The American Journey Early Years © 2012

Chapter 10: Growth and Expansion

Web Activity Lesson Plans

"The Industrial Revolution"

Introduction
In this chapter students learned about the start of the Industrial Revolution. They also learned that modes of transportation, like canals, helped to allow the Revolution to develop. This web activity reinforces the knowledge that the Industrial Revolution started with factories but that developments in transportation caused it to grow.

Lesson Description
Students will learn about the start of the Industrial Revolution. The students will also learn that the Erie Canal played and important role in the growth of cities during the Revolution. After reading the articles and answering questions associated with the articles, they will be able to explain the start of the Industrial Revolution and how important the growth of transportation was to the Revolution.

Instructional Objectives

1. The student will be able to identify the importance of Samuel Slater to the start of the Industrial Revolution
2. The student will be able to identify the importance of the Erie Canal to the growth of cities during the Revolution.
3. The student will be able to explain the early beginnings of the Revolution and the importance of the Erie Canal to the growth of the Revolution.

Student Web Activity Answers

1. Samuel Slater went to England disguised as a farmer and memorized the secrets of the textile industry in Britain. He came back to America and built his own mill a year later.
2. Slater used orphans and poor children to work his mill. He did this because he had attempted to recruit farmers and had no success.
3. He built a farming village around his mill to try to encourage farmers to come and take small jobs while women and children worked inside the mill.
4. It connected New York, which was on the Ocean, to cities that were inland. It also lowered shipping costs. People were able to ship lumber, grain, and meats back and forth easily.
5. Chicago experienced growth and became the country's busiest city with a freshwater port.
6. Answers may vary but could state that canals helped to connect coastal cities to cities that were more westward. While the coastal cities might have already been large and populated, the new cities were smaller. Once they were accessible by canals they would start to grow quickly and that growth would encourage more people to go to cities like Chicago and spread the Industrial Revolution to those new cities.