Document Based Question: Erie Canal

Transportation systems often have a big impact on communities. In 1825 the Erie Canal opened in New York State.

Read the documents below. For each document answer the questions that follow. After reading the documents and answering the questions, write a composition that explains how the Erie Canal affected New York State’s development.

Document A: Map of Erie Canal



1. What are four major cities along the Erie Canal?

__________________________________________________________________________

2. What waterway connected the Erie Canal to New York City?




Document B: Chart on Erie Canal


1. How long did it take to ship freight along the Erie Canal during the Canal Era?

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2. Give two advantages of using the Erie Canal instead of dirt roads to transport freight during the Erie Canal.

a) __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

b) __________________________________________________________________________

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Document C: State of New York Report on The Barge Canal


New York City was ranked fourth in population in 1800 rose to first place . . . Albany doubled its population within a few years. The population of Utica increased from 3,000 to 13,000 in twenty years. Syracuse, which was described as a "desolate" hamlet of a few scattered wooden houses in 1820, became a city of 11,000 in 1840. During approximately the same period, Rochester changed from "one wide and deep forest" to a prosperous community of 20,000. Buffalo, a wilderness outpost of 200 in 1812, became a gateway to the west and its population reached 18,000 by 1840.

State of New York Report on The Barge Canal, Legislative Document 1961

1. What was the population of Buffalo in 1840?

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2. What effect did the Erie Canal have on the cities located along the Canal?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________


Document D: Photo


1. Where and when was this photo taken?

__________________________________________________________________________



2. Looking at the photograph, what impact did the Erie Canal have on Rochester?

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Document E: Engineer’s Report on Erie Canal

"the uniting of Lake Erie with the Hudson [will] render New York the greatest commercial emporium [city] in the world…The expense, be it what it may, is no object when compared with the incalculable benefit…For these reasons I strongly recommend the adoption of the plan."

William Weston, Engineer, 1807


1. Why does William Weston favor building the Erie Canal?

__________________________________________________________________________

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Essay

Transportation systems often have a big impact on communities. In 1825 the Erie Canal opened in New York State. Write an essay explaining how the Erie Canal affected New York State’s development. Use the documents above to help you answer the question.

The Erie Canal

Erie Canal was the first important national waterway built in the United States. It crossed upstate New York from Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany to Troy on the Hudson River. Completed in 1825, the canal joined the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes system. It provided a route over which manufactured goods and settlers could flow into the Midwest without passing through Canada, and over which timber and agricultural products could be transported to the East.

For a hundred years before the Erie Canal was built, people had been talking about a canal that would join the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The man who planned the Erie Canal and carried the plans through was De Witt Clinton. Clinton was mayor of New York City for most of the period between 1803 and 1815. He was governor of the state from 1817 to 1822 and again from 1825 until his death in 1828. Those who opposed the canal laughingly called it “Clinton’s Ditch.”

Clinton and Gouverneur Morris went to Washington in 1812 to ask for federal help for the project, but they were unsuccessful. In 1816, Clinton petitioned the New York State Legislature to build the canal. His petition won so much support that the governor appointed a canal commission and made Clinton its head. Clinton became governor in 1817, and shortly afterward, on July 4, 1817, broke ground for the canal in Rome, New York, then a village on the Mohawk River. Construction took eight years. The canal formally opened on Oct. 26, 1825. The first barge to travel its entire length, the Seneca Chief, left Buffalo with Clinton on board on Oct. 26, 1825. It arrived in New York City on November 4 and was greeted all along the way by enthusiastic crowds.

The building of the canal was paid for by the state of New York. It cost $7,143,789, but it soon earned its price many times over. The canal cut freight rates between Buffalo and New York City by more than 90 percent and strengthened New York City’s position as the nation’s largest city and principal port. As the canal traffic grew, towns along its course prospered. Albany, Utica, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo became major cities.

The original canal was 363 miles (584 kilometers) long. It was 28 feet (8.5 meters) wide at the bottom, 40 feet (12 meters) wide at the top, and 4 feet (1.2 meters) deep. It could carry barges that were 80 feet (24 meters) long and 15 feet (4.6 meters) wide, with a draft of 31/2 feet (1.1 meters). The canal had 83 locks, which raised vessels on the canal about 565 feet (172 meters) from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Barges were towed along the canal by horses and mules on shore. At first, travel on the canal was slow. The famous editor Horace Greeley wrote that passengers traveled a mile and a half an hour on the Erie Canal for a cent and a half a mile. But fast passenger boats could travel 100 miles (160 kilometers) a day.

The canal was enlarged several times between 1835 and 1862. But business began to fall off in the 1870’s as railroads became the main long-distance carriers of freight and passengers. In 1903, the people of New York voted to build a great modern waterway, linking the Erie Canal with three shorter canals in the state to form what now is called the New York State Canal System. This system, which is 524 miles (843 kilometers) long, opened in 1918. See New York State Canal System.

"Erie Canal." World Book Student. World Book, 2010

Questions

1) What year was the Erie Canal Completed?


2) According to the article, what had people been talking about for 100 years before the Erie Canal was built?


3) Name two things the canal was used for.


4) How many years did it take to build the canal?


5) Who paid for the building of the canal? how much did it cost?


6) How long was the original canal?


7) Why did business on the Erie Canal began to fall off in the 1870’s?


8) Think of one question of your own and answer it based on the information in the article.


9) Why would business people want to join the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean?


10) What reasons do you think people had for using the railroad instead of the canal?







Next we will look at some Document Based Questions to answer some more questions about the Erie Canal.

Reflection On Unit 4

In your social studies notebooks please answer the following:

1) Explain the focus of our research in Unit 4.

2) Summarize the steps taken to research our topic.

3) Assess the tools we used to present our research.

4) Write about one thing we did that you feel you did really well in this unit.

5) Write about one thing we did that you think you need improvement on.

Be sure that you answer using full sentencesand proper punctuation.

Unit 4

Grade 4

Unit 4: The New Nation

Essential Question: What does it mean to be free?

Focus: The U.S. Constitution

Students will create a PowerPoint presentation about the U.S. Constitution.

Activities:

1) Students will understand the main idea and supporting details of the writing of the US Constitution by taking notes during
a short film*.

2) Students will open and save a PowerPoint presentation.

3) Students will import photos and add text to multiple slides in their PowerPoint presentations.

4) Students will upload finished presentations to a class blog.

* Films are closed-captioned so students can watch, read and listen.


Students that meet twice a week each made their own PowerPoint presentation:



Students that meet once a week made PowerPoints as a group:

Influences in New York State Thought Question

Illustration: "The First Slave Auction at New Amsterdam in 1655," by Howard Pyle, courtesy of the Granger Collection, New York.

Directions: Answers these questions based on the picture above and your knowledge of social studies.

1. What is the name of this drawing?



2. Describe what is happening in this picture. What's happening:



3. Why are there no women in the crowd?



4. Look at the man with the red vest who is standing next to a store. What does this store sell?



source: http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ss5/c/influencescrq.cfm

Influences in New York State

When the explorers went back and told their European countries of all the riches in the New World, many countries were anxious to have settlements here. The years between 1600 and 1776 found the present day NY area influenced by at least three different groups: the Dutch (New Netherlands), the French (France), and the British (Great Britain). Each different group of people brought with it new languages, sports, foods, building styles, possibly religions, and customs.

The Dutch were the first to establish a colony here. Henry Hudson had claimed the land for them in 1609. They wanted to control the fur trade with the Native Americans, but it was a very difficult life here. The first settlers had to clear the land for crops, build their own homes, and defend themselves against the Native Americans. But in 1624, the first colonists sailed for the New World, which they called New Netherlands. It included parts of New Jersey, Delaware, and New York. It was to be the only Dutch colony, surrounded by English and French colonies.

The first group included about 30 families. Since they were mainly coming to trade furs, most of them continued up the Hudson River to reach Fort Orange (present day Albany). It was the best trading spot in the area. Fewer families stopped to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River in a settlement called New Amsterdam (present day New York City).



But the Dutch needed more people to settle here, so they set up a group of businessmen called the Dutch West India Company to try to get more people to come. This is how it worked: they called on rich men, called patroons, to persuade people to move to the New World. The patroon was given large amounts of land (mostly along the Hudson River) in exchange for bringing 50 settlers here. Now the settlers would not be given the land here; they were allowed to farm it in return for giving the patroon part of their crops and livestock as rent. This didn't work well, and many patroons failed and then quit, so the rules were changed. More people were then allowed to own land, and therefore, more people came here.

With more Dutch people, came more Dutch influences. Because the Dutch mainly lived around the Albany and New York City Area, many of their customs, building styles, food recipes, and city and street names are still found in those areas. Everywhere in New York State we still enjoy Dutch food (waffles, donuts, etc.) and some sports (like bowling). Did you know that lettuce and tomatoes were both brought to the new world by the Dutch?

Between 1624 and 1664, about one half of the colonists were Dutch, but the second largest group was the English. They came for religious freedom, better farmland, or to trade because New Amsterdam was a rich trading city. By 1664, Great Britain decided it wanted control of this colony and sent powerful British warships into New Amsterdam. Most Dutch did not want to fight this powerful British navy, so they gave up the colony without a shot being fired!

The British King then renamed it New York, after James, Duke of York, and set up a goal to increase the population. He immediately changed the names of Albany and New York City (see chart above), but the British encouraged people from different cultures and countries to live here. At one time they say there were 18 different languages being spoken on the streets of New York City!



Of course the biggest British influence on New York is the fact that we speak English as our language! We have also adopted many of their customs. It is also thought that our Constitution was directly influenced by the British Magna Carta.


New arrivals kept coming to the New World. Included in those groups were the French Huguenots. They wanted to practice a Protestant belief and were forced from France for doing so. In New York, the Huguenots could practice their religion, so in 1678 they settled up the Hudson River Valley around the present day cities of New Paltz and New Rochelle. Their influences on the area were many. Many French names are still found there. The Huguenots were a very hard working people, and they showed and shared their new farming methods with other settlers. They also believed in men and women having equal opportunities for education. They also provided the area with many fine artisans and craftsmen, including lace makers, clock makers, and furniture makers. After about 50 years, the French language began to disappear because of the increased Dutch and English population.

All three nationalities greatly influenced who we are, where we live, what we do, and how we talk!



DEFINITIONS

settlements: the process of establishing a permanent home in a new region

British: of Great Britain

Dutch: of the Netherlands

colony: a group of people settled in another land who are ruled by the government of their native land

rules: a law of conduct created by an authority (e.g. parents, school, or government)

artisan: a skilled person who makes something with his/her hands

patroon: rich Dutchmen who were given money by the Dutch government in return for supplying "farmers" for New Netherlands in the new country.

QUESTIONS:

1. Who were the first Europeans to settle in present day New York?


2. What was the Dutch name for Albany?


3. New York City was first named _________ by the Dutch?


4. A rich man who was given a large amount of money in return for getting people to settle in the new country was called?


5. What was New Netherlands renamed when the English took control of it?


6. The process of establishing a permanent home in a new region is called making a(n) ______________.


7. An adjective to describe people or things from Great Britain is __________________.


8. A group of people settled in another land who are ruled by the government of their native land is a(n) _________________.


9. A skilled person who makes something with his/her hands is a(n) ________________.


10. Laws of conduct created by an authority (e.g. parents, school, government) are called _____________.

Thanksgiving Day Web Quest

Thanksgiving Day is a day set aside each year in the United States and Canada for giving thanks and remembering the blessings of life. People may celebrate the day with family gatherings, feasting, and prayer. For many people, Thanksgiving calls forth memories of tables crowded with food, happy reunions, football games, and religious contemplation.

For thousands of years, people in many parts of the world have held harvest festivals. The American Thanksgiving Day grew out of these harvest home celebrations. For this reason, the holiday takes place late in the fall, after the crops have been gathered.

More than any other American holiday, Thanksgiving Day is surrounded with tradition, myth, and legend…one legacy of thanksgiving that has endured and remains true to the historical record is the theme of generosity—for three days in the autumn of 1621, some of the native inhabitants of New England (American Indians) joined more recent arrivals from England (The Pilgrims) in sharing the gifts of the land with each other. Each November, American continue this tradition with family and friends.



American Indians have a long tradition of celebrations of thanks for the bounties of the earth. Europeans have also held autumn harvest festivals and feasts for centuries. In 1619, a group of 38 English settlers arrived at Berkeley Plantation, near what is now Charles City, Virginia, on December 4. The group’s charter required that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a day of thanksgiving to God.

Plymouth Colony. The Plymouth Colony was founded by English pilgrims in 1620 at the site of a deserted Wampanoag Indian village called Patuxet. The colonists’ first winter in Plymouth was harsh, and about half of them died. In the spring of 1621, however, a Patuxet Indian named Tisquantum—called Squanto by the English—showed them how to plant traditional Native American crops of corn and pumpkin in addition to their European peas, wheat, and barley. In early autumn of 1621, the governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, organized a festival to give thanks to God for the survival of the colony and for their first harvest.

The festival lasted three days. Tradition holds that the colonists invited Massasoit, the Wampanoag chief, although some versions of the story claim he came to negotiate a new land treaty. He arrived with about 90 of his people and contributed five deer to the feast. The women of the settlement supervised cooking over outdoor fires. Foods served probably included duck and turkey; a corn porridge called nasaump; and a pumpkin dish called pompion. The English and Wapanoags played games and engaged in contests of skill, and the English held a military review. The colonists held similar harvest celebrations for several years. The Wampanoags did not always participate. Good relations between the colonists and the Indians eventually ended because of disputes over land, religious beliefs, and cultural traditions.






Later Thanksgiving Days in the United States.

The custom of thanksgiving days spread from Plymouth to other New England colonies. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), the Americans observed eight special days of thanks for victories and for being saved from dangers. In 1789, President George Washington issued a general proclamation naming November 26 a national day of thanksgiving.

For many years, the country had no regular national Thanksgiving Day. But some states had a yearly thanksgiving holiday. By 1830, New York had an official state Thanksgiving Day, and other Northern states soon followed its example. In 1855, Virginia became the nation’s first Southern state to adopt the custom.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November 1863, as “a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father.” Each year afterward, the president formally proclaimed that Thanksgiving Day should be celebrated on the last Thursday of November. But in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier to help business by lengthening the shopping period before Christmas. Congress ruled that after 1941 the fourth Thursday of November would be observed as Thanksgiving Day and would be a legal federal holiday.

Thanksgiving Day in Canada is celebrated in much the same way as in the United States. The first Canadian thanksgiving was celebrated in Newfoundland in 1578. The English captain Martin Frobisher held a ceremony to give thanks for surviving the long sea journey from England. Thanksgiving Day in Canada was formerly celebrated on the last Monday in October. But in 1957, the Canadian government proclaimed the second Monday in October to be the holiday.

Andrews, Melodie. "Thanksgiving Day." World Book Student. World Book, 2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.

1. What is Thanksgiving Day?

2. How do people celebrate?

3. What other celebration did Thanksgiving grow out of?

4. In what year was Plymouth Colony founded?

5. Who founded it?

6. What was the first winter in Plymouth like?

7. Who was Squanto and what did he do?

8. Who was William Bradford and what did he do?

9. In what year was the first Thanksgiving celebration held?

10. How long did it last?

11. What food was served?

12. What games were played?

13. How did Americans celebrate Thanksgiving during the Revolutionary War?

14. What happened in 1941?

15. What other country celebrates Thanksgiving?