TEACHER’S GUIDE
• The Appalachian Mountains were a formidable obstacle to aspiring
pioneers in the early 19th century. In the days before planes and
automobiles, travel was slow and difficult.To have your class understand
the development of the nation’s transportation system, ask students to
research the construction of the Erie Canal, the B&O Railroad and the
National Road. Ask students to design maps of the geographic areas
connected by these routes and to draw on a variety of primary sources
to analyze the effect these routes had on westward movement and the
growth of cities.
• The improvement of prison conditions was just one of the goals of the
19th-century reform movement.Ask students to research and discuss the
dramatic shift in the treatment of inmates at the new Eastern State
Penitentiary in Philadelphia, the most famous prison of its day. As a
follow-up, ask students to investigate reports of conditions in a prison in
their state and to write editorials discussing how well today’s prisons are
meeting the reformist goals of the early 19th century. Students may learn
more about the history of the Eastern State Penitentiary at this
Web site: www.easternstate.org/
• In 1831, Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville traveled throughout the
United States, talking to many prominent people to try to learn more
about the new country. His resulting book, Democracy in America,
attempts to describe America’s unique social and political institutions.
Break students into small groups and ask each group to read a chapter
from de Tocqueville’s book and summarize his views for the class. Based
on his observations, ask students to compare 19th-century social,
cultural and political organizations to those in America today. The
complete text of Democracy in America can be found at this Web site:
xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html
• One of the major factors affecting the rapid growth of American cities in
the early 19th century was the vast influx of European immigrants, many
of whom escaped terrible living conditions in Ireland.Ask students to
research the causes and effects of the 1846-1850 Irish Potato Famine.
Students may create graphs and charts to explain American immigration
statistics from the 1840s and 1850s. Also, ask each student to read
accounts of Irish people who lived at this time and to write a diary entry
as one who experienced this tragedy. Personal accounts of the Irish
famine can be found at this Web site: www.people.virginia.edu/
~eas5e/Irish/Irish.html
TEACHER’S GUIDE
• sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/
The Berkeley Digital Library provides students with the full text of the
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, with the preface written by
abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.
• docsouth.unc.edu/nc/shawwa/menu.html
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries’“Documenting
the American South” gives students and teachers access to a series of
early 19th-century lectures on the Temperance movement.
Suggested Print Resources
• Hagedorn,Ann. Beyond the River: The Untold Story of the Heroes of the
Underground Railroad. Simon & Schuster, New York, NY; 2002.
• Stalcup, Brenda, Ed. Women’s Suffrage. Greenhaven Press, San Diego, CA;
2000.
• Whitelaw, Nancy. Andrew Jackson: Frontier President. Morgan Reynolds,
Greensboro, NC; 2001.
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TM
DEMOCRACY
COMPLETE LIST OF TITLES
• Three Worlds Meet (Origins–1620)
• The Era of Colonization (1585–1763)
• Slavery & Freedom
• The American Revolution
• A New Nation (1776–1815)
• Expansionism
• Democracy & Reform
• Causes of the Civil War
• The Civil War
• Reconstruction & Segregation (1865–1910)
• Industrialization & Urbanization
(1870–1910)
• Immigration & Cultural Change
• A Nation in Turmoil
Teacher’s Guides Included
and Available Online at:
• The Progressive Movement
• U.S. & The World (1865–1917)
• The Great War
• The Roaring Twenties
• The Great Depression
& The New Deal
• World War II
• Post-War U.S.A.
• The Cold War
• Civil Rights
• The Vietnam War
• The Middle East
• U.S. Politics (1960–1980)
• U.S. Politics (1980–2000)
800-843-3620
Teacher’s Guide Copyright 2003 by Schlessinger Media,
a division of Library Video Company
D6767
P.O. Box 580,Wynnewood, PA 19096 • 800-843-3620
V7007
Program Copyright 1996, 2003 by Schlessinger Media
Executive Producer:Andrew Schlessinger
Original production produced and directed by Invision Communications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
AND
REFORM
Grades 5–12
TEACHER’S GUIDE
Jeffrey W. Litzke, M.Ed.
Curriculum Specialist, Schlessinger Media
Rudolph Lea
Historian
Suggested Internet Resources
Periodically, Internet Resources are updated on our Web site at
www.LibraryVideo.com
• www.ku.edu/carrie/docs/texts/seneca.htm
The University of Kansas offers the complete text of Elizabeth Cady
Stanton’s 1848 Seneca Falls Declaration.
(Continued)
TEACHER’S GUIDE
T
his guide is a supplement designed for teachers
to use when presenting programs in the United
States History series.
Before Viewing: Give students an introduction
to the topic by relaying aspects of the program
summary to them. Select pre-viewing discussion
questions and vocabulary to provide a focus for
students when they view the program.
After Viewing: Review the program and vocabulary, and use the follow-up activities to inspire
continued discussion. Encourage students to
research the topic further with the Internet and
print resources provided.
This program correlates to the following
Prentice Hall textbooks:
The American Nation: Chapters 12 and 15
America: Pathways to the Present: Chapter 1
Program Summary
While the United States was founded on the principles of independence and
equality, more than half of all Americans in the first half of the 1800s —
women, African Americans and poor white men — did not enjoy the freedoms associated with the new democratic nation. Could America deliver on
the promises contained in the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution? As America expanded and grew, many people prospered, while
others, especially immigrants in large urban areas, struggled with poverty,
substance abuse and homelessness. In addition, property qualifications
limited the number of citizens who could vote.
