Third Grade Field Trip
Antebellum South Carolina
Visit the historic houses of Historic Charleston Foundation to experience
what the Antebellum era was like in South Carolina! Students will take
focused tours and participate in hands on activities to enhance their
knowledge of the period based on SC Social Studies Standards.
Nathaniel Russell House
Aiken-Rhett House
Antebellum Charleston
Civil War and Secession
In this program, students will
learn about what daily life in
Charleston and the rest of the
state was like in the antebellum
years after the Revolutionary
War and before the Civil War.
In the hands on activity, students will talk about economic
and living conditions for various classes of people in South
Carolina and the entire South. Alicia Russell
will help them make a chart and diagram to
understand how the different classes fit into
society in the Antebellum Period. Outside,
students will play with 1800s toys and games to
learn more about life in the Antebellum Era.
The Aiken-Rhett house is the perfect backdrop
to talk about Civil War and secession as the
house still has its original slave dwellings and
the family has ties to both the Confederacy
and the Union. In the hands on activity, third
graders will talk about the reasons for South
Carolina’s secession from the union and the
different people participating in the Civil War
by dressing up like famous South Carolinians
and acting out events that took place in South
Carolina. Skits will include the Secession
Convention, firing on
Fort Sumter, Union
blockade, the Hunley,
and Sherman’s march
through the south.
Antebellum South Carolina lasts approximately
3 hours. School groups are welcome to have
lunch in the garden of the Aiken-Rhett House
after the program.
Cost: $8/Student $6/Adults Free/Teachers
Standards met: 3-4.1, 3-4.2, 3-4.3, 3-4.4, 3-4.5