a l y t i c a l g r a m m a r. c o m Comma Rules 9, 10, and 11 COMMA RULE #9: Use commas to separate items in dates and addresses. Buzzword: Dates and Addresses EXAMPLE: My family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, on Monday, May 4, On May 4, 1964, I changed my address to 645 Commerce Street, Knoxville, Tennessee NOTE: There is no comma between the state and zip code. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 3

4 COMMA RULE #10: When a date or an address is part of a sentence, you must put a comma AFTER the last item in the date or address, if the sentence continues on. Look at the comma after Tennessee and the one after 1964 in the sentences above. Buzzword: Salutations & Closings Use a comma after the salutation of a friendly letter and after the closing of any letter. (Use a colon after the salutation of a business letter.) EXAMPLE: Dear Jim, (friendly letter) Dear Mr. Jones: (business letter) Truly yours, Loves and kisses, COMMA RULE #11: Use a comma between a name and Jr., Sr., M.D., etc. EXAMPLE: Allen Davies, Jr. Stanley Browne, M. D. Buzzword: Names and Abbreviations NOTE: Do not use a comma between a name and a Roman numeral For example: Jonathan Sanders III; Henry VIII; Elizabeth I Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 4

5 Lesson One H i s tory Overview and Assignments Cotton Owing to the favorable climate of the southern states, much of the cotton we use to produce clothing is raised in the South. At the publishing of today s article, the United States produced more cotton and cotton of a better quality than any other country in the world. Vocabulary prominent Discussion Question 1. Find out the current facts, figures and statistics for the United States cotton industry and compare them to the facts found in today s article. Cotton plant Reading and Assignments Review the discussion question and vocabulary, then read the article: Cotton, pages 5-6. Narrate about today s reading using the appropriate notebook page. Be sure to answer the discussion questions and include key people, events, and dates within the narration. Define the vocabulary word in the context of the reading and put the word and its definition in the vocabulary section of your history notebook. Be sure to visit for additional resources. Adapted from the book: Stories of Later American History by Wilbur F. Gordy Cotton Thus far we have been considering mainly the Americans engaged in exploration, in invention, or in the great national struggles through which our country has passed. But while only a small fraction of the people, as a rule, take an active and prominent part in the stirring events of history, many more work hard and faithfully to furnish all with food, clothing, and other things needful in Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 5

6 everyday living. What these many laborers accomplish in the fields of industry, therefore, has a most important bearing upon the life and work of people, leaders and followers alike, in other fields of action. With this thought in mind, let us take a brief glance at a few of our great industries. First, go with me in thought to the South, where the cotton, from which we make much of our clothing, is raised. Owing to the favorable climate of the southern states, it being warm and moist, the United States produces more cotton and cotton of a better quality than any other country in the world. No crop, it is said, is as beautiful as growing cotton. The plants are low, with dark green leaves, the flowers, which are yellow at first, changing by degrees to white, and then to deep pink. The cotton fields look like great flower gardens. Cotton field in blossom As the blossoms die they are replaced by the young bolls, or pods, which contain the seeds. From the seeds grow long vegetable hairs, which form white locks in the pods. These fibers are the cotton. When the pods become ripe and open, the cotton bursts out and covers them with a puff of soft, white down. The height of the picking season is in October. As no satisfactory machine for picking cotton had been invented by the time period we are studying, it was usually done by hand. Lines of pickers passed between the rows, gathering the down and crowding it into wide-mouthed sacks hanging from their shoulders or waists. At the ends of the rows stood great baskets, into which the sacks were emptied, and then the cotton was loaded into wagons which carried it to the gin house. If damp, the cotton was dried in the sun. The saw-teeth of the cotton-gin, as we have seen, separated the cotton fiber from the seeds. Then the cotton was pressed down by machine presses and packed into bales, each usually containing five hundred pounds, after which it was sent to the factory. Various processes were employed to free the cotton from dirt and to loosen the lumps. Once it was clean, it was rolled out into thin sheets and taken to the carding machine. This, with other machines, prepared the cotton to be spun into yarn, which was wound off on large reels. The yarn was then ready to be either twisted into thread or woven into cloth on the great looms. The United States produces an average of eleven million bales of cotton every year, and this is nearly sixty-seven per cent of the production of the whole world. Cotton is now the second crop in the United States, the first being Indian corn. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 6

