Lesson I—Geographic locations
Material needed: 1) current atlases or maps of the United States and North America, preferably one per student. 2) Chalk board to write the spelling of each place to be identified 3) drawing paper and writing paper 4) crayons or colored pencils.
Performance objectives:
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1.
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At the end of this lesson students will be able to identify and spell correctly the places involved in migration.
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2.
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Students will be able to illustrate the two routes followed by migrants.
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Students will draw and color the two migration routes. They will include states and cities involved in the migration.
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Using maps and atlases students will study the physical location of New York and Chicago. They will use physical, climate, and resource maps and decide why people would select these areas to settle.
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Lesson
Motivation
(said by teacher) “It is a most difficult decision for anyone to move far away from family, friends, and other ties. Over the next several weeks we will discover why many blacks decided to leave the South. In order to begin, each of you will look at the map of the United States on your desks.”
Overview
Ask students to find the Atlantic Ocean on the map. Then instruct them to write the names of states that touch the ocean. Once this is completed, have them locate the Mississippi River. Have them write the states the Mississippi River touches. After this is accomplished, ask students to use a map of North America and find the twelve Caribbean Islands that participated in migration. Let students also write these islands down. Allow time for the students to identify these places. Call a few to a pull-down map and have them point out various places. Once students can readily identify these places, introduce the two migration routes, Mississippi River and Atlantic coastal railroad lines. Be certain each student is able to identify the routes and states that the routes passed through. Students must also understand that geographic location aided migrants in the selection of a route. Once students are proficient in this task of route identification, pass out drawing paper and colored pencils. Have students draw, not trace, the two routes. Included are the states of origination as well as termination. After this has been completed ask students to use physical, climate, and resource maps of the United States to study the desirability of New York and Chicago. Students are to write down landforms, proximity to water, climate and resource power, and from this data decide why these cities were settled by migrants. Using the same criteria compare New York and Chicago to Sante Fe, New Mexico.
Summary and Evaluation
As homework have students develop an essay comparing Sante Fe and New York. They are to include landforms, rivers, resources, climates, power, and population densities. From this data students are to hypothesize reasons for settlement. All of the information can be found in any current atlas.
Lesson II Economic Conditions caused migration
Materials needed: 1) chalk board 2) ditto sheet summary of economic conditions in the South 3) ditto sheet summary of national economic conditions.
Performance objectives:
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At the conclusion of this lesson students will be able to define the following terms: economics, demand, supply, depression, migration, Depression of 1873, Kansas Exodus, Industrial Revolution, mechanization, traditional Negro jobs, labor agent and Great Depression.
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Students will fully be aware of the part national conditions played in affecting the South’s economy.
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Because of the bleak economic picture in the South students will realize that blacks began to look elsewhere to live.
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Students will list reasons people would leave the South.
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Lesson
Motivation
: (teacher states) “Can we imagine what it would be like to have no job, no money, no home, no food and no hope? Blacks in the South, because of economic and social conditions, were faced with these conditions. What would you do?” (Allow time for discussion). “Well let’s find out what southern blacks did.”
Overview
The following terms should be defined either on a chalk board or ditto sheet.
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economics—deals with money, how we make a living; demand and supply.
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demand—need or want of a particular item; the more we want, the higher the price, and the less we demand, the lower the price.
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supply—how much of an item is grown or produced; if there is more than is wanted, price goes down or, if there is less than is needed, price goes up.
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depression—a time when the economy fails, money becomes worthless, banks close, businesses close and there is high unemployment.
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migration—the movement of people from one place to another within a country.
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Depression of 1873—also called Panic of 1873; it began on September 8, 1873, when New York Warehouse and Securities Company went into bankruptcy. Ten days later Jay Cooke and Company, a famous banking house, failed. On September 20 the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading for ten days. Railroads halted construction and defaulted on bonds. Mills closed down and threw half the factory population out of work. By 1876 and 1877, 18,000 businesses had failed. In the South farm prices declined. The typical southern farm was small and unmechanized, devoted to producing a cash staple of cotton or tobacco and nothing else. The exceptions were rice plantations on the coast of Louisiana, and Texas, sugar plantations in Louisiana, and truck farms of the southern coastal plain. Cotton prices sunk to new lows.
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Kansas Exodus—the movement of blacks from one rural area to another caused by railroads, politicians, the press and dreams of becoming rich; it involved mostly lower-class people.
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Industrial Revolution—the use of machines instead of hand labor for production; machines were able to produce things quicker, cheaper, and in greater amounts. Mechanization required some skilled laborers and also displaced farm hands.
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mechanization—the use of machinery.
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traditional Negro jobs—these included busboys, elevator operators, domestic workers, porters, butlers, waiters (to name a few).
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labor agent—a person dispatched to recruit workers.
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Great Depression—this occurred in 1929 and extended into the 1930’s; at this time banks closed, businesses failed, unemployment rose, money became worthless.
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After a thorough discussion of these terms, distribute a ditto sheet summary of economic conditions in the South. Include references to the Depression of 1873, the decrease in prices for cotton from 15¢ per pound in the 1870’s to 7¢ per pound in the 1890’s; wheat from 95¢ per bushel in 1880 to 83¢ in 1890 and 50¢ in 1895. Between 1870-1895 corn prices declined fifty percent and tobacco, hogs, sheep, butter, and cheese were all in the same downward spiral. Also include the quotation of T. Thomas Fortune (it is found in this unit). Discuss the Kansas Exodus and movement from one agricultural region to another. Be certain students understand that until 1915 migration was from one rural area to another. Conditions in 1915 should also be explored. Include consideration of the floods, boll weevil, and mechanization of farms. Cite the bleak economic picture on southern farms and in cities. Instruct students to read the ditto sheet and demonstrate comprehension by listing reasons people might consider leaving the South. Once there is an awareness of reasons, distribute a ditto sheet which summarizes national conditions in 1915. Include mention of the rapid mechanization of factories and World War I. Discuss the need for labor and the use of agents to recruit southern blacks. It is important to include methods employed by white southerners to halt the exodus. Stress that no method employed was able to stop the wave of migration.
Summary and Evaluation
Once students have read the ditto sheets ask them to imagine that they are black residents of Macon, Georgia in 1916. There is no work for them on the farm and a labor agent has just promised them a job in New York and a free railroad ticket. Conditions in Macon are hostile: they are hungry, trains are halted, there is violence. As an essay assignment students are to express what they would do. Would they remain in Macon hoping things would get better or would they leave for New York and seek a better life in an unknown place? After correcting the drafts students should submit a final paper which they will read aloud to their classmates.
