Course Content
Lesson Plans
The American Nation: A History of the United States ©2000
by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes
Focus Lesson 9
Chapter 13: "The Sections Go Their Ways"
AP* Course Description
- Nationalism and Economic Expansion
- Economic revolution
- Early railroads and canals
- Economic revolution
- Sectionalism
- The South
- Cotton Kingdom
- Southern trade and industry
- Southern society and culture
– Nature of slavery: "peculiar institution"
– The mind of the South
- The North
- Northeast industry
– Labor
– Immigration - Northwest agriculture
- Northeast industry
- The South
Key Components
- Instructor's Manual: pp. 126–134
- Study Guide, Vol. I: pp. 193–205
- Test Bank: pp. 211–227
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated links to U.S. history sites.
- Africans in America (slavery resources)
- North American Slave Narratives
Key Words and Terms
- antebellum
- slave stereotype
- clipper ship
- Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
- Denmark Vesey
- John Deere
- plantation
- sailing packet
- Commonwealth v. Hunt
- Panic of 1857
- Nat Turner
- Cyrus McCormick
Suggested Pacing
Allow one week to teach this chapter.
Test Strategy
In answering the questions, either multiple-choice or essay, students need to know what the question is asking. As they read the question, students should highlight the important elements—for example, bracketing the thesis or core of the question and underlining operative words such as describe, compare, or evaluate.
Key Concepts
- Economic development and sectionalism
In teaching this chapter, refer back to Chapters 7 and 8, which laid the groundwork for the differing and competing interests of the Northeast, South, and Old Northwest, which in the 1840s and 1850s became the West as the frontier moved across the continent. Chapter 13 focuses on the economic development of the South and contrasts it with the economic development of the North and West, pointing out that the economic integration of East and West was a force in the preservation of the Union. The authors suggest that the failure of the South to build a railway system linking it to the Old Northwest was one reason that the latter region sided with the North. There was little advantage to the Old Northwest in supporting the South, but much economic self-interest in supporting the North with its markets for Western foodstuffs. - Slaves as property
The documents and accompanying introductory section on pp. 132–133 of the Instructor's Manual provide chilling testimony to the idea of slaves as chattel. They can be a useful introduction to the discussion of slavery in Chapter 13.
Summing Up Student Understanding
One argument given by Southerners to justify the institution of slavery was that it was more humane than the way Northern factory workers were treated. Divide the class in half and assign one half to do research about the daily life of enslaved Africans in the South. Assign the other half to do research about the daily life of immigrant labor in Northern factories around the mid-nineteenth century. Students in each group are to create a chronology for "A Day in the Life of . . ." of their subject. They may choose a man, woman, or child and give the person a name and a history, which they should write up and use as the context for their chronology.
After several volunteers have read their chronologies, use them as the basis for a class discussion about the life of slaves and immigrants at mid-century. Note that no matter how bad immigrant life was, immigrants were free to change jobs and even locations, trading city life for farm life or for another city.
You might repeat this activity when the class is studying labor in the 1880s and 1890s. Students would then do research on the next wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe and on African Americans as Southern tenant farmers.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
You might also find these additional readings useful in developing students' background knowledge or for DBQ activities:
- American Issues: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Unger and Tomes—Chapters 14 and 15
- The Power of Words: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Breen—Chapter 13
- Constructing the American Past, Vol. I, edited by Gorn, Roberts, and Bilhartz—Chapter 11
- American Experiences: Vol. I to 1877, edited by Roberts and Olson (secondary source readings)—Part Six