7 Lesson Two H i s tory Overview and Assignments Wheat Another great industry is the growing of wheat, which is the foundation of much of our food. Wheat is a very important grain and is extensively cultivated. There are many varieties, the two main kinds found in the United States being the large-kernel winter wheat, grown in the East, and the hard spring wheat, the best for flour-making, which is grown in the West. Reading and Assignments Wheat Review the discussion questions and vocabulary, then read the article: Wheat, pages 7-8.Narrate about today s reading using the appropriate notebook page. Be sure to answer the discussion questions and include key people, events, and dates within the narration. Be sure to visit for additional resources. Discussion Questions 1. In today s article Minnesota was named as the largest wheat-producing state of the country. What state holds that title today? 2. How is grain transported today in comparison to how its transportation was described in today s article? 3. Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago and Buffalo were named in today s article as the great grain elevator centers of the United States. What are those centers today in comparison? Adapted from the book: Stories of Later American History by Wilbur F. Gordy Wheat Another great industry is the growing of wheat, which is the foundation of much of our food. Wheat is a very important grain and is extensively cultivated. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 7

8 There are a great many varieties, the two main kinds found in the United States being the large-kernel winter wheat, grown in the East, and the hard spring wheat, the best for flour-making, which is grown in the West. Minnesota was the largest wheatproducing state during the period we are studying, and I will ask you to go in thought with me to that Midwest region. The farms there are very level, and also highly productive. The big bonanza farms, as they were called, ranged in size from two thousand to ten thousand acres. Some of these are still so large today that even on level ground one cannot look entirely across them so large, indeed, that laborers working at opposite ends do not see one another for months at a time. During the planting and harvesting seasons of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries temporary laborers came from all over the country. They were housed and fed on the farms. The farms were divided into sections, and each section had its own lodging house, dining hall, barns, and so on. Even then, dinner was carried to the workers in the field, because they were often a mile or two from the dining-hall. The height of the wheat harvest season is at the end of July. In the autumn, after the wheat had been harvested, the straw was burned and the land ploughed. In the following April when the soil was dry enough to harrow, the seeds, after being carefully selected and thoroughly cleaned, were planted. For the harvesting a great deal of new machinery was purchased every year. One of these huge machines could cut and stack in one day the grain from a hundred acres of land. Then the grain was threshed at once in the field, before the rain could do it harm. Through the spout of the thresher the grain fell into the box wagon, which carried it to the grain elevator, or building for storing grain. Here it remained until it was loaded automatically into the cars, which took it to the great elevator centers. The wheat was not touched by hands from the time it passed into the thresher until it reached private kitchens in the form of flour. The great elevator centers were Duluth, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Buffalo. Some elevators in these centers could store as much as a million or more bushels each. They were built of steel and equipped with steam power or electricity. The wheat was taken from grain-laden vessels or cars, carried up into the elevator, and deposited in various bins, according to its grade. On the opposite side of the elevator the wheat was reloaded into cars or canal-boats. In 1914 the United States produced nine hundred and thirty million bushels, or between one-fourth and one-fifth of all the wheat produced in the world. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 8

9 Lesson Three H i s tory Overview and Assignments Cattle Raising and Coal The third and fourth great industries found in the United States at the time this article was written were cattle-raising and coal. Both of these industries proved to be significant in the development of needed transportation across our great country. Reading and Assignments Cattle roundup on the Cimarron in Colorado Review the discussion questions and vocabulary, then read the article: Cattle Raising and Coal, pages Narrate about today s reading using the appropriate notebook page. Be sure to answer the discussion questions and include key people, events, and dates within the narration. Be sure to visit for additional resources. Discussion Questions 1. Locate a map or atlas that shows the United States and the meridian lines. Locate the wide belt stretching westward from the one-hundredth meridian to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. This should include parts of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. This area supplied us with what? 2. Today s article described semi-annual cattle roundups. How are many cattle raised today? 3. In the year 1910, there were ninety-six million six hundred and fifty-eight thousand cattle in the United States. How many cattle are in the United States today? 4. Describe the process of coal mining. 5. Describe the steel making process. Adapted from the book: Stories of Later American History by Wilbur F. Gordy Cattle Raising and Coal Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 9

10 Cattle Raising The third great industry is that of cattle raising. To find the ranches we will go a little farther west, perhaps to Kansas. A wide belt stretching westward from the one-hundredth meridian to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains is arid land. It includes parts of Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. Although the rainfall here is mostly too light to grow corn and wheat without irrigation, these dry plains have sufficient growth to support great herds of sheep and cattle, and supply us with a large part of our beef. Cattle by the hundred thousand once fed on these vast unfenced regions. Cattle on the western plains On the great ranches of this belt, there were two important round-ups of the cattle every year. Between times they roamed free over vast areas of land. In the spring they were driven slowly toward a central point. Then the calves were branded, or marked by a hot iron, with the owner s special brand. These brands were registered and were recognized by law. This was done in order that each owner may be certain of his own cattle. In July or August the cattle were rounded up again, and this time the mature and fatted animals were selected to be driven to the shipping station on the railroad and loaded on the cars. At the stock-yards the cattle were unloaded and driven into pens. From there the fat steers and cows were sent directly to market. The lean ones went to farmers in the Midwest who made a specialty of fattening them for market, doing it in a few weeks. The journey to the stock yards often required from four to seven days. Once in about thirty hours the cattle were released from the cars in order to be fed and watered. Then the journey began again. In the year 1910 there were 96,658,000 cattle in the United States. This meant that there was one for every human being in the whole country. But the number of beef cattle decreased as the larger ranches where they grazed were divided into small farms. COAL By means of these three industries cotton, wheat, and cattle we were provided with food and clothing. But besides these necessaries, we must have fuel. We need it both for heat in our households and for running most of our engines in factories and on trains. Our chief fuel during these years was coal. To see coal mining, western Pennsylvania is a good place for us to visit. Were you to go into a mine, you might easily imagine yourself in a different world. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 10

11 In descending the shaft you suddenly become aware that you are cut off from beautiful sunlight and fresh air. You find that to supply these everyday benefits, which you have come to accept as commonplace, there are ventilating machines working to bring down the fresh air from above, and portable lamps, which will not cause explosion, to supply light, and that, where there is water, provision has been made for drainage. The walls of the mine, also, have to be strongly supported, in order that they may not fall and crush the workers or fill up the shaft. In deep-shaft mines, coal was carried to the surface by cages hoisted through the shaft. It was sorted and cleaned above ground. One of the largest uses of coal is found in the factories where numerous articles of iron and steel are made. The world of industry depends so much upon iron that it is called the metal of civilization. The iron and coal industries are closely related, for coal is used to make iron into steel. If you stay in Pennsylvania you may catch a glimpse of the process by which iron is made usable. Iron smelters As it comes from the mine it is not pure, but is mixed with ore from which it must be separated. In the regions of iron mines you will see towering aloft here and there huge chimneys, or blast-furnaces, at times sending forth great clouds of black smoke and at times lighting the sky with the lurid glow of flames. In these big blast-furnaces, the iron ore and coal are piled in layers. Then a very hot fire is made, so hot that the iron melts and runs down into molds of sand, where it is collected. This process is called smelting. The iron thus obtained, though pure, is not hard enough for most purposes. It must be made into steel. Steel, you understand, is iron which has again been melted and combined with a small amount of carbon to harden it. At first this was an expensive process, but during the nineteenth century ways of making steel were discovered which greatly lowered its cost. As a result, steel took the place of iron in many ways, the most important being in the manufacture of rails for our railroad systems. Since steel rails are stronger than iron, they make it possible to use larger locomotives and heavier trains, and permit a much higher rate of speed and more bulky traffic. All this means, as you can easily see, cheaper and more rapid transportation, which is so important in all our industrial life. Steel has an extensive use, also, in the structure of bridges, of large buildings, of steamships and war vessels, as well as in the making of heating equipment, tools, household utensils, and hundreds of other articles which we are constantly using in our daily life. If you should write down all the uses for this metal which you can think of, you would be surprised at the length of your list. Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 11

12 Iron ore ready for shipment These four great industries give us a little idea of how people make use of the products of the farm, the mine, and the factory in supplying human needs. Each fulfills its place, and we are dependent upon all. That means that we are all dependent upon one another. There would be little in life for anyone if he were to do without all that others have done for him. There is something each member of a community can do to make life better for others. If he does this willingly and well, he cooperates with his fellow men and assists in the great upbuilding of the nation. And the amount of service the man or woman, boy or girl can render those about him is the measure of his worth to his neighborhood, his state, or his country. It is good for us to ask ourselves this question: How can I be helpful in the community where I live, which has done so much for me? If we try to give faithful service, working cheerfully with others, we are truly patriotic. Are you a patriot? Unit 6: How Our Industries Aided Reconstruction - Page 12