Andrew Jackson’s rise to the presidency prompted significant social and
political change. Born into extreme poverty on the Tennessee frontier, he
evolved into a strong, fearless leader who fought for the interests of farmers
and frontiersmen, rather than bankers and professional politicians. Gradually,
property qualifications were eliminated and more and more men gained the
right to vote.
The 1848 Seneca Falls Convention was the first organized attempt to address
the rights of women. Despite being marginalized economically and politically, many women were active in social reform movements, fighting against
alcoholism and trying to improve the conditions in America’s institutions.
Other individuals and groups also tried to improve both themselves and
society, with many people seeking to end the most divisive issue in America:
slavery. While in some ways Americans moved toward the ideals on which
the nation was founded, the 19th-century struggle over slavery threatened to
split the nation in two.
Time Line
1808 — The slave trade is outlawed in America, but the smuggling continues.
Early 1800s — The second “Great Awakening” occurs in America.
1822 — Former enslaved Africans begin to settle the country of Liberia.
1824 — Robert Owen sets up the Utopian community of New Harmony in
Indiana.
1829 — President Andrew Jackson is inaugurated.
1831 — Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of The Liberator.
1848 — The Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.
c. 1850 — Harriet Tubman begins to bring enslaved Africans north on the
Underground Railroad.
1854 — Henry David Thoreau writes Walden.
property qualifications — Early voting laws that required people to own
land or property in order to vote.
Whig Party — An American political party, named after the English Whig
Party, formed to oppose Andrew Jackson and to promote economic development and national expansion.
Temperance Societies — Organizations of reformers who believed that
alcohol was the cause of many of society’s problems in the 19th century, and
campaigned to ban the drinking of all alcoholic beverages.
Second Great Awakening — The second of a series of religious revivals in
the United States, during which religious leaders taught that people could be
saved by their own actions.
abolition — The act of abolishing or ending something.The name of the
political movement, begun in the north, for the purpose of ending slavery.
An anti-slavery advocate is called an abolitionist.
tenements — Crowded and often unsanitary city dwellings in which many
• Ask students to define democracy in their own words. What are the
basic principles associated with this type of government? Ask students
to describe efforts to move the United States towards becoming a freer,
more just nation.
• Reformers in the early 19th century tried to ensure that all Americans
could enjoy the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.Ask
students to suggest their own reforms or changes that would help move
modern America closer to these goals.
• One of the developments during the reformist era of the 19th century
was the formation of the first labor unions in America. Ask students
to describe the purpose of a labor union, and to speculate why these
organizations began to emerge in the United States at this time.
lynching — The practice of mob execution, usually by hanging, of a person
Follow-up Discussion
suspected of a crime, in total disregard of the law. Thousands of African
Americans were the victims of lynching by white mobs, mainly in the south.
• Several Utopian communities such as Robert Owen’s New Harmony
developed in America in the 19th century.Ask students to evaluate the
goals and desires of these communities and to discuss how these historical places might fare in today’s world. Students may also offer their own
versions of a Utopian community.
• After he was elected, President Andrew Jackson embraced the use of the
“spoils system” in which he removed some existing government officials
from their jobs and replaced them with his own friends and supporters.
Ask students if they agree with the political maxim,“to the victor belong
the spoils.”What problems could develop as a result of strict adherence
to the “spoils system”?
• The American Colonization Society proposed to end the problem of
slavery by developing the colonies of Liberia and Sierra Leone in Africa
for free blacks and former slaves. Ask students why although some
African Americans favored relocation, most opposed the ideas of the
American Colonization Society. What would students have decided
if they were African Americans who were offered the chance to leave
America at this time?
“Demon Rum” — The negative term used by Temperance Societies to
describe the destructive effects of alcoholic drinks.
teetotalers — People who abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages.
Declaration of Sentiments — A statement made by Elizabeth Cady
Stanton at the first Women’s Rights Conference in 1848 that promoted the
social, economic and political rights of women.
penology — The study and policies of how to manage prisons and how to
treat criminal offenders, the improvement of which became a goal of 19thcentury reformers.
Utopia — A perfect community where people try to live according to such
ideals as peace, justice and harmony.
Transcendentalist — A person who was a part of a 19th-century philosophical movement active in promoting the reform of American society.
civil disobedience — The act of resisting government laws that one
believes are unfair or unjust.
American Colonization Society — An organization that was developed
in the early 19th century to support the return and resettlement of free
blacks and enslaved Africans to West Africa and other places outside the
United States.
The Liberator — An influential weekly newspaper published by William
Lloyd Garrison beginning in 1831 that promoted the abolitionist movement.
Underground Railroad — The system whereby anti-slavery reformers
Vocabulary
Pre-viewing Discussion
secretly helped fugitive slaves to escape from southern slave states.
of the poorest immigrants lived during the 19th century.
Follow-up Activities
• Ask groups of students to research the cases of Fletcher v. Peck (1810),
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), Dartmouth College v.Woodward (1819),
and Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). Students should write summaries of each
case, describe how each case was decided and relate the implications of
the Supreme Court’s decisions for the future. The arguments of the
various Supreme Court Justices involved should also be part of the
groups’ analyses.To demonstrate their knowledge, students may conduct
a mock trial or debate the issues related to their case.
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