The Economy of Antebellum Kentucky Agriculture
This lesson plan is designed for students in 4th and 5th grades. Students will view an introductory video, “Antebellum Kentucky Agriculture, Introduction,” and create an organizer of the various groups that lived & worked on the Dinsmore farm. They will then study the primary sources, “Identities,” “Tenant & Day Laborer Accounts,” “Enslaved People’s Accounts” and “Martha Dinsmore’s journal,” to inform themselves on what primary sources can tell us about the lives of tenants, enslaved people, and farm owners and how they interacted. Using a Graphic Organizer groups will re-construct the economic relationships that existed on the Dinsmore farm. Lastly, they will answer the following prompt, “In what ways were the producers and consumers living on the Dinsmore farm dependent on the other groups on the farm?” using evidence from the sources they have studied.
Kentucky Standards:
4.E.ST.1 Explain how trade leads to increasing economic interdependence.
4.E.MI.1 Explain the role of producers, consumers, products, and labor in economic markets.
4.1.UE.1 Integrate evidence from 2 or more sources to answer compelling and supporting questions
4.1.UE.2 Determine the value and limitations of primary and secondary sources
Outcomes:
- Students will be able to utilize primary and secondary sources to describe the lives of real people and will understand their economic and social impact on each other.
- Students will be able to discuss economic interdependence and how that relates to antebellum Kentucky agriculture according to the videos they have watched and the primary sources they have read.
- Students will demonstrate their ability to talk about economic terms in real-life historical examples.
- Students will use evidence they have collected from various sources to write a mini-essay that answers the compelling question, “In what ways were the producers and consumers living on the Dinsmore farm dependent on the other groups on the farm?“
Procedure, Antebellum Kentucky Farms & Who Worked on Them:
Students watch “Antebellum Kentucky Farming, Introduction.”
In groups of four, students will study the Accounts for Tenants and Day Laborers, Accounts for Enslaved People, and Martha Disnmore's farming notes to investigate the relationships between the various groups of people on the Dinsmore farm, using the Dinsmore Farm Identities to see which group the names belong in.
As a group, students will answer Discussion Questions and then discuss their findings as a class.
Using evidence from their research, students will write a 2-paragraph answer to the following question, “In what ways were the producers and consumers living on the Dinsmore farm dependent on the other groups on the farm